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“I used the F-500 and the F-125 stocks for the film, and for the football scenes we decided to shoot on as many cameras as we could afford.”
KICKING
play football. I’d have hated to get an emotional attachment to someone on a performance basis and then found out they couldn’t do it on the pitch.
“Some don’t need to play great football, we’re not saying this is a pro- fessional game of football, this is pris- oners versus guards. But some of the cast are ex-pros.”
Most famous, dare one say, noto- rious, among this cast of ex-pros is Vinnie Jones. On the day I visit the set he is playing a decent game of ‘keepy-uppy’ in between takes, show- ing a touch that might surprise those who just thought him a tough guy on the pitch.
Then again, ball juggling is some- thing he was known for painfully in certain circles. These days, though, it is acting that he is pursuing with the single minded determination he brought to his playing career.
“I’ve been offered a few football films over the years,” says Vinnie, “but I wanted to stay away from that as much as I could. But this is more than that, it’s a story about a guy who had everything and lost it. It’s not a soccer movie, though we do play football at the end.
Trumpeting hype with the ease of a man who has slotted into the
publicity beat after recent Hollywood roles in Gone In 60 Seconds and Swordfish, Jones says: “ This film has got everything. There are good looking women, good looking fellas, comedy, excitement and a great fight scene too.”
It seems the kind of crowd-pleaser that will draw heavily from its target audience of 15 to 30 year olds. Some, ironically, may have only a dim and distant memory of Vinnie Jones the footballer, and will probably know him as the bloke from the Guy Ritchie films, Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. That probably suits Vinnie down to the ground.
“This is a good part for me. In the football scenes I’m the real playmaker, and I’ve also got a lot to do in the story. My character’s had his heart and soul ripped out, and that shows a different side to me. So even though they’ll see me having this fight in
“I used the F-500 and the F-125 stocks for the film, and for the foot- ball scenes we decided to shoot on as many cameras as we could afford. That meant, when it came to putting it all together, you could have the same shot running on three different cam- eras, and could cut between them.
“From there, the aim was to make it look as real as possible. That also dictated where we put out cameras, what lens sizes to use, and giving our- selves an opportunity to cut out to wide shot and then cut back in, all in the same piece of action.
“Knowing roughly the style of editing that Barry would use – it should be snappy and quite punchy – I knew whether we could use a close up for a second here, and then come back to a wide shot, so you build up that story and still play the football scenes with pace and energy.” ■
prison, it’ll be good for people to see that I’m also acting.” The story even goes that after one five minute speech, Vinnie had some of the crew reaching for the Kleenex.
Surrounded by a decent cast that includes David Hemmings, Vas Blackwood, Danny Dyer, Jason Statham, Sally Phillips and Ralph Brown, Vinnie Jones is keeping good company these days. And he was guar- anteed a higher than average degree of respect from director Skolnick – a Leeds United season ticket holder – and DP Alex Barber (a QPR fan) for having played for each of their teams.
But if the film succeeds at all it must strike the balance between the drama and the sporting action, and make both seem credible.
“The essence of capturing sport to me is to shoot it real,” says Skolnick, who has experience shooting several sporting commercials, and the Sky pre-season football promos. “It’s much better to do that than cut from an actor’s head to someone else’s legs. It never really works that way.
“You can choreograph to an extent but you have to be fairly brave and let the game flow within parame- ters to actually capture the material you want. Ultimately, the key is to cre- ate tension, drama, and a story around the football.
“The football sequences will look real, they’ll be exciting and there will still be tension and passion, but you have to remember you’re talking to a cinema audience.
“The idea that someone would go to the cinema on a Saturday night to watch Match of the Day never grabbed me. Our ambition is more about get- ting people into our film on a Saturday night to watch a really good story that just happens to have some great foot- ball in it.” ■ ANWAR BRETT
The Mean Machine, which was
originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative, is scheduled for UK release on Boxing Day
THE DP VIEW
ALEX BARBER
W
we had to make this the best football movie ever – though that’s not too high a standard to beat.
hen we started Mean Machine we were keen to avoid all those football movie clichés. My brief at the first meeting was that