"Gold medals
don't make champions . . . hard work does.”
Our Story
A documentary about just how much it takes for teen tennis
players to go Pro, BECOMING PRO will follow the highs, lows, victories and
heartbreaks of a group of young women as they train and compete on the world
circuit. BECOMING PRO will
feature four female tennis players who
live and train at the Guillermo Villa Tennis Academy. Aged between sixteen and
eighteen, these four girls come from all around the world: Australia, Russia,
Ukraine and Brazil. They have all given up their lives and homes to relocate to
the academy in Palma Nova, Majorca. They are all working towards the same goal:
to become the number one women's tennis player in the world.
Compelling Viewing. BECOMING PRO will
take us with the girls' on an emotional journey. We'll show just how difficult
it is to become a pro tennis player on the Women’s Tennis circuit. The
academy’s intense training schedule pushes the girls to their limit. It demands
hard work, pain, sweat and endurance: our young athletes train for seven hours
a day, six days a week. The program will follow the girls as they push through
injuries, battle personal demons and train to compete in a tournament. From
there, BECOMING PRO will follow them as they compete in a tournament in ITAPARICA, BRAZIL. The results of this tournament can make and break dreams:
we will stay with the girls as they discover whether they can stay on the
tournament's schedule until the end or whether they must return to training in
Palma Nova.
A Professional Perspective. The documentary will
feature an interview with GUILLERMO
VILAS, the owner of the Guillermo Villa Tennis Academy. Guillermo himself
is a legendary ex-pro tennis player; in 1977, he set the open era record in
men's tennis for the longest winning streak on clay courts. At fifty-three matches,
Guillermo was not beaten until 2006 by Nadal. Guillermo will discuss his personal
journey as a young athlete becoming Pro and compare it to the challenges that
tennis players face today.
World Class Filmmaking. BECOMING PRO will not
only involve a group of world class tennis players, but also a world class
filmmaking team. Award winning London based Production Company, SYNCED FILMS will be teaming up with
Hollywood Director JOHN STOCKWELL and Executive Producer NANCY KROFT and GEORGINA SHERRINGTON to produce BECOMING PRO. Both our Blockbuster producing director, John Stockwell
and the girls' mentor Guillermo Vilas will
promote the film by attending Film Festivals and Launch Parties.
Festival Entry and Beyond. From its Development
stage and onwards, BECOMING PRO has had a long-term publicity and distribution
strategy in place. The Feature Length Documentary is designed for entry into
the Majorcan Film Festival for September 2011. Following the Majorcan Film
Festival, BECOMING PRO will then be entered into other major festivals around
the world.
Worldwide Distribution Opportunities. As the
world gears up for the 2012 Olympics, major networks and content providers are
seeking large amounts of Sports programming. BECOMING PRO is perfectly timed
for that growth in demand. The team at BECOMING PRO have identified a growing
appetite for life-story sports programming. Our show targets a wide demographic
of viewers by bridging the gap between traditional sports viewing and
human-interest reality-style drama. While traditional sports programming
usually attracts a male-demographic, BECOMING PRO's focus on female athletes
means that both young men and women will be interested in the program. BECOMING
PRO combines an intense documentary-style look at the professional world of
competitive sports with a close look at the personal struggles of four young
girls under great pressure. Comparable scripted drama shows such as ABC's Make
it Or Break It, MTV's Hellcats and NBC's Friday Night Lights demonstrate the
consumer appetite for such programming.
Franchising
Opportunities: The Website.
BECOMING PRO opens up a series of franchising opportunities. Concurrent with
the programme, we are
launching a website where tennis players from around the world can share tips
and advice about the tournament circuit. In the future, www.becomingpro.com will allow athletes from all
different sports to communicate and network. A pilot version of this website is already up and running, offering
investors the opportunity to view a prototype structure for the site. The
website features blog entries and media for one of the female tennis players to
be featured on BECOMING PRO. By our first screening, we aim to have the website
fully functioning, including blogs and photos from all four of our female
tennis players.
