When Bryce Harbin and Benjamin Greene first started piecing together videos as sophomores at Port Townsend High School, their projects consisted of playful interviews and skits for other classes. By their senior year, though, the two tasked themselves with something far more challenging: a documentary about the Rivals wrestling team. The project, eventually titled “TOUGHER: A Wrestling Documentary,” pushed them to develop the interviewing, editing and storytelling skills they never imagined they would encounter.

“We knew that we wanted to make a video for our senior project. One of my other ideas was to make a weight lifting club video, but that did not work for an overwhelming number of reasons,” Harbin said. “But everyone who said they’d be interested in the video, they were all wrestlers. I think we knew for sure; we wanted to make the documentary on them.”

The project quickly gained momentum. Harbin and Greene filmed practices, meets, and the Rivals run to the state championships inside the Tacoma Dome, capturing more than 300 gigabytes of footage in 1080p — the equivalent of roughly 75 to 300 hours of video.

The footage (and the miles) began to rack up.

“There were some days … One time I drove all the way to Puyallup to film this wrestling meet against Cascade Christian, and I think like maybe 10 or 15 seconds of the actual meet is in the documentary,” Harbin said. “I became more calculated with the shots I was actually getting and just being more thoughtful with how I would incorporate that into the final piece.”

Greene said that while filming was certainly taxing, shaping the story was the true test.

“I think one of the most challenging parts was trying to get a story out of it. We went from a storyline into more of a character piece, which I thought was really interesting,” he said. “We had to cut out some people who had interviews to try to make it simpler or easier for the viewer to be able to connect with the characters.”
The process forced the two to adapt. Harbin, usually the behind-the-scenes editor, began conducting interviews. Greene, often the on-camera subject in their videos, picked up the camera instead. These switches helped them build their storytelling abilities.

“It also switched that way because he (Bryce) wanted to get better at interviewing,” Greene said. “He was the one asking the good questions, and I was just there to pick it up if there was some slack.”

The film premiered in the high school auditorium the day before Harbin left for college. The screening came down to the wire, but in the days leading up to viewing, everything fell into place.

“Watching everybody watch the movie…was really cool,” Greene said. “It made me want to keep making videos.”

After the premiere, Harbin made his way to Bellingham, where he has since begun taking classes, with plans to transfer to Western Washington University to study film and media. Greene, now a freshman at the University of Oregon, recently signed up for Journalism 101, a class he hopes will build on the storytelling skills he developed during the making of the film.

“TOUGHER” was submitted to the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) in Seattle, widely regarded as one of the largest youth film festivals in the world.

“Our status is still pending,” Harbin said, “but it’ll probably get shown sometime next winter, maybe in March.”

For Greene, the takeaway from “TOUGHER” was simple.

“If you want to do anything, just start doing it,” he said. “We started sophomore year making little videos, and they just got a little bit better until we made something that we’re really proud of.”
You can watch “TOUGHER: A Wrestling Documentary” on YouTube.