LT student creates football documentary

LTTV student expands interests through full length program

LT+student+creates+football+documentary

It is 5 a.m. on a summer morning when Max Abrahamson ‘18 wakes up to start his long day.  He makes it to LT SC by 5:30 a.m. to shoot footage of the varsity football players arriving to practice.  He shoots the entire practice, following the football players from the field to the weight room to meetings then back again.

When practice ends at 9 a.m., Abrahamson’s day is far from over.  He goes home and uploads the footage from the day onto his computer before heading off to work, only to come home that night and cut down three hours of footage into about 10 minutes of useful footage for his documentary.

“[The documentary] tells the story of not only the team as a whole, but it dives into five player’s stories,” Abrahamson said.  “You are really going to get to know the players off the field, and what they went through, and what they are going through.”

The documentary is called “Earn It”, and it will be a long-form documentary, Abrahamson said.  A long form documentary is 60 to 90 minutes long.  He recorded 45 hours of footage, and has spent 150 hours editing so far.  He expects to have about 150 more hours of editing left.

“It is very mentally draining when you work with something for such a long period of time,” Abrahamson said.  “You might get sick of it, but you try to keep your mind focused on the end result.”

“Earn It” is Abrahamson’s biggest project yet, he said.  Some of his smaller projects include a short form documentary about LT volleyball player Sean Ryan ’18, and a commitment video for TJ Ivy, a football player at Marist, who committed to West Virginia University.

“The documentary was really just to challenge myself to do something not a whole lot of people, even in the professional industry could say that they produced an entire documentary by themselves,” Abrahamson said.

Despite being a part of LTTV since freshman year, Abrahamson first picked up a camera as a junior.

“[Abrahamson] had the desire to learn, and part of that is because I told him people who have one skill set in the broadcast industry often end up finding themselves down the road not having jobs,” station manager of LTTV Bill Allan said. “So, I suggested to him the best way to get a job in broadcasting is to do everything, to be good in front of the camera, to be good behind the camera.”

Abrahamson started out in LTTV his freshman year as an announcer, Allan said.

“I was an athlete when I was younger, and I wanted to stay in the game, and I thought it would be a very cool job,” Abrahamson said. “I liked that I could [announce] the game how I saw it play out.”

Abrahamson plans on majoring in sports media in college.  He hopes to be a producer at a college athletic department, ultimately making hype videos and running the social media.

“I realized the power of visual storytelling and how much it can impact people,” Abrahamson said.  “I thought that was a very cool thing to be able to tell someone’s story with the camera, music, and just different metaphorical shots.”

The release date of “Earn It” has yet to be determined, but there will be a public viewing hosted by LTTV.  In the meantime, watch Abrahamson’s other projects on his youtube channel, Max Abrahamson.