The website has already
proven an attractive addition to the program for our brand sponsors, whose
products will be featured and publicised on the website as well as in the
documentary. As BECOMING PRO expands, we will feature and promote upcoming
athletes and brands. BECOMING PRO, the website, makes the documentary an
attractive and long-lasting investment opportunity. The hype and publicity we
will be able to generate about our four players will boost the demand for
distribution.
Through the use of the
website, and strategic links to Social Media, we hope to make the girls
personalities that viewers know and love. The website will feature interviews
with the girls, and an interview with Guillermo Villas. We will be using our
web presence to create hype around BECOMING PRO before it is screened at the
Majorca Film Festival. By offering fans of the show the opportunity to follow
the press and media surrounding the show, we will generate a lasting interest
in the girls and therefore in the program.
Thank
you. We hope to complete this
project by July so that we can send it to the major festival. On the website we will have a thank you page for all those who have helped make this project
possible.
Thank you
Nancy Kroft (info@becomingpro.com)
The Impact
Helping Young People. Contributors to BECOMING PRO would directly help young people. One of the documentary's primary aims is to promote health and wellness among the young. The program offers young viewers role models that they can relate to both as the athletes, and as women. The show promotes the benefits of hard work, diet and exercise. The program will demonstrates the rewards and opportunities that competitive sports can bring. This ethical focus will make us an attractive programming option for major networks such as MTV, Living and Channel Four. Each of these channels have demonstrated a trend for promoting health and exercise through their programming in recent months.
Franchising Opportunities: The Series. At official screening, and throughout the Majorca Film Festival, we will be seeking funding to transform the documentary into a series. Each episode will feature a different sport, where young teens battle to become pro. Each episode will offer the opportunity for new brand sponsorship. As we track the fates of teens on the cusp of sports-stardom, we will continue to interview ex pros to compare the similarities and differences in the game and in the quest of becoming a professional athletes. Each episode will be promoted using www.becomingpro.com meaning that the website will attract new members worldwide as the series airs.
What We Need & What You Get
Having already raised over $5000 and secured brand associations from several major companies, we're now working hard to raise the final $10,000 that we need. No money will be wasted. We deliberately hired a young crew who, though award-winning, are accustomed to creating premium, professional content on a budget. This crew will be overseen by an accomplished and experienced production accountant, all to ensure that not one dollar goes astray.
Your donations will fund the filming left on the production, and the post-production costs for the project. Our remaining shoot will last eight days and will take place in ITAPARICA Brazil and PALMA NOVA, Majorca. In Brazil we will follow the girls as they compete in the ITF tournament and in Majorca, we will follow up with the girls after competing and interview GUILLERMO VILAS. Venue hire has been secured and paid for. Your investment will cover equipment hire, insurance, airfares, accomodation and food for John Stockwell and our small British crew. Post-production costs include editing, grading, sound mixing, composition and entry fees for Festivals.
Because the documentary is not-for-profit, any contributions are fully tax deductible. There are other awesome rewards for donating too, such as signed photos and scripts, exclusive blog updates and video updates, an invite to the private screening and an invite to attend a big exclusive London party at a VIP nightclub where you will mingle with the cast and crew and all the other people who made BECOMING PRO possible. For those who donate generously there is even an opportunity to become an associate producer, co-producer or a full producer. Credits go along way in this industry!!!
Like our athletes, the team at BECOMING PRO don't give up! We have already put in calls to Tennis Tournaments around the world to ensure that BECOMING PRO can be made whether or not we reach our fundraising goal before our deadline. This is our promise to you that we will keep raising funds privately and contribute as many of our resources as possible to make BECOMING PRO the success that we will know it to be. I WILL NOT STOP UNTIL I MAKE IT! Loud and clear, I BELIEVE IN BECOMING PRO.
Other Ways You Can Help
Thank you for all your amazing support and we would be grateful if you would share this with your friends and leave a comment on www.becomingpro.com