The curtain has fallen on a new and compelling “television film festival”. ESPN has just concluded its opening run of thirty engaging and provocative movies, premiering 14 months ago. Meticulous and sharply observed, this “30 for 30” project has been as ambitious an undertaking as anything the network has done.
The series, covering such diverse topics as a superstar in one major sport courageously trying to succeed in another (“Jordan Rides the Bus”) to a dedicated marching band who’ve lost their home team (“The Band That Wouldn’t Die”), is made by all-pros like Ron Shelton and Barry Levinson and has won over a legion of fans and critics.
The ESPN 30 for 30 Gift Set, Volume 1, is a 6-disc DVD package that includes the first 15 films from the series: Kings Ransom, The Band That Wouldnt Die, Small Potatoes: Who Killed The USFL?, Muhammad & Larry, Without Bias, The Legend of Jimmy The Greek, The U, Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks, Guru of Go, No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson, Silly Little Game, Run Ricky Run, The 16th Man, Straight Outta L.A. and June 17th, 1994. The Gift Set also includes over 2 hours of bonus features including deleted scenes, extended interviews, trailers and director’s comments.
With the remarkable series now available for the home entertainment market, what is not part of the extra materials, but something that is compelling in itself, is how the project came about.
This is a true story… well certainly inspired by one.
Now that ESPN, proud of its tag as the, ‘worldwide leader in sports’ has proven it is a major league player in taking documentary film to another level, on a mass scale, what the audience would now like to know: What is the story behind the stories and will there be any encores?
Assembling a team that would eventually include Peabody and Oscar-nominated directors, world-class storytellers and future filmmaking superstars (one of whom, Steve Nash, already is a superstar – in the NBA) really all began with an innocent, kill-the-insomnia late night email between friends.
Back in 2007, ESPN’s The Sports Guy, Bill Simmons, emailed his pal at ESPN Films, Connor Schell, presenting an idea to celebrate the cable network’s upcoming 30th anniversary. Simmons has long revealed a love of sports movies and modern culture in his columns, podcasts and books (and no doubt pumped up watching “Hoosiers” again for the millionth time when conceiving the email) believed that a series of documentaries about sports figures and events that resonated with the times but might have since fallen under the radar, would be a surprising and stylish way to share the milestone with viewers.
Many phone calls, revised lists (a few more viewings of “Hoosiers”) and challenging conversations between Simmons and Schell, eventually led to the “30 for 30” project expanding its brain trust to include network colleagues John Dahl, Joan Lynch and Chris Connelly. This starting five then drew up a list of respected filmmakers they wanted to work with.
The starting five then went to Hollywood to bring in a coordinating producer versed in sports and the different styles of filmmaking.
Mike Tollin, who not only has major studio sports movie credits for such theatrical releases as “Radio”, “Coach Carter” and “Varsity Blues”, but the director/producer also earned an Academy Award nomination for his baseball documentary, “Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream”.
The project’s new coordinating producer kicked things off by being frank in telling the network how it would need to operate – and co-operate – to have the best shot at success in this massive undertaking.
“I told ESPN, ’This is your indie film project’ because the filmmaker must be held in the highest regard,” recalls Tollin. “But ESPN has a certain reputation as the bully, gobbling up all the rights and dictating terms. This (30 for 30) was the complete antitheses. This was the case where they basically said they were almost subscribing to the auteur theory [where the] filmmaker is king and we the network are just here to support the vision. That is a kind of dream scenario.”
Dahl, one of ESPN’s executive producers of 30 for 30, talks about the creative process.
“It was an important condition to have. We have many talented people within here at ESPN and have done well with our in-house documentaries like Sports Century. But when we launched ESPN Films in 2008 we wanted to take a more cinematic approach, (to) reposition ourselves in how we look at documentary storytelling. Out of that emerged the 30 for 30 concept which really is an independent film mentality,” says the network film executive.
