Amazon fly-on-the-wall documentary about Spurs

[Elias]

OK - I've finally managed to watch the first three episodes in their entirety.
For full disclosure, I'm a documentary maker, having directed over 20 hours of network broadcast films for all the BBC channels, Channel 4, NatGeo, Discovery etc before leaving the industry in disgust at corporate working practices.
I have a top level observation.
There is no such thing as a "fly on the wall" documentary. Everything broadcast on network TV is edited. Editing creates meaning, narratives, And when I say "creates", editing can quite literally change what happened by 180 degrees. It's one of the reasons I left network TV, because I have red lines I'm not prepared to cross.
The only real "fly on the wall" is some geezer turning on the camera on his mobile phone and recording three minutes of actual uninterrupted footage before hitting Stop. And we all know if another person is filming with their mobile from a different angle, perhaps starting a minute earlier, and you compare those two unedited pieces of footage, then they may tell two very different stories.
So, "All or Nothing" is artifice. A constructed narrative. It is not "pure reality", whatever that means.
Reaction shots and cutaways may be edited in from different settings and time periods to create the mood or emotion that the director, and whoever (Levy?) had ultimate editorial control, desired.
But, having said this, the series has an incredible level of access to certain events. You do feel inside the dressing room, and key meetings, and that is compelling, especially for us Spurs fans.
The footage with Dier after he's subbed on 29 minutes, and with Sonny after the chavski red card. is astonishing access. These are incredibly emotional moments for both players alone in the dressing room, and we are shown it.
Also, getting snatches of the 1:1 meetings between Mourinho and Kane, Dele, Dier is revealing and fascinating, even though the scenes have been edited to create a certain narrative.
Kane wants to be a global superstar and Mourinho wants to help him. Dele is a lazy trainer and inconsistent, and Mourinho tells him careers are short. Mourinho deliberately speaks with Dier in Portuguese, and Dier responds fluently and articulately.
However, just as important is what is omitted, what we don't see.
So, we don't see the 1:1 between Eriksen and Mourinho.
What we are shown is Levy speaking with Mourinho and saying, I paraphrase, "Eriksen is controlled by his agent and none of us know what he really thinks". Levy then encourages Mourinho to have one last attempt at persuading him to stay. Amusingly, in the edit, they could not find any footage of an enthusiastic Jose agreeing to do so.
So, in short, there is some compelling and revealing access which lets us see our Spurs players and coaches at their most vulnerable. And in real situations, such as half time in matches we watched live.
There are also events , such as the Eriksen contract situation, where we are not shown what happens and instead are given a narrative constructed around some exchanges between Levy and Mourinho.
I look forward, with some trepidation, to the rest of the series.

 

[FightingIllini]

There are also events , such as the Eriksen contract situation, where we are not shown what happens and instead are given a narrative constructed around some exchanges between Levy and Mourinho.

I think there's more coming in that regard.

 

[HampshireSpur]

OK - I've finally managed to watch the first three episodes in their entirety.
For full disclosure, I'm a documentary maker, having directed over 20 hours of network broadcast films for all the BBC channels, Channel 4, NatGeo, Discovery etc before leaving the industry in disgust at corporate working practices.
I have a top level observation.
There is no such thing as a "fly on the wall" documentary. Everything broadcast on network TV is edited. Editing creates meaning, narratives, And when I say "creates", editing can quite literally change what happened by 180 degrees. It's one of the reasons I left network TV, because I have red lines I'm not prepared to cross.
The only real "fly on the wall" is some geezer turning on the camera on his mobile phone and recording three minutes of actual uninterrupted footage before hitting Stop. And we all know if another person is filming with their mobile from a different angle, perhaps starting a minute earlier, and you compare those two unedited pieces of footage, then they may tell two very different stories.
So, "All or Nothing" is artifice. A constructed narrative. It is not "pure reality", whatever that means.
Reaction shots and cutaways may be edited in from different settings and time periods to create the mood or emotion that the director, and whoever (Levy?) had ultimate editorial control, desired.
But, having said this, the series has an incredible level of access to certain events. You do feel inside the dressing room, and key meetings, and that is compelling, especially for us Spurs fans.
The footage with Dier after he's subbed on 29 minutes, and with Sonny after the chavski red card. is astonishing access. These are incredibly emotional moments for both players alone in the dressing room, and we are shown it.
Also, getting snatches of the 1:1 meetings between Mourinho and Kane, Dele, Dier is revealing and fascinating, even though the scenes have been edited to create a certain narrative.
Kane wants to be a global superstar and Mourinho wants to help him. Dele is a lazy trainer and inconsistent, and Mourinho tells him careers are short. Mourinho deliberately speaks with Dier in Portuguese, and Dier responds fluently and articulately.
However, just as important is what is omitted, what we don't see.
So, we don't see the 1:1 between Eriksen and Mourinho.
What we are shown is Levy speaking with Mourinho and saying, I paraphrase, "Eriksen is controlled by his agent and none of us know what he really thinks". Levy then encourages Mourinho to have one last attempt at persuading him to stay. Amusingly, in the edit, they could not find any footage of an enthusiastic Jose agreeing to do so.
So, in short, there is some compelling and revealing access which lets us see our Spurs players and coaches at their most vulnerable. And in real situations, such as half time in matches we watched live.
There are also events , such as the Eriksen contract situation, where we are not shown what happens and instead are given a narrative constructed around some exchanges between Levy and Mourinho.
I look forward, with some trepidation, to the rest of the series.

