We're on the ball with our latest film!

Over the past year, we’ve been working with Action-attainment, a neurodiversity-focused Community Interest Company (CIC), to create a new brand and website. We’re now happy to share the film we’ve made with them and their partner Brentford FC CST, about their inclusive football groups, On the Ball. 

A more beautiful game 

Football is often seen as a universal game that transcends language and geography. But it’s not always so simple if you are neurodivergent, or have language processing difficulties. And often, if you have language or sensory processing differences, the fast-paced nature of the game can be overwhelming. 

Making football accessible to neurodiverse children 

Sam Silver, founder of Act-attain, and mother of three neurodiverse children, explains: “As small children, my sons really wanted to play football, but their language processing meant they found it difficult to understand the rules – they’d run in the wrong direction or kick the ball to the wrong team.” 

Sam started by explaining football for her sons using a table football set, so they could understand the dynamics of the game, before they got onto the pitch.  

Now, almost three decades later, Sam’s eldest son Tom is lead coach of On the Ball, alongside Brentford’s Chris Tribe. On the Ball has supported hundreds of families and children, as well as creating a community of parents who can share experiences and problem solve together. 

At its heart, On the Ball is Saturday morning football. But the programme also integrates occupational therapy techniques and strategies to help children concentrate, take part, take part and make friends. It’s more than sport – it’s skills for life. 

How we made it happen 

After learning about On the Ball, our team was determined to do everything we could to help tell their story to a wider audience, and support more families. 

To help make the film happen, we gave our time over evenings and weekends to bring the film to life, as well as our money from our annual Giveathon. 

We invited director David Barr to come on board and bring the film to life. Like Lucy, David also has a family connection with autism. As with all the films we make in the third sector, authentic storytelling is so important and at the heart of our approach. 

It was really important to us that we worked with people who really understood the story we were telling. David was a sensitive and thoughtful creative partner, who brought our film to life in an elevated and really joyful way. 

David said, “We all experience the world differently. I wanted to reflect this with an honest portrayal of these families and imbue a sensitive visual language that offers us a glimpse into their worlds. When you see the unfiltered highs and lows of children playing in this welcoming environment, it’s impossible not to see the power of inclusivity in sport.” 

The filming process

With enough budget for one day of filming, our Studio team and Director had to work to develop a storyboard that could cover the complexities of the shoot day. 

While we had a storyline planned out, we knew our piece would be led by the unscripted footage we gathered on our shoot day, and the rest of the story would be crafted by David in the edit. David has an eye for capturing the natural, emotive beats of the day, showing the emotional journey of the story and the children, and parents’, experience of On the Ball.

We took steps to make sure our filming and interviewing were as inclusive as possible. We did several recce visits to the groups so that we were familiar faces to both the children and parents. We also gave the kids questions in advance so that they had time to think about and process their answers before the voice recording.

The next steps for On the Ball 

With this film, and their new branding and website, Act-attain are now working with corporate partners to increase their funding, so they can help more children and families. 

Our Creative Director, Jamie Tierney says, “I’m so proud we have produced such a beautiful film reflecting the gentle and supportive nature of the On the Ball football group. It was a real passion project and we took a very hands on approach. The team were across everything from managing production budgets, sourcing crew, locations, catering and even garden shed sound recordings!”  

Sam says, “Thank you so much to everyone at Open, and the film crew who helped make this happen. There’s no other agency I would trust with telling our story.” 

Special thanks to everyone who made our film possible: 

Director and Editor: David Barr  

Creative Director: Jamie Tierney 

DoP: Aadel Nodeh-Farahani 

Producers: Lucy Silver and James Dawe  

1AD: Anthony Hugill 

2AD: Callum Reeves 

Sound: Taron Allison 

Equipment: Shift-4

We’d also like to give a massive thank you to the leadership team and to everyone who donated to help fund our film.