“We hadn’t done this before in terms of lining up a great roster of filmmakers and let them bring their passion and personal experiences to the story – basically helping them achieve their vision,” continues Dahl. “We aided them with production support teams [fact-checking, footage] from inception to air, but the key was to let the subjective decision be just that as much as possible. We were letting them tell their story.”
So with the green light from the network brass and a comparatively high degree of autonomy to operate from, the filmmakers, some steeped in sport like Albert Maysles, Dan Klores and Jon Hock and others out of sports like John Singleton and Barbara Kopple, went to work.
Undoubtedly a film project of this scale did have its challenges.
“Certainly a project of this scope will not go perfectly,” says Dahl. “Thirty films in fourteen months? That is daunting. “
Footage licensing, not being able to get interviews with key figures like Michael Jordan or Allen Iverson, time constraints to get a finished film on air, and simply scheduling on the network were ‘regular hurdles that had to be overcome’.
Despite such challenges the overall results speak for themselves. One of the key reasons the project succeeded was the way ESPN worked with their outside suppliers.
Comments from the following directors are typical of the feelings these filmmakers as a group have about how the editorial freedom and network support fueled their storytelling.
Steve James, an Oscar-nominee for his seminal basketball documentary, “Hoop Dreams”, stayed with the sport for his ESPN story, “No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson”.
“Sixteen years ago when he was in high school, Allen was involved in a racial fight in Hampton, Virginia which happens to be both his and my hometown,’ says James. “I wanted to re-visit and understand what happened and why it was so divisive to my hometown. ESPN made it easy for me to enjoy the process of discovery which is part of the fun of doing any documentary.”
Hometown roots are also at the core of rapper/actor Ice Cube’s 30 for 30 story. “Straight Outta LA” covers the Raiders period in Southern California and how the NFL’s rebel franchise became linked with the hip hop/gangsta rap scene.
“ESPN allowed me to do a story that I lived, something close to my heart,” says the producer of the feature film “The Longshots”. “You know people think LA is Showtime, but not the LA where I come from. South Central, Compton, Watts they’re a lot more grit than glamour. The Raiders with that outlaw mentality was the perfect team for our city.”
And so it goes all down the line, filmmakers with as diverse influences and backgrounds as their fellow Americans, each with a burning desire to tell a story of intense personal resonance and finding a welcome home at ESPN to create it.
The film folks at ESPN have been pleased with the results including the ratings, which were a lesser priority in this case. Still, “Pony Exce$$”, which wrapped up the series, a story about Southern Methodist University in Dallas and its football prominence in the 80′s and the resulting NCAA “Death Penalty” ruling that crushed the program, was a ratings bonanza. It earned a 1.8 rating according to Nielsen making it the network’s most watched documentary of all-time. The films are now available on DVD and some have had runs at the Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals.
“In the end we wanted great content,” says Dahl “We felt if we had that, everything else would fall into place like audience and critics enjoying it. If the films were great, the rating would follow.
“Ultimately I feel like we broke new ground which is truly hard to do. But I think we did it with 30 for 30. I think our approach with this project such as allowing different looks for a given film and supporting the vision a filmmaker wants to have, will absolutely continue to be part of ESPN Films.
Adds Connor Schell, Executive Producer of ESPN Films: “That combination of individual passion and artistic freedom really I think has yielded a riveting and telling mosaic of just what sports has meant in American pop culture and beyond.”
In the end the success of 30 for 30 is due in large part that in these passion plays, everyone from Simmons, his ESPN Film colleagues to the filmmakers and the savvy audience all understand, that the best cinematic stories are those dramas that delve into the human condition and that sports makes for a compelling backdrop in which to explore a broad range of issues.
“I couldn’t be happier,” says Simmons. “We established a brand and delivered some quality movies. Win-win.”
As for an encore? Well…
Based on this success, it will be exciting to see just what the next round of late-night viewings of “Hoosiers” (perhaps combined this time as a double feature with “The Karate Kid”) will inspire in Simmons’ sharp cinematic mind. Hopefully, The Sports Guy will help raise the curtain soon on yet another riveting ESPN journey into celluloid.
