How We Made This Segment

Travis and I have known each other for over twenty years. Travis's older brother Chris, whose painting and music adorns this piece, was my best friend growing up. Even though Chris was the oldest and Travis the youngest of four brothers, I came to know Travis particularly well. This may have been due to the fact that, at half my age, he was the only brother with whom I could compete in tennis. It was clear back then what a talent Travis was with the racket.

What has been somewhat surprising is that, as Travis says, he never wavered from the goal of becoming a professional tennis player. "Talent" may be as much about perseverance as it is about innate skill. We see a lot of love given by the media to the top athletes, but the workingman's player is often ignored. More than anything, I would hope that this movie be seen as a portrait of an American worker.

I shot "Break Point" with a Sony HVR-A1U 1080i HDV Camera. The on-camera mic captured the ambience of the match, and we used a Sennheiser ME66 Shotgun Mic on a K-tec boom pole for the interview. All the equipment was provided by SmogTV's sponsor, Band Pro. The material was digitized into and edited on a Mac tower at HD Pictures & Post. The shoot came together over the course of an afternoon, when I found out Travis and his partner would be playing the Bryan brothers in Westwood that night. I cannot thank Robert Kandle of HD Pictures & Post enough, for both his guidance and his boom work. Justin Bergeron and Mike Hugo provided invaluable technical assistance during both the shooting and editing phases. If I remember correctly, the entire cost of the shoot was the cost of parking at UCLA, which was about 7 bucks.

Check out the website for my first feature film, The Skyjacker, at www.TheSkyjacker.com. Peace, Jeff