The Takeaway Check, Issue #102

Inside the lacrosse video series "Attack Mountain"

The latest episode of the “New England Lacrosse Journal’s Chasing The Goal” podcast featured Matt Chandik of the National Lacrosse Federation. The discussion focused mainly on multimedia coverage of lacrosse and the importance of authentic storytelling. One area they noted that was lacking was documentary-style coverage of the sport.

It reminded me that when I ran into John Grant Jr. at the Atlas Cup, he mentioned a player on the team had produced a video series about the school he was coaching at, Lees-McRae. I had to check it out.

“Attack Mountain” is two episodes that shined a light on the men’s lacrosse program, where it had been, and where it wanted to go as well as the challenges to get there. It was produced, filmed, edited, and directed by Eddie Patterson, who had played goalie for the team.

I reached out to Patterson (@steadypvisuals on Instagram) to dive deeper into his interests in lacrosse and videography and what went into the making of “Attack Mountain”.

How did you get into lacrosse?

I originally was introduced to lacrosse through my dad who played goalie at Navy back in the late 90s early 2000s, and it had always been a small part of my life. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to play it since we moved around to places that never had the sport until we moved to New York when I got into high school, where I finally got my chance to play on a team my sophomore year. My dad was able to train me in the position of goalie, and I worked hard day by day until I was able to get the starting position my senior year, and, luckily, was able to get recruited into a D2 program even with my minimal experience thus far.

Where did your interest in film and video production come from?

My interest in film and videos is a longer story than my lacrosse experience. My first experience with it was back in early elementary school where I had a school project on a book. With the help of my dad, we created an advertisement for a fake cereal brand based off the book, and even though it was my first experience with editing software, I just understood the basics and how things were supposed to work. From there, I loved making videos of anything I was interested in, but it was more of a hobby: video games, traveling, and eventually, my own personal sports tapes once I got into high school and wanted to send out recruiting tapes of me playing lacrosse. It wasn’t until I got into college that I realized that I could make a career out of it and dove in head first with little to no backup plan because I knew how much I loved it and the feeling of accomplishment when I finished a project I was truly proud of.

Where did the idea for the “Attack Mountain” series come from?

The “Attack Mountain” video series was something I had been thinking about for a while. A long term goal of mine with videography was to be able to capture the story of a high-level team and show that to the world. As someone that has been a part of the team I was filming, I knew firsthand how many struggles the team had gone through and the hardships we faced day-by-day, but I also knew how much each person on the team loved the sport, the team, and the school. After watching the “All In” video series by the PLL, where they covered my favorite team, Atlas, I wanted to be able to make something that high quality and be able to capture the grind, emotion, and passion of each day for the athletes I was around every day. After an offer came in from Coach Grant to be able to do it full-time for the team, I was eager to jump at the chance to make that vision into a reality, even if I was a one-man production team doing the directing, producing, video, and editing all at once.

How long did the process take?

Each video was a huge process in itself. Although only two videos were put out before the project got shut down, each one took a month to make the 10-20 min videos that were put out. The filming part of it took up most of the time, figuring out the schedule of events, scripting speaking parts, and updating the story as the month progressed since, in the sports environment, everything can change day-by-day. A lot of what I may have planned for the video at the beginning of the month may not be able to fit into the final cut of the story. Because things changed so quickly day-by-day while filming, most of the editing was done in the crunch time of about a week and a half before the episode was scheduled to release with me often finishing the first few minutes of the video and immediately releasing it onto Instagram to build hype for the full episode to release while continuing to solidify the story and direction the video is taking. This often resulted in extremely late nights and early mornings working on making sure I made the best result I possibly could, doing it all alone.

What was your favorite part about creating the series?

I think my favorite part of making the series was seeing what I am capable of. All of it was so new to me, and since I was a one-man team, every decision and responsibility for its outcome was on me. If there was an editing mistake, or the pacing was off, or any other detail was out of place, it fell on me. It was such an amazing learning experience, and because of it, I had to push myself beyond what I knew I was capable of and learned how much I still have to learn in this career. Another part that I loved and is a close second to my favorite is since I had such a close relationship with the players and the team, being a former captain and player myself, I loved being able to capture the love I have for the team into my work with one of my favorites being the outro to the first video. It was all about my favorite clips from that month that didn’t quite have a place in the story but still were close to my heart because those were of my family having fun and pursuing what they love.

What was the most challenging part of creating the series?

I already touched on this, but the most challenging part of the series is having to go about it alone and learn about everything that goes into a project that large on the fly. Before this, I only really had a trial run at making short three-part series for Trilogy Lacrosse, each ranging only a few minutes, with each episode only covering a day or two each. With this project, I was managing thousands of video files over an entire month with schedules constantly changing and the direction of the video constantly shifting over the course of filming. Because of all that, it was difficult to nail down exactly where I was going with the video, with the pacing and final product not being up to the standard that I originally hoped for. Another result of the previous point is because I had to spend so much time organizing the footage and finding the story in the chaos, I didn’t have as much time to spend on making the cool flashy effects that really catch peoples’ eyes during the high-impact moments, which I was disappointed about and wish that I could have improved upon my editing quality in general throughout the two episodes.

What did you learn about yourself during this process?

Throughout this process, I really did learn my limitations and what I need to work on to improve my craft for the future. Though I had my pitfalls, I also learned to have more confidence and pride in my work because I know that although the quality wasn’t quite where I wanted it to be, people still enjoyed my work and I got praise for it, so I know I am on the right track. I really can make this into a full career.

What do you hope people get from watching your series?

With this series, I hoped that people could get a glimpse as to what it really meant to be a college athlete, specifically Lees-McRae Lacrosse at the D2 level. So many people talk about D2 as if it’s a monumental step down from the D1 level when the reality is there is so much work and passion that goes into each and every team. Every guy wants to win and be recognized for how much effort they have put into this sport that they love and have dedicated themselves to, and I hoped to capture that with the series. I wanted to capture the celebrations of the big moments on the field and the small moments no one sees. I wanted to show people the heartbreak of both losing an important game or not being able to play because of an injury. It all comes back to that one word: reality. The reality of playing at that level and what it takes to get there.

What’s next for you?

As to what’s next for me, I am looking to work with teams and athletic organizations to show the world what makes them and who they are through my work. I am going to keep improving my craft, and I hope to become someone that people know, want to work with, and trust with their brand. I am pursuing something that the same me even 10 years ago could only dream of when making funny videos of me and my friends playing games, camping, or just being around one another.

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@PShore15 (X, Bluesky, & Instagram)

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