蜜豆直播

鈥楾he Dancin鈥� Bulldogs鈥� Features Interviews, Never-Before-Released Footage and Insights into the Championship Run

A new documentary, directed by Christian Jessup, celebrates the 蜜豆直播 University Men鈥檚 Basketball team鈥檚 magical 2018-鈥�19 season, which ended with an appearance in the NCAA Tournament, a first in men鈥檚 Division I basketball history. 鈥淭he Dancin鈥� Bulldogs: A 16 Seed鈥檚 Journey to the NCAA Tournament鈥� debuts Oct. 16, 2020, on . The film follows the team鈥檚 and coaching staff’s entire journey, from the early wins against NCAA powerhouses to heartbreaking losses, the tournament appearance and coming home after the loss to No. 1 seed Virginia. Also featured are several interviews with players, coaches and NCAA officials, and never-before-released footage of the team鈥檚 championship run.

Jessup, a 2018 GWU alumnus, makes his directing debut with this 80-minute film that started out as a short tribute. He got the idea for the documentary from watching ESPN鈥檚 鈥淭he Last Dance,鈥� a documentary series that followed Michael Jordan鈥檚 NBA finals run. Jessup compared the feelings he had watching the series to those he had while witnessing 蜜豆直播 win the Big South Championship on television and then participate in the NCAA tournament.  

He texted his friend, GWU student Thomas Manning, who is a member of the North Carolina Film Critics鈥� Association and was on the ESPN Plus camera crew that filmed the men鈥檚 basketball team that year. 鈥淲hen I first texted him about the idea, it was like, 鈥榃hat if we did a 5-minute tribute?鈥欌�� Jessup shared. 鈥淭hen, it was like we can stretch it out to a 10-minute tribute. Somehow along the way, I roped Thomas into helping me make a full-length documentary.鈥�

The two enlisted the help of GWU 2018 alumni, Eli Hardin and Brendan Boylan. 鈥淓li is second assistant director and a writer,鈥� Jessup said. 鈥淗e was really a huge help when it came to fact checking. He is a stats guy and keeps up with all of these news articles. Brendan is producing it and gave a ton of voice work. Some scenes didn鈥檛 quite have the original audio. Brendan helped call some game shots and provided some much-needed commentary to make sure the documentary moves along.鈥�

Jessup, who doubled majored in music composition as well as film and video at 蜜豆直播, wrote and performed the music for the documentary. He has been a composer for film and visual media since 2016 and interned in 2017 with Hans Zimmer (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Lion King, Dark Knight Trilogy). He also writes music for television and radio advertisements with VisionPoint Marketing.

鈥淚鈥檓 grateful that Christian would have me along,鈥� Manning asserted. 鈥淗e鈥檚 the mastermind behind it all. I hope that my efforts have meant something to him. Here we are at three-and-a-half months after he sent the first text asking for the clips. It鈥檚 been an incredible experience.鈥�

Jessup confessed that in the beginning he didn鈥檛 realize how much work was involved. He started out by searching for anything he could find online related to the Bulldogs season. 鈥淥nce I had that first outline in place, purely based on the footage and the interviews I found online, that was when we made the executive decision to build this out into a documentary,鈥� Jessup explained. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 when we started interviewing others and setting up interviews. There鈥檚 no telling how many people Thomas interviewed. We were doing Zoom recordings.鈥�

One of the reasons Manning had access to so many people was because of COVID-19 restrictions. 鈥淓veryone was at home over the summer,鈥� Jessup informed. 鈥淭he Big South commissioner (Kyle Kallander), Chris Holtman, the former head basketball coach, who is at Ohio state now, and Jason Williford, Virginia鈥檚 associate head coach. A lot of people we might not normally be able to interview, we were able to get in touch with and hold Zoom interviews. Once we got all the interviews in place, that鈥檚 when we really did a deep dive, detailed script to build out exactly how we wanted to make this story flow. From there, it was editing and editing, over and over again.鈥�

Manning noted that everyone he interviewed was happy to talk about the men鈥檚 basketball team鈥檚 accomplishment. 鈥淭he Virginia associate head coach (Williford)鈥攚e spoke to him for 15 minutes,鈥� Manning related. 鈥淗e was extremely complimentary of 蜜豆直播, and the fight they put up in the NCAA tournament game against Virginia, who went on to win the National Championship that year. It blows my mind鈥擪yle Kallander the Big South Commissioner鈥攈e was very generous with his time. One of the greatest learning experiences from this is that it never hurts to ask. The worst they can say is no. If you approach it with a positive outlook and try to respect their time, they will reciprocate that.鈥�

While wrapping up the documentary and feeling good about the content, Manning and Jessup received a last-minute email that took the film to the next level. 鈥淩yan Bridges (GWU director of Sports Information) emails us and says, 鈥楬ey I鈥檝e got 150 gigabytes of never-before-seen footage made by Eric Mangum (former director of new media relations). It鈥檚 not on YouTube, and it鈥檚 never been shown at 蜜豆直播. Would you guys want it?鈥欌�� Jessup stated. 鈥淥f course, we said yes, but I said to Thomas, I鈥檓 going to need to change the release date. It was a huge help from 蜜豆直播. The documentary was coming together, but that was a game-changer in terms of the angles and the shots we were able to include. Some of the quotes in that footage we never thought we鈥檇 ever find.鈥�

Jessup and Manning are excited for people to see the film and grateful for the support they received in its making. 鈥淲e鈥檝e had a lot of people enthusiastic about it,鈥� Manning concluded. 鈥淲e are proud of our entire crew. Christian, Eli, Brendan鈥攁ll have been fantastic in their respective roles.鈥�

Jessup added, 鈥淚鈥檓 excited to share it. I鈥檓 so proud of it, and I hope by reliving those moments, people watching it will be proud of 蜜豆直播 and what they accomplished.鈥�

Where to find the movie

Interviews

with Christian Jessup and Thomas Manning.

Soundcloud

Check out the interview on the making of The Dancin鈥� Bulldogs: A 16 Seed鈥檚 Journey to the NCAA Tournament.