Journal
Thinking out loud, on the record.
Essays from Quiet Eye Productions on quiet eye theory, endurance, performance under pressure and the craft of sport and adventure documentary. Written by the people who shoot the films, not by a marketing department.
Latest
How long is the quiet eye on a basketball free throw?
Around 972 milliseconds for an elite shooter, and well under half that for a near elite teammate. What the research shows, and what a defender takes away.
Everything else
14 pieces- Why does dressage matter so much in eventing? Dressage is the first of eventing's three phases and it sets up the other two. What the riders in Balance said about it at Scone Palace in 2025.
- How long does a golfer hold their quiet eye before a putt? Around two to three seconds for an expert putter. What the research shows, where it disagrees, and what a putt by head torch at Durness showed us.
- What does athlete management bring to a documentary crew? Contract negotiation, testimonial years and 1,250 people on a Highland hillside. What ten years of athlete management taught me before Quiet Eye.
- Why do most athlete YouTube channels stop after nine videos? Not talent, and not effort. A channel built to run on a good week dies the first time the week is bad.
- What is 'feel' between a horse and rider in eventing? Balance was about what you can see. Feel, our next film at Scone Palace, is about the part of eventing that never shows up on camera.
- What does grit look like on the Cateran Yomp? 54 miles in 24 hours for the Army Benevolent Fund. I asked people about grit at mile seven and got noise. I asked again in the dark and got something else.
- How do you film sport and adventure in the dark? Two and a half hours up Ben Hope before any light, then golf at Durness with almost none left. What filming in the dark costs, and what it gives back.
- How we made Balance across four days at Scone Palace Four days of eventing at the 2025 Scone Palace International Horse Trials, filmed without following one horse and rider, cut into a ten minute film about balance.
- Where in Scotland do we film sport and adventure documentary? Ben Hope in the dark, Durness on the shortest day, Scone Palace, the Cateran Yomp at Blairgowrie, and the Great Glen Way in September.
- Why did Danny Mavor cross the Great Glen Way in a wheelchair? Seven years after the crash that changed everything, Danny completed the Highlands coast to coast. The film is about redefining purpose after a spinal injury.
- How we made Chasing Light in a single day of failing light Our own film. One winter solstice, the UK's most northerly Munro in the dark, then a race to play golf at Durness before the light was gone.
- What quiet eye looks like from behind the camera The research tells you where an expert looks. This is what that changes when you are the one deciding where to point the lens.
- What does a scientist's eye bring to sport filmmaking? A PhD in geomorphology, years of World Cup race analysis, then two decades behind the camera. What the science changes about how sport gets filmed.
- Why does endurance make the best documentary subject? Long events strip a person down to what they actually are. That is where the film is.