It was the experiment that sparked a unique idea, and helped to create a remarkable proposition in Australian sports broadcasting.
In April, Adelaide United opened their doors – literally – to a camera crew filming every moment of United’s preparation for the Isuzu UTE A-League Men’s finals, providing hours of compelling raw footage behind the scenes of an elite sports club.
In the manner of lauded documentaries overseas, this initial collaboration between the Australian Professional Leagues and leading production house Jam TV captured deeply personal moments – such as when fullback Josh Cavallo, filmed earlier in the season coming out as gay to his teammates, is told privately by head coach Carl Veart that for football reasons he won’t play in the preliminary final, or even be on the bench.
It was the two films made as a result of weeks of filming – and the myriad storylines emerging from just one club – that sparked plans for a far more ambitious project from the A-Leagues and Jam TV that will take viewers behind the scenes across the A-Leagues, in close to real time.
Each week, A-Leagues All Access will premiere on Thursday evening via KEEPUP.com.au, the KEEPUP app and KEEPUP YouTube, with each of 30 episodes in the docuseries featuring a different character– across the Isuzu UTE A-League and Liberty A-League – from players to coaches and fans, going beyond match days with unlimited access to their football, their lives and their passions.
Uniquely the turnaround from shooting to showing will be less than four days, an unprecedented level of speed for such an extended undertaking.
Centring the show on one main figure every week – including star signings Nani and Charlie Austin in the Isuzu UTE A-League Men, and Melbourne Victory captain Kayla Morrison and Western United’s Matilda Chloe Logarzo in the Liberty A-League Women – was a direct consequence of Adelaide’s open door policy to Jam TV’s cameras during the finals.
“Carl and Adelaide United couldn’t have been more welcoming to us and the Jam TV crew, and the results are obvious to see in terms of the access and insight on screen,” said APL’s Director of Content, Richard Bayliss. “It’s not faked – it’s a genuine reflection of the environment deep within a professional football club when everything is at its most heightened level.
“It was the ultimate proof of concept and we were able to trial shooting in various situations with different central characters, which informed the decision to focus on a central character in each All Access episode this season.”
With more than 25 staff working on each episode of A-Leagues All Access, the project required an open-door policy from players and coaches across the two leagues to make it work.
The precedent was set by Adelaide, with Veart acutely aware of the need to offer viewers a unique experience in watching Australian club football.
“As a club but also for me as a coach, we were completely fine with it,” Veart told KeepUp. “The story-telling that we’ve seen in those amazing documentaries overseas has drawn people into sport in brand new ways, and we know our game needs to appeal to the widest possible audience.
“I actually had no hesitation, even though it was the finals we were talking about – I spoke to the playing group to make sure they were comfortable, but there was no issue there either. In fact the guys are so professional that looking back I don’t think having the cameras around affected us at all.
“The feedback from the two films about us will be interesting once they go live, but I found it quite enlightening from a personal point of view – I hadn’t realised how much I swear during games, or got so emotional.
“But this is the kind of behind the scenes stuff that people want to see now that those documentaries have shown what can be done.”
Setting the full A-Leagues All Access series apart from other documentaries is the almost-real-time way in which it will be broadcast while its storylines and emotions are still alive from the preceding weekend. Editors will begin cutting it within hours of the end of each round finishing.
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“The key is for the audience to experience episodes while those storylines are fresh, so the viewer journey from that point is to attend the next game or tune in to the broadcast that weekend,” Bayliss said.
“The window between shooting and publication is really tight, but the benefit of working with Jam TV is that they’re some of the best around in producing a seriously high standard of material within a tight deadline.”
Watch the two exclusive films behind the scenes during Adelaide’s finals series on keepup.com.au from 8pm AEDT Thursday October 6.
A-Leagues All Access launches via keepup.com.au on October 13.