Interesting post. What sector do you work in now, out of interest?

 

[Airfixx]

I think there's more coming in that regard.

Definitely.... Sure one of the trailers showed a 3 way face-off between DL, JM & CE.

Elias - Nice post! (My ex was a doc maker & editor - There's a familiar tale within your words)......As for not seeing the formative stages of that impasse; much of it would have taken place before the Amazon cameras even arrived.... We'd been waving contracts under his nose since before WC '18.

 

[Elias]

Interesting post. What sector do you work in now, out of interest?

I don't want to clutter up this thread. I'll PM you.

 

[Elias]

Definitely.... Sure one of the trailers showed a 3 way face-off between DL, JM & CE.

Elias - Nice post! (My ex was a doc maker & editor - There's a familiar tale within your words)......As for not seeing the formative stages of that impasse; much of it would have taken place before the Amazon cameras even arrived.... We'd been waving contracts under his nose since before WC '18.

I haven't seen that trailer, but I'm sure you're right and look forward to seeing whatever we're shown of it.
But so far, All or Nothing has been largely chronological.
We've seen edited versions of the first 1:1s between Mourinho and Kane/Dele/Dier.
We haven't been shown that first 1:1 between Mourinho and Eriksen. And I distinctly remember Jose saying at the time that he had spoken with Eriksen and that conversation would remain private and confidential.
So, either that first 1:1 was filmed and we're not being shown it.
Or alternately one party, perhaps Eriksen and his agent, refused to allow it to be filmed.
Because we have been shown footage where it's clear Mourinho has already spoken with Eriksen about his contract situation.

 

[sammyspurs]

The fire was on full display for the first few years. It obviously made him into an incredible and dynamic player, but we also had the petulant bullshit that came along with it too. That has been completely missing for a while now.

The stories were that they were working with Dele to curb the reckless fouls and outbursts on the pitch, but maybe it killed too much of the fire that was in him before. Hopefully Jose can find it again, at least in terms of performance, but Dele does look awful immature.

Going to be a weird one from me but Im going to cut him a little slack as I thought Dele looked more nervous than nonchalant.

I am the same and was always berated in school for “laughing” in situations like that and I didn’t even realise I had a grin on my face.

I think he’s immature off the pitch, but I’m 20 years older than him, so its really just a young guy being young.
Where his problems are, as Jose pointed out, is that he’s going to waste his career because he needs to choose.
Footballer or Party Boy.
That’s where he lacks the level head to do the right thing.

 

[AussieYiddo]

One thing that hasn't been touched on that I liked, when Lampard comes on the screen and Eriksen is just trying to make an innocent conversation with Jose and Christian says 'good guy?' before Jose responds, 'Yeah, professional as a player, best I have ever seen'. The way he said it I thought was definitely an intentional thing to try and tell Christian he is unprofessional, there seemed to be a mutual understanding of what he was doing when he said it too (at least how that's how I saw it).

 

[Nuts]

Reaction shots and cutaways may be edited in from different settings and time periods to create the mood or emotion that the director, and whoever (Levy?) had ultimate editorial control, desired.

I don't think it's in Levy's hands. Why would he have sanctioned that heavily edited dinner conversation where Jose looks like he just wants to eat his dinner in peace while baldy's blathering on like a needy cling-on? It's clear that Jose's talking as well but we don't hear that side so it makes Levy look a bit sad.

 

[JIMINHO]

Just watched the first episode. I want to spread them out so I’m not binge watching. Have to say I was pretty impressed with most of it. It was hard to watch the first half. Lot of bad memories and seeing Poch behind the scenes was gut wrenching.

I see a lot of people critiquing the programme, calling it a PR stunt and only showing Levy/Mourinho in a good light with very little Poch time..... what did anyone expect? Try and enjoy the show for what it is which is basically behind the scenes access. Tom Hardy narrating though? Lol, how did that come about.

My only two observations from episode 1 is that Kane needs to be made club captain. Nothing against Lloris as he’s the most successful player at the club but Kane is Spurs through and through and he is the loudest and most ambitious player at this club. The other players need to follow his lead. Never understood why goalkeepers get made captains although Neuer has done pretty well.

The second is that are team is full of softies. Mourinho has it right. Hopefully Doherty and PEH will add some metal where we need it but no team wins anything without some attitude in the changing room.

Should make for an interesting season

 

[Chucklevision82]

One thing that hasn't been touched on that I liked, when Lampard comes on the screen and Eriksen is just trying to make an innocent conversation with Jose and Christian says 'good guy?' before Jose responds, 'Yeah, professional as a player, best I have ever seen'. The way he said it I thought was definitely an intentional thing to try and tell Christian he is unprofessional, there seemed to be a mutual understanding of what he was doing when he said it too (at least how that's how I saw it).

I thought the exact same thing - felt like a deliberate dig at Eriksen.

 

[Brian Fantana]

It will be interesting to see what kind of viewing figures the documentary gets worldwide and whether it attracts a new legion of fans/people Levy can flog stuff to.
Mourinho is