Inside the Life of a Professional Soccer Player

In the Netflix Original First Team: Juventus, a camera crew takes an inside look into what it is like to be a professional soccer player. They take a look at the team Juventus, who are a renowned team with a history of legends and championships. It shows the rich culture that surrounds soccer in Italy. The film looks at all aspects of team life, both on the field and off the field. The film starts off by showing a few highlights with edited footage to show the exciting moments from the previous season. The film is a documentary, which means they have a person narrating for most of the episode. The voice narrating is deep and it gives the documentary a serious; intense mood. Another element in the film is having live player interviews asking them how they feel about certain aspects of the life of being a player. The coolest part is they keep the players speaking in their natural tongue, and putting subtitles for you to read what they are saying. One of the players interviewed, Gianluigi Buffon, is one of the greatest goalkeepers to ever play the game. He is interviewed and he speaks in Italian the whole time. In other documentaries that I have watched, they have a person speak they have a voice over translate what they say. 

The camera work in the film is nothing short of exceptional. The camera shows off the players jerseys in the locker room before their first game of the season. The room is dim lighted to give an intense mood, to make the audience feel excited and anxious for the game. This gives the audience the feeling that these players have before they step onto the field. In the following scene they show the highlights from the game, which Juventus wins. They show different camera angles from the side of the field and from up in the stands with the fans, though out different points in the match. They make it feel like you are at the game. 

In order to show the rich culture of the team, they interview ex players from the team, they are also referred to as legends. The two legends that they talk to were part of the team in 1996, who won the coveted Champions League trophy. They show the award ceremony from the past champions league tournament where one of their players, Gianluigi, being honored as goal keeper of the tournament. This is a cool aspect in the film because it gives a break from the interviews and the narrations. You get to hear the real portions of the award ceremony, including Gianluigi being interviewed with two of the worlds best players, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. 

Another cool part that the film shows is all the different facilities that the team have to their use. They show their youth academy, where they train kids the hopefully one day be a part of the team. The camera shows the film room, where players watch film to see what they are doing well and what they need to work on. This part of the film is shown, but instead of having the narrator say what it is used for, they use a player to explain its use.