Michael Bruce

University of Alabama

Do Right: The Stallings Standard

Viewers on this site are restricted to seeing the cold open and opening title sequence only due to media-rights restrictions.

Description:
Documentary Log Line: National Championship (1992) Coach Gene Stallings bridged the thirty-year championship gap between University of Alabama coaching legends Paul “Bear” Bryant and Nick Saban while building international awareness and opportunities for people with developmental disabilities in a football family encouraged to always do the right thing.

The feature-length documentary captures the legacy of Gene Stallings, renowned for leading Alabama to a national championship and his global humanitarian efforts. Beyond football, Stallings' dedication to his family and advocacy for individuals with special needs, particularly his late son John Mark, is highlighted. The film explores Stallings' coaching career, his impact on players and staff, and the values of compassion and respect that define his philosophy. It underscores the importance of empathy and understanding in caring for loved ones, reflecting Stallings' commitment to doing right and inspiring others to do the same.

Production Roles:
The co-authors produced and directed the entire documentary, retaining creative and technical control of the entire project. In addition to producing and directing, the co-authors were responsible for lighting and shooting nearly all of the modern interviews, shooting b-roll and on-location video, editing, writing, and overall production.

Narrator - a professional actor served as narrator. The work was pro-bono.

Editor - A staff member of the college served as editor. He created the original structure for the project following input from the co-authors. The co-authors were also involved with off-line and final on-line editing.

Writer/script supervisors - the co-producers wrote the original narration and story outline. Two media professionals were used to help polish the script/narration.

Production companies - the co-authors hired an audio post house to do the final audio mix/audio sweetening and a video production company to help create the opening title sequence, titles, credits and final color mix. The co-authors retained complete creative control in both instances. The co-authors were also responsible for adding the work of these companies back into the final edit of the documentary.

A number of students helped with various aspects of the production, including transcription, shooting b-roll, drone operation, and research and other tasks.