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cover story
NETTING THE NETTING THE
WORLD CUP WORLD CUP
WINNER WINNER
... but who would have believed that France could beat Brazil 3-0 in the final?
Twelve marked men arrived in France this summer. They were men of respect, distin- guished by a singular skill and possessed of a deadly talent. These are the world’s greatest goalscorers, men who strike fear into the hearts of the sturdiest defender while they quicken the pulse of the watching public. Now the whole daz- zling range of ability on offer from the likes of Ronaldo, Zidane, Shearer, Owen, Sukor, Klinsmann, Bergkamp, Batistuta and the rest will be seen as never before in Striker!, the official film of the 1998 World Cup in France.
Made by Worldmark - who in the past shot White Rock, the official film of the 1976 Winter Olympics as well as World Cup movies G’Olé, Hero and Soccer Shoot-Out (for the 1982, 86 and 90 tournaments respectively) - there is clearly a con- siderable amount of experience behind this daunt- ing logistical operation.
Director Tony Maylam along with his produc- ers Drummond Challis and David Wooster are old hands at this, and bring a cool professionalism to a pressurised situation that would paralyse lesser men. With every game shot on the very latest Fuji stock, with between 10 and 15 cameras at each match, the production has used somewhere in the region of 600,000 feet of film during the four week tournament - enough for 20 feature films!
Attending some of the games himself and co- ordinating the rest from his London base, director Maylam is the libero of the piece, the creator who knows when to pick up the pace and when to put his foot on the proverbial ball and slow things down. He is the man everyone looks to for guid- ance and inspiration.
“The focus for the film is what I consider to be the $20 million club,” he explains, “the players who score the goals. I focus on each of those guys at the same time as covering the match, so that one camera is never off them from the moment they come on the pitch to the moment they leave. They’re very, very close tight shots. I had one camera on Ronaldo where literally it was his head and shoulders for the whole game.
“As all the material came in I’d analyse it and I’d be on the phone to every cameraman, telling them exactly what lens and what camera speed to use. But it’s a hell of a piece of operating on their part, if you’ve got a 600 or 700 mm lens and you’re following a player not knowing which way he’ll go. The focus pulling and camera operating are done by the one man, and there’s only a handful of guys in the world who can do that. You can’t anticipate too much, you just have to feel it.”
As the individual dramas in France slowly unfolded, and heroes and villains were cast in the
course of each 90 minutes, Maylam was aware that his film could change from match to match. But as he assembled the footage into a rough cut while the tournament was still on, he was not disap- pointed with what he saw.
“The film looks absolutely stunning,” he enthuses. “And although we set out a very detailed scenario with all these guys some time ago, it’s really turned out as I expected it would. The only real failure was Spain as a team, who got knocked out at the group stage. Other than that absolutely everybody has come through.”
The mixed fortunes of the Home Nations will not feature greatly in Striker!, as it is being made for international cinema distribution rather than the more parochial domestic market. However one young Englishman does feature more than might have been expected before the tournament began.
“Michael Owen is very much part of our story now as well,” Maylam adds. “But then our premise is that the World Cup is the stage where these guys establish who is number one. We have to
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