Lexington, KY
Black Reigns is a Kentucky-built, character-driven unscripted sports docuseries developed around the formation of a collegiate HBCU rodeo program. The story begins with a blank slate: no established facilities, no inherited program and a group of athletes, coaches and community partners working to turn an ambitious idea into a functioning team.
Set across Kentucky farms, barns, campuses, highways and rodeo arenas, the series follows the riders as they learn the discipline behind competition—animal care, early mornings, travel, training and accountability—while finding their place in a sport where they have rarely been represented. The larger story connects individual ambition with mentorship, rural community and the work required to build an institution from the ground up.
The format combines intimate documentary access with the scale and pressure of live rodeo. Personal stories, team dynamics and the leadership of Coach Ahmed form the emotional spine, while competition provides a recurring test of preparation, resilience and belonging.
Motion24’s involvement spans series development, production planning, field production and post-production. Gates Sweeney served as Supervising Producer, contributing creative oversight of story, format and editorial direction; coordination between field and post teams; production planning; and review of evolving episode and trailer material.
Early production captured rodeo material in Arkansas and Louisville. The post-production plan included a high-energy short trailer and a longer story-driven presentation designed to introduce the world, principal characters and season engine. Development work also included the show bible, episode structure, production schedule and technical planning for a long-form unscripted workflow.
The visual approach pairs small, embedded documentary crews with cinematic arena coverage. Daily life is designed to feel immediate and observational, while competition expands into a more controlled, large-format visual language supported by multi-camera capture, dedicated field audio and disciplined media management.
