By Yigit Kacmaz
I was very scared when we first got assigned the story of Kiara Djoumessi and girls’ wrestling because I had no idea about sports media! Here is my journey.
Waverly, IA – As part of the Journalism & Communication Department at Wartburg, four concentrations are available for students, Multimedia Journalism, Organizational & Public Relations, Digital Cinema, and Sports Media. I am a Journalism & Communication major with concentrations in Digital Cinema, Organizational & Public Relations, and Multimedia Journalism and a graphic design minor. Walking into Capstone, I was pretty confident with my skillset and knowledge in all areas that a capstone project requires.
However, my confidence got crushed when we got assigned the story of Kiara Djoumessi and girls wrestling in Iowa. Sports Media concentration of the Journalism & Communication Department at Wartburg is the only concentration I did not major in and I was not skillful in. The only times I interacted with sporting events in my life were when the national teams of Turkey qualified for later stages in international competitions of soccer, volleyball, basketball, or the Olympics. I never had seen a wrestling game before, let alone film one. And I suddenly had to help make a documentary about wrestling.
I was scared, but I did not let fear get in between me and the camera. I attended my first sporting event to film Kiara at the district finals in Cedar Rapids.
Frankly, I was very confused at times, and I further confused my teammates. I was expecting to see one mat in the middle and all the girls to take turns wrestling. Instead, there were eight mats, and a match was happening on all of them. How was I supposed to film everything? On which one was Kiara supposed to wrestle? But I was not afraid of learning. I asked lots and lots of questions to my teammates, I searched online when needed and my learning process started.
I was the videographer of teammates, opponents, and coaches. I realized that we were not just filming sports, we were making a movie. It was not much different than filming for the news. The guidelines of recording the close-up of the face, close-up of the hands, action, wide angle, and an unusual angle were still applicable to the documentary. I did what I knew best and tried to get all of these angles with all of my subjects. The bigger challenge was that the environment was such an active space. Everyone and everything kept moving.
Later, I found a screen showing information about the matches, the participants’ names, and a bunch of other numbers. After a quick investigation, I could make sense of the screen. The number on the right showed the weight class of the wrestlers, the next number was the match number to specify the matches, and the wrestlers’ names were highlighted either in green or red to indicate the winning and the defeated wrestler. I was wrong.
I saw Kiara’s name highlighted in red. I ran back to my teammates and screamed in terror, “Kiara lost the match, Kiara lost the match!” My teammates got confused and started asking questions “When, how, and where did I get that information?” They hadn’t seen Kiara on the mat for a long time. After explaining the screen to my teammates, they had to show me the wrestlers’ ankle bands. The green and red indicated the color of the ankle band, not the winning or the defeated side. I was relieved and happy. The day was not over yet, and I already knew better.
As time progressed, I could make sense of the sport of wrestling and the 14 pieces of paper that had the schedule of all the matches. I also started enjoying watching the sport and got excited about the upcoming matches.
Now the documentary is complete. I am not afraid of topics anymore. I can always learn and grow. I completed this project with lots of new knowledge about girls, wrestling, Iowa, Djoumessi’s, and journalism that I will forever remember and be grateful for. With the journey of Kiara Djoumessi, my journey also made a huge leap in personal and professional level. Just like Kiara finished all of her opponents, I finished all of my opponents of fear, helplessness, and incompetence. Looking forward to my next adventure.
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