On Aug. 20, Michigan State Spartans Athletics released the trailer for a new YouTube docuseries titled, “This is State.” Two episodes have been released so far, and viewers can rely on at least six more to come.

In June, Cabana took a full-time position with Spartan Vision, the content creation team for MSU Athletics. She is the director, editor and producer of each docuseries episode. 

The docuseries follows a season with MSU football, telling the stories of coaches, players, equipment managers and more – and the woman behind the series is Cabana. 

Cabana said the docuseries highlights ideas and players rather than game-day performance.

The first episode serves as a team introduction, featuring sound bites from MSU head coach Jonathan Smith, this season’s captains and other football players. It also highlights the support staff of MSU football, including student equipment manager and marketing senior Cam Deuel.

Deuel has been a student equipment manager for three years. His schedule revolves around MSU football, as shown in the first episode.

“I was kind of surprised,” Deuel said. “Why the heck did [Cabana] want to film me and the fellow student managers?” 

Deuel and the other student equipment managers attend every MSU football practice. They arrive hours early, assist throughout the multiple periods of practice, and clean up the aftermath. On gameday, they arrive five hours early and stay until Spartan Stadium is put away. 

“These people, especially the support staff, don't necessarily get the light shined on them a lot,” Cabana said.

The first episode has about 17,000 views, including some from Deuel’s friends and family. 

“Not many people know what we do, especially family members,” Deuel said. “‘They're like, ‘Wow, I never knew this is what your job consisted of’ and stuff like that. So that was probably the coolest part. Just family and friends getting an opportunity to see what we do.” 

Cabana wants the documentary to give insight into the world of MSU football outside what happens on the field. 

“A main goal of mine for the show is to show who the players are as people, as well as what happens beyond the field and the stats,” Cabana said. “Specifically give realness to the game on all aspects.”

Each episode has a theme and runs for about 15 minutes.

“I want people to just be able to tune everything out,” Cabana said. “For 15 minutes, just be in this world where they're inspired and can see different things and then be able to take what that episode taught them or showed them and apply it to their own life.”

Episode releases will continue throughout the MSU football season, and while Cabana has already shot plenty of film for the episodes, the final product is constantly developing.

“I have somewhat of an idea of how I want to edit things when I'm shooting and when I'm doing the interviews,” Cabana said. “But then it's like stuff is constantly coming up, new storylines coming up. It's different sound bites from different places, so it's definitely ever-evolving.”

Cabana spent her summer at MSU football workouts, filming in preparation for the docuseries. She built relationships with athletes and staff members and managed every aspect of the interviews — from planning and choosing locations to asking questions.

“When the players see your face and then you're around the facility, then you're more apt to form those relationships and just have people familiar with you,” Cabana said. “One challenging thing was, I was shooting all this stuff in June and July, but then the first episode wasn’t until August, so then it was trying to get people to trust and, you know, people don't necessarily know what they were getting into.”

Creating a sports docuseries has been one of Cabana’s career goals. She grew up a Los Angeles Chargers fan and spent each NFL weekend glued to the television. 

“Games started at one, last game was at, whatever, eight and I'd sit on the couch for 10 hours just watching,” Cabana said. 

From a young age, Cabana knew she wanted to work in sports. Adamant that she bring her dreams to life, she started Glastonbury High School’s first sports show, with hopes of being a sports broadcaster. 

“I was interviewing players, going to games, shooting B-roll, and then broadcasting live every week,” Cabana said. “And then also playing three sports, work a couple jobs. So it was very much a grind there.” 

She later attended the University of Central Florida, where she majored in film and minored in journalism. Cabana’s studies led her behind the camera, where she created short features, culminating in a documentary on the Denver Broncos running back, RJ Harvey.

When she arrived in East Lansing, Cabana had minimal time to form relationships with the MSU football community; however, she found a group of people that were excited to work with her.

“The football staff are amazing people that not just like, were open to it, but wanted to be a part of it,” Cabana said. “When someone wants to be a part of it and is excited about it, it makes it that much easier for you to bring it to life, but then also gives me motivation like, okay, these people were really excited. They want to be in it. I want to make sure I tell their story, the best that it can be.”

Cabana’s weeks are spent assembling footage ranging from three months ago to last week. Some clips are long interviews. Others are a couple seconds. Each camera angle, interview and natural sound makes up “This is State.”

“Every little detail, small or big when it comes to this, impacts the final project,” Cabana said. “That's the same thing in life, I feel like, in general, people you talk to, the things that do, everything is kind of a domino effect to just getting to that final endpoint.”