Filming at the BBL Cup Finals 2018

On Sunday 28th January, Arena Birmingham hosted the prestigious British Basketball League Cup Finals. The event was sold out and broadcast live on the BBC Red Button and FreeSports, making it the biggest-ever audience for a BBL Cup Final. After applying for and receiving media accreditation, I was fortunate enough to be court-side capturing some of the best moments from the day.

For the record, this was my first time going to see a BBL match. Up to this point, I had only ever watched the games on my computer whilst logging the best plays for the weekly top 10 highlight videos. Therefore, the prospect of going to see one in person had always excited me. When the opportunity arose to film for Hoopsfix at the BBL Cup Finals, I knew it would be an awesome experience both as a basketball fan and a television and broadcasting student.

After an hour-long car journey, I arrived at the venue with little knowledge of what to expect. Navigating my way to the media room took some directing from the stewards and after signing in, I was given instructions on what to do including what areas I had access to. Unfortunately, while this useful information was made apparent to me after I had made the mistake, it was interesting to see how a basketball game of this scale is managed and is something to keep in mind for future reference. Once I had finished exploring the arena and observing the broadcast teams at work, it was time for the first game of the day - Caledonia Pride against the Nottingham Wildcats in the WBBL Cup Final.

One of the best things about the event was that I was able to apply a lot of the skills I'd learnt on my university course to this project. For example, I made sure beforehand that I had fully-charged batteries, of which I had three, and plenty of space on my SD card. While it might sound like an obvious thing to do, I've heard several stories of people going to film without carrying out these checks, resulting in horrifying circumstances. However, from my previous filming projects with the Northants Titans Flag Football Team, I also knew that my batteries and SD card would last me for the whole day if needed. As well as this, I backed up my rushes on my laptop during the breaks in case anything went wrong with the camera or SD card. Once they had been copied across, I applied the same folder structure taught to TVB students in the editing workshops.

Picture taken from video by @jennyfm30 on Twitter

Eventually, it was time for the BBL Pro:Direct Dunk Contest which just so happened to feature one of my favourite BBL players (I'll admit - I was slightly star-struck). It was amazing being so close to the action and the atmosphere was brilliant, especially for the winning dunk of the competition.

Check out the highlights video I edited from the dunk contest below.

Yet, it was the BBL Cup Final featuring the Worcester Wolves and Cheshire Phoenix which garnered the most attention. Despite Worcester's best efforts, Cheshire came out victorious and once again, it was fantastic to be able to capture each moment as it happened.

In the end, it was a long day (made even longer by traffic on the way home) and the next day was spent entirely on editing highlight videos for social media. But, it's hard to say that it wasn't all worth it as not only did I get to witness the famous BBL stars I had only ever seen on video, I also gained valuable knowledge and experience that will no doubt aid me on future projects similar to this. I hope I am able to do this all again at the BBL Play-Off Finals in May.