It was all about dealing with the downsides of sporting achievement: isolation, missing important moments, dealing with criticism, wondering if your time is being wasted, and making a show of yourself.
The whole thing turned on that phrase. One minute, three locations in Ireland, cast with real athletes rather than actors.
There were many different locations, and athletes who did not necessarily have an infinite amount of time. They were not dedicated actors, so you had to manage personas and how comfortable people are on camera.
A boxer, a runner and a CrossFit trainer made the film. The producing was reaching out to people, contacting different sports people and filling the roles we had identified.
That was a very enjoyable thing to work on.
We shot a fourth location and it did not make the film. We could not control the lighting and it came out very red. That was at the end of the day, down by the docks in Dublin, under the red lights.
The dancer had to be dropped. It was still a good thing to shoot.
One minute of film, three locations, and a day that ran from an empty track in the afternoon to the floodlights coming on.
Co-producing and running the floor at the same time: holding the schedule together, keeping athletes who had jobs to get back to comfortable and moving, and making the calls that keep a day on its feet.
