Seniors Rock!! by Joyce Axelrod

The making of a NAMMA Top Ten 2010 documentary about senior women who play basketball

Have you heard about a basketball team with women players over 50 years old?

How about over 80?

Neither did I until…

My husband and I joined friends for dinner , the woman having just returned from basketball practice. “I didn’t know you played basketball. Tell me more”, I inquired.

“I have a sedentary job; basically I’m sitting behind a desk all day,” she says. “This gives me the ideal way to stay in shape, plus it’s playing basketball. I love playing basketball. Playing in the league reduces stress and makes me better at my job.”

She added, “As I push 60,I dedicate my spare time to a senior women’s basketball league where I feel like a kid again, learning the value of friendship and camaraderie. But the biggest thing about this is that I’m also making friends with different women I would never have met any other way. The oldest player is 83, and the 120-plus players on 21 teams represent all walks of life, from doctors to home-makers to retired great-grandmothers."

One of the senior basket ball players in a game.

I asked if the women would be open to my doing a documentary about the league. She was sure the answer would be “yes”.

My friend then introduced me to Susanne, the president of the league, the Senior Women’s Basketball Association. We talked about different script approaches I might consider.

I wanted to make sure that we highlighted a good cross section of women and Susanne provided me with those names; women in different age categories, rookies, coaches, senior olympic winners. Two friends Bobbie and Dede, helped me with an outline for the script and to formulate pointed questions when interviewing the players.

These are some of their suggested questions:

Motivation
- What was going on in your life that you decided to get involved with basketball?
- What keeps you coming back?
- What would you be doing if you weren’t involved with basketball and the league?
Importance of camaraderie
- Can you recall a situation when the women in the league were there for you during a difficult time personally?
- What does the camaraderie on the team mean to you?
Risks
- I have heard of many players being injured—that seems scary to me—how is it for you?
- Basketball is a “contact sport”—how does that affect you?
- How does your age affect your playing? How do you accommodate?

Three images showing how green screen worked.

My stepson, Barry had a green screen studio and we arranged for 10 women players and one man ( an early supporter of a woman's basketball league ) to come to the studio for the interview session.

I was elated thinking about the possibilities of chroma keying backgrounds. In reality, the whole experiment was months of frustration. To use Barry's footage in my Apple editing programs I had to purchase a software CODEC application.

iMovie did not handle green screen well; especially if I wanted to place cut-a-ways into the scenes. So, I spent several months trying to learn the professional editing program , FinalCutPro ( internet on-line training, community college course, private tutor )

By the end of 5 months, I was not having fun, so I decided to take all the interviews I had and edit a storyline without fancy chroma-keying. I did a short trailer just in time to enter the NAMMA competition deadline, September 1, 2010.

The following month, I expanded my storyline with interviews and cut-a-ways. The final documentary is now 16 minutes.

[See the 16 minute version in the AMPS Cinema.]

I have since decided to return to editing on my Macrosystem and recently purchased a new Bogart. Opening up the Macro-system editing system for the first time in months was like meeting an old, dear friend.

[The pictures here show a speaker against the green screen, an empty basketball court and then the two blended together.]

Before the Seniors Rock!! documentary, I completed two documentaries about other extra-ordinary women; a troupe of highly skilled belly dancers from a small mountain town and a strong quartet of young, beautiful classical string musicians.

Please visit my website to learn more at: www.Joyceaxelrod.com and
San Diego Senior Women's Basketball Association www.swba.com