Matthew made contact with the Media Department at Crystal Palace F.C. last summer. To his surprise he was granted full access to Selhurst Park, to assist the making of his documentary that explores the club’s journey over the last decade, from the brink of extinction to Premier League regulars.
“The highlight of our trip was without a doubt the amount of access we were given, and the trust placed in us,” he said.
“Event Manager Holly Britton gave us access to places we had only ever dreamed of, such as the Home and Away team dressing rooms, the managers office and the interview rooms for post-match interviews with players.
“I cannot stress this enough, we essentially had Selhurst Park to ourselves. Even now it still doesn’t feel real.”
Matthew obviously impressed the crew as he was invited back to gather more material later in the year. Unfortunately this hasn’t been possible yet due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but Matthew is still delighted with his progress so far.
“This has been an incredible educational experience,” he said.
“Throughout pre-production and production I’ve found that my organisational skills have developed enormously, be it simply the way I organise files now to planning the logistics of a trip to London.
“My tutors have been really helpful throughout production and trusting me with the equipment outside of college hours. Here’s hoping I can repay their faith in me by getting a good grade at the end of all of this”.
Following on from this experience, Matthew has been embracing similar opportunities at local clubs including Mansfield Town Football Club.
He has accepted an offer from Lincoln University to study Media Production in September and hopes this will help him on his way to his dream career.
“The plan is to study hard for the next three years and following that I’d ideally like to work as part of the media team at a football club,” he said.
If you’re interested in studying media at Newark College you can find out more about the courses available here.
