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Clark Vandergrift highlights the intensity of high school wrestling with his personal project “Warpath”, which he began after inspiration struck while filming his son’s senior year of wrestling and realizing the story’s potential. The short film follows a high school wrestling team through their journey from the regular season to states and has been featured at many film festivals for its crisp action footage and poignant sub-plots, including the tragic suicide of a teammate.
What was your goal for this project?
For this project, I incorporated what I learned from a course in sound design. There are over 30 layers of audio in this piece that range from live recording, foley, sound effects, music beds, etc. Now that the project is complete, my goal is to use it as an avenue to make industry connections and to use the trailer as a promotional piece for commercial work.
How many shoots did you conduct to get all of the video?
I have about 100 hours of footage that I used to make this 20 minute short. There were 4 interviews, a scripted soliloquy, 10 different shoots for b-roll, 8 team dual matches, and 4 tournaments that I shot. For the live action shots, I would have the coaches and sometimes the refs mic’d with wireless lavaliers. The primary camera was a RED Scarlet-w, B cam was a sony a7sii, and additional footage was shot with an Osmo, Inspire 2 drone, and go pro cameras.
What was the energy of the wrestling matches like?
The energy around all wrestling match is intense, but there is a marked increase in the intensity as the season progresses and culminates at states. The raw intensity of the sport is palpable from the wrestlers to the coaches, the spectators, and the parents (definitely the parents). There is a primal instinct that comes out in this sport that you do not see in any other high school sport.
Did you face any challenges with this project?
Lighting was often a concern as the live action footage in the gyms was always available lighting that varied widely. Having done a few things like this in the past, I’ve definitely noticed that if you want to approach someone randomly, you find that they take you a lot more seriously when you’re sporting a $60k camera rig. One interesting anecdote is that on the occasions of shooting in the practice room, I would have to wait at least a half hour for the lenses to de-fog from the humidity of the sweat in the room.
How did the team deal with losing one of their teammates?
For some of the teammates, the loss of James was their first personal experience with death. To have it happen to someone your age this early in life is quite a challenge. They were scarred by it but they were also brought together by their common loss.
What has the reaction been to the project so far?
Everyone at the debut screening party is affiliated with the team and they knew exactly how the season unfolded, so the outcome of the story was known. So to hear them say they had sweaty palms and teary eyes at different times throughout the film was such a compliment.
See more of Clark’s work on his website.
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