According to the United Kingdom Roller Derby Association (s.d), roller derby is 'is a full-contact sport played on quad roller skates, by players skating around an elliptical track.' Each two minute 'jam' involves up to five members of teams of fifteen skating around the track counter-clockwise (Wikipedia, 2018a).
The different positions in roller derby are 'jammer, who is the point scorer; blocker, who blocks the opposing jammer, and the pivot, who is one of the four blockers from each team who has the ability to become the point scorer during a jam' (BBC, s.d). Each of these positions are distinguished by their helmet covers, stars for jammers, none for blockers, and stripes for pivots (Wikipedia, 2018a). In order to score the jammer must pass through and re-enter the pack after skating a full lap, gaining a point for each opposing team member they pass (United Kingdom Roller Derby Association, s.d).
However, since roller derby is a full-contact sport, blockers from the opposing team will aim to block the opposing jammer 'by landing heavy shoulder or hip checks on opposing players, shoving them out of the way or knocking them to the ground' (United Kingdom Roller Derby Association, s.d), also trying to help their own jammer get through the pack.
As stated by Wikipedia (2018a), 'contact by hands, elbows, head, and feet are prohibited, as is contact above the shoulders or below mid-thigh. Furthermore, contact may not be from the rear, only from a player's front or sides', otherwise the player receives a penalty. Players who receive penalties must spend 30 seconds in the penalty box, and must stand for the last 10 seconds of this time (Women's Flat Track Derby Association, 2018).
Each player also adopts their own 'derby name' which acts almost like their persona whilst participating in the sport, and is usually based on a pun (Wikipedia, 2018b).
Overall, roller derby is 'Europe's fastest growing female sport' and, although dangerous, can give 'a good cardiovascular and full body workout' (BBC, s.d).
Roller Girls // 60 second docs
Link to video from 60 second docs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ9sAg8MVHw&index=11&list=PLc9QYgv46S0P_lOu6w9_5mJJebbRInVpr&t=0s
Since this documentary was only 60 seconds long, it covered roller derby in a general sense, only featuring one interviewee, and covering the impact the sport can have on women like her. By mainly having the contributor talk about her derby alter ego, and introduce herself as an architect but then state she is also a skater, emphasised the contrast between how women can often by perceived in society and how roller derby subverts this from the very beginning, establishing this as the theme of the documentary. Since the film was so short there wasn't much time to cover more than this, however, focusing on just one woman gave the audience a window into a world they may not know about or understand, as well as giving them someone to relate to.
This was helpful to watch whilst developing the script for our idea, since it showed me the importance of having a clear main character which will introduce the idea and world of the sport to the audience since, although we have longer than a minute, we only plan to spend half our film covering roller derby. I was therefore influenced to think of sequences which not only show roller derby in general, but also show something about our main character and her place in the roller derby team, such as helping out other team members when they fall over.
This was helpful to watch whilst developing the script for our idea, since it showed me the importance of having a clear main character which will introduce the idea and world of the sport to the audience since, although we have longer than a minute, we only plan to spend half our film covering roller derby. I was therefore influenced to think of sequences which not only show roller derby in general, but also show something about our main character and her place in the roller derby team, such as helping out other team members when they fall over.
Subcultures: Roller Derby Girls
Link to video from Soul Pancake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgeoXX-xUh4&list=PLc9QYgv46S0P_lOu6w9_5mJJebbRInVpr&index=13
This short documentary was, at just over five minutes, about the same amount of time we also aim to spend on roller derby in our own documentary so it was useful to see how this film explains roller derby, covers men's roller derby as well as women's, and examines why it is important that women are able to play a sport like this. It didn't focus on only one character, but instead covered roller derby in general. However, I found that by doing this the film was able to show the diversity in roller derby, and the impact it is having on women such as those represented in the film as a whole, showing the bond that is formed between team members, and emphasising the support they give each other.
I think it will be able to help with our own documentary since it showed how it is possible to film sequences of roller derby, which will be challenging since it is a very fast-paced sport. In this film it appears that the camera is positioned in the middle of the track and then pans to follow the team, which I think could work for our documentary given the layout of the sports hall the team we plan to film skate in. This documentary also helped clarify the rules of the sport for me a bit more, since I found I was able to understand better how the sport worked seeing it in action.
References:
BBC (s.d) Get Inspired: How to get into Roller Derby At: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/get-inspired/34781405 (Accessed on 30 April 2018)
United Kingdom Roller Derby Association (s.d) What is Roller Derby? At: https://ukrda.org.uk/roller-derby/ (Accessed on 30 April 2018)
Wikipedia (2018a) Roller derby At: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roller_derby#cite_note-WFTDARules-14 (Accessed on 30 April 2018)
Wikipedia (2018b) Derby name At: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derby_name (Accessed on 30 April 2018)
Women's Flat Track Derby Association (2018) Penalties At: https://rules.wftda.com/04_penalties.html#enforcing-penalties (Accessed on 30 April 2018)
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