Video Highlights

[GarySTFC]

I won't be providing any services for video for the club in the future. Time to stand aside and let others take this on should they wish. There was certainly a siscussion forthcoming about if we would even be able to film next season or holding onto the highglights until MyFC had posted theirs, but in my opinion that wouldn't have been right. We've always looked to provide a service, however shaky and however many chances and goals we missed, to the Rebels who couldn't always get to games in a timely manner and this would have been restricted next year if we had continued or been allowed to continue.

 

It would appear MyFC will be filming all the home games (from a gantry no less!), and the vast majority, if not all, of the away games for this season having paid for a professional cameraman to provide this service, evidence of the excellent quality of his work was seen from the Sandhurst game on Saturday.

 

What is still uncertain however, and a point of discussion within MyFC, is whether those highlights will be made publicly available or only to MyFC members. That will be a decision for them to make as they are sponsoring the cameraman to do the work.

 

Whilst Nathan may well film games where is able to, I will no longer be involved in the compilation of these.

 

May I pass on my gratitude to Nathan for all his help over the years manning the camera and providing the footage to work with, including a vast number of the goals. His record of goals captured to goals missed, considering it was on a handheld camera only capturing bits of the game, was amazing! Thanks to everyone for their kind words over the years and its time to finally just enjoy watching the club again without thinking about other football responsibilities!

 

Look forward to getting back in behind the goal and getting behind the team.

 

Come on you Rebels!

[Steve Easterbrook]

On behalf of the club I would like to thank Gary for taking the time to film and edit matches. To stand there for over 90 minutes with a hand held camera (often in the freezing cold!) trying to capture the action, must at times have been extremely difficult.

 

It will actually be a club decision as to whether these extended highlights are shown on the STFC website and the general consensus of opinion is that they should. However what requires further consideration is as to what to charge and again the general consensus is that something (a nominal amount) should be charged. This, however will be decided in due course.

 

Providing a 20 minute extended highlights of matches will provide the club with the perfect promotional tool to encourage and entice new supporters. We can also get the newspapers to put a link in any press articles they do following reporting on our games. This will drive additional traffic to our website and mean we can start to better engage with potential supporters in Slough. Also we have many ex Slough people around the world, whom again will be able to watch extended highlights of games. 

 

Once again, thanks Gary for all those goals (well most of them!) captured on film. Up the Rebels!

[The Cameraman]

Sorry I didn't reply to your e-mail last night Gary. I was out.

Was just about to reply to that this morning, then saw your message on here, so I thought it best to reply here so everybody knows what's going on. (I have been a member of these Non-League UK/Fans Focus Forums for years, although I don't post very often).

 

I have filmed all Home matches for Ebbsfleet United for the past 9 years but the new regime there have just booted me out to bring in their own cameraman. It was the club who brought me in to film there, not MyFC, although it was MyFC who kindly sponsored me for the last couple of years.

When MyFC asked me to come and film for them on joining up with Slough Town, I said ok as long as there is not a resident club cameraman already there as I hate stepping on other people's toes. It has happened to me loads of times for the various Non-League clubs I have filmed for over the last 23 years since I started filming matches properly as a business. The main reason for that is because I rely on payment to pay the bills, but nowadays clubs would rather use volunteers/media students in order to cut costs...unless they can find a sponsor who is willing to pay for a pro/semi-pro like myself to do the job.

 

I was told that volunteers (i.e. you and Nathan ?) were filming STFC matches, but not seriously/regularly and that Steve Easterbrook and the new Management team were keen on MyFC's idea to bring me in. I was therefore asked to come along and film the game at Sandhurst, then put highlights on my You Tube channel to create publicity for Slough supporters to join MyFC and/or come along to matches.

I had no idea you were filming the game as well until you came up and had a chat on the final whistle. If I had known you were doing so and putting your own highlights online, I would have stayed at home and allowed you to have exclusive rights. I would have said that to you on Saturday, but unfortunately there were too many other people wanting to speak to me at the same time, so our conversation was cut short.

Yes, it was then a problem that you got your highlights online before I did and I admit that was a bit frustrating for me, but I am not annoyed about that whatsoever. Has somebody from MyFC or the club contacted you privately and told you that I am and that I have asked you to stop filming completely ? 

 

Personally I haven't got a problem at all if you want to continue filming STFC matches as well as me, although I do agree that we need to upload our separate highlights at the same time, otherwise what would be the point of MyFC paying me to film ? The problem with that is I live a 50-minutes drive away from Beaconsfield and it also takes me longer to edit the highlights, so invariably I am not going to get them online until a Sunday morning or a Wednesday afternoon (for midweek matches) whereas you probably live only 5 minutes away and can get your highlights online within a couple of hours (if you don't use titles and graphics). Also, there will only be room for one cameraman up in the gantry because it is being put up too tight to the touchline, so the corners of the pitch would then be obscured by the second cameraman.

 

Yes there are a lot of discussions still ongoing on at the moment regarding who can view my highlights and nothing is definite yet. I have no idea if I am going to be asked to film Away matches. It may be Home matches only and as far as I know I will only be needed to film one, maybe two more Pre-Season Friendlies and certainly not all of them. I am guessing that my highlights (of League matches) will be encrypted for viewing by MyFC members only, in which case it would be worthwhile you still filming the games and uploading them for viewing by supporters who do not wish to join MyFC.

 

If you really mean what you say about getting back in behind the goal and supporting the team, then that's fine, but if you are genuinely gutted about me coming in because you really want to continue filming the games, then I am more than willing to decline MyFC's offer, even though it might put me out of business in the long term.

Being perceived as muscling my way into other people's jobs is not going to do my business any good either. All the previous clubs I have filmed for on a regular basis (Enfield, Aldershot Town, Farnborough, Canvey Island, Grays Athletic, Sutton United, Ebbsfleet) never had a resident cameraman in the first place, but this is different.