Shooting Training With the Leone Stars... In a Monsoon

We’ve been to Sierra Leone’s national stadium before. Three years ago, we toured it, partially because it’s played an important role in the country’s history as it’s where the president proclaimed that the “War don don,” or that the war was over, but mainly because we’re soccer fans (and, in Chad’s case, an ex-college star from Vermont, where soccer is huge). When we visited, FIFA had just deemed the stadium unsuitable for play.

Despite talking about the development of the country in our last post, looking just at the national soccer team, it’s hard to say that much has changed.

Scrub crabgrass covers the pitch. Two days before gameday, it was still unlined, leaving the 18 a general area up for debate. Drainage, a seeming must in the rainy season, was non-existent. Even before the intense rain began pouring down, the ball would come to a sudden stop in puddles.

It’s hard to believe that this team is trying to qualify for the same World Cup that features teams like England and Spain. Even in high school, if our field was under siege from rain in the days before a game, we practiced somewhere else. You’d be hardpressed to find a team playing in worse conditions. It’s surely a change for Kei Kamara, who we’ve come to profile today. In the States’ Major League Soccer, Kei plays with Sporting KC, whose stadium numbers among the best soccer facilities in the country.

Still, the conditions of the field or the absolute downpour didn’t deter Kei, his teammates or the hundreds of fans that came to watch.

From a film perspective, shooting in the rain was one of the most technical challenges we’ve ever faced. The rain came down hard—and sideways. It drenched us—in retrospect, we probably should’ve brought more rain gear—and the equipment. We constantly were wiping down the lenses and feared that the material would be useless.

And of course, by useless, we mean EPIC. Rocking our new variable frame rate camera, Chad shot amazing slow motion footage of Kei—the pouring rain, the vibrant green, white and blue of the stadium bleachers, the mud flying everywhere—it all contributed to beautiful footage that we can’t wait to share with you.

Tomorrow, we will be back at the stadium, filming the training, before meeting up with Kei to shoot an interview. If it’s anything like today, we expect it to be a special day.

Much love,

The Brownstones Crew