What this project is about.
The "wild card" teams are single teams from smaller, community-based clubs who climbed the ladder — silver, gold, Premier, State Premier, NPL — and won their way into the ECNL Regional League, a league most people assumed was closed to them. The film puts a human face on that idea through three of the people living it: Carlos Velasco, founder of FC Fresno Academy; Carmen Padilla, Youth Director of Coaching at San Juan South Soccer Club; and Dan Chamberlain, NorCal's Director of Competitions, who speaks to why the merit-based system exists in the first place.
How the work was made.
One shoot day, three interviews, one guide. Leo designed a single interview guide so the three answers would intercut — a league voice and two club/community voices answering the same questions, cut against each other rather than presented as three separate segments. That intercut design is the film's structure: the story is told in the joins between the voices.
The making of it.
- Role
- Director / Cinematographer / Editor — Leomar Moring
- Shoot
- One day, May 16, 2026, 9 a.m.–4 p.m. — three interviews shot that day
- Interviewees
- Carlos Velasco (FC Fresno Academy), Carmen Padilla (San Juan South), Dan Chamberlain (NorCal Premier Soccer, Director of Competitions)
- Shoot locations
- a Fresno practice field (Velasco), a Stockton club (Padilla / San Juan South), and a NorCal showcase, shot trackside (Chamberlain)
- Revisions
- Desiree Hankerson handled The Wildcards revisions
On location.
Designing one guide for three people who had never answered it together is the behind-the-scenes story that is verified: the questions had to be ordered so three separate conversations, shot in a single day, would play as one film.
The films.
Community Spotlight: The Wildcards
The Wildcards (~6 minutes), embedded from Leo's own YouTube channel ('Community Spotlight: The Wildcards'). NorCal has not yet published its own upload. Read the field note: Beyond the Cut: Making "The Wildcards"
Where the work goes.
Purpose (verified): one of three Community Spotlight films Leo delivered for NorCal's channels, and a cleared later-post option in Leo's LinkedIn pilot (permission granted Oct 27, 2026).
