In a world where storytelling is constantly evolving, the team behind the groundbreaking TikTok docuseries “Young Bloods” has redefined how we engage with sports documentaries.
By blending traditional filmmaking with the raw, unfiltered content created by teenage athletes themselves, this 28-part TikTok docuseries offers a fresh and immersive look into the lives of 8 Australian teens as they pursue their dreams at the QBE Sydney Swans Academy in Sydney, Australia.
We spoke with director/producer Hugh Humphreys, editor/DOP Paris Shepherd, and producer Sarah Neill about the challenges of creating the docuseries, the benefits of TikTok as a platform, and their process for selecting the right music to tell these athletes’ stories.
MUSICBED: Releasing a TikTok-specific documentary series is a pretty novel idea. What was the inspiration behind using this format?
Hustle Media: Our aim was to take the sports documentary genre and create it in a new format to really speak to younger people where they are already viewing and sharing content.
We also understood that the Australian Football League (AFL) may be a sport that’s fairly unique to Australia.
But the themes of sporting aspirations and the hopes and dreams of teenagers are recognizable anywhere in the world, so we knew this would be worth sharing with as many people as possible.
TikTok, as a platform, was able to help us do all of that.
The TikTok docuseries focuses on teenage athletes and all the work and training that goes into their AFL aspirations. But we also wanted to show what they did outside of football.
We wanted to show what they were doing in school, family, and life.
We combined traditional documentary footage that our crew filmed with videos the athletes filmed themselves on their phones.
Blending the two styles of video made it really feel like a collaboration with the athletes. It was a way for them to tell their stories in their own voices.
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What were the benefits of crafting this docuseries for a TikTok audience?
Telling these athletes’ stories on TikTok was great because the format means we could get straight to the point without any filler.
Audiences on TikTok are pretty switched on and can understand context really quickly. That meant we could squeeze more stories into the series. That’s not something you can always do in a traditional long-form format.
And with the style being pretty new to TikTok, we had the privilege of being able to test things out. We tried different editing styles, storytelling methods, tones of voice, etc.
We could experiment with what resonated with our audience.
It was a lot of fun to be able to tell each of the athletes’ stories in a different way that reflected their own personalities and experiences.
What were the challenges of crafting “Young Bloods” for a TikTok audience?
The short-form format forces you to dive straight into the heart of the story, so a lot of footage ends up on the cutting room floor.
There are still so many little stories and fun moments that didn’t make the cut.
Another challenge was nailing the process of filming the series exclusively vertically.
We had to capture everything we wanted in a 9×16 frame while also trying to capture the breadth and immersion of the sport.
So we spent a lot of time figuring out how to tell the stories across the season while also creating episodes that could stand alone.
We wanted people to be able to engage with any episode that popped up in their feed as a piece of standalone content.
But we also wanted the flow of the TikTok docuseries to be consistent so viewers could really connect with the athletes across all 28 episodes and be more invested in their stories.
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What role did music play in the series? What was your process for selecting the right music to tell these athletes’ stories?
Music played a huge part in creating the right tone to suit our audience.
We wanted the episodes to appeal to teens, so finding music that matched a viral TikTok feel whilst also being something unique that would grab attention was important.
We often needed songs that got to the main theme fairly quickly and featured big hits, drops, or moments to match the fast-paced nature of the edits.
Because there are so many episodes spread across multiple stories, we could branch out in terms of style.
For example, we could use an upbeat hip-hop song for a training sequence and then a building orchestral theme for a player’s journey.
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Why was Musicbed your go-to collection to soundtrack this TikTok Docuseries?
TikTok really lives and dies on sounds, especially commercial tracks. But we knew that we didn’t want to use on-platform music functionality for the episodes.
Otherwise, we feared the episodes would be too tied up in trends.
But we wanted the music to match (or even exceed) the production and quality of commercial tracks that are available on the platform.
So we turned to Musicbed’s collection.
Musicbed has such a vast collection of great, authentic songs to choose from, so we used the “Similar songs” function. That was really helpful for finding songs that would complement each other within each TikTok episode.
The AI-powered Search By Song function was also really helpful.
We had some episodes where the players were listening to music in training or before a game and we wanted to match those songs.
Being able to look up the Drake song they were listening to or “Lose Yourself” by Eminem in another and find a song with a similar vibe was so helpful.
Musicbed also offers so many versions of each song: versions with lyrics and versions without. It was easy to find the right one to suit each moment.
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Were there any songs used in the TikTok docuseries you feel did a particularly good job of enhancing your story?
Lost All My Money
by Floating Action
“Lost All My Money” by Floating Action had so much character!
We felt like it really matched the character of the boys—especially in Episode 14.
The song has a great mix of drive, earnestness, and enjoying the moment.
The hardest part was choosing which parts of the songs to include in a short TikTok episode window.
Eye of the Storm
by Alistair Sung
Episode 13 felt a little different from all the others in nature.
It was probably the most traditional docu-style episode.
We visited one of our players out on her farm, so we needed to cover a fair bit of context quickly.
That’s why we picked “Eye of the Storm” by Alistair Sung.
It’s a driving string track that felt perfect for the job.
Code
by Mega Rev
Throughout the TikTok docuseries, we wanted AFL to come across as a really cool sport/community to be a part of, particularly for young people.
We wanted to create a New York Nike ad feel for a beloved Australian sport. We wanted to highlight the next generation of incredible athletes.
Songs like “Code” by Mega Rev really nailed that vibe for us. It’s the kind of song that could go viral on TikTok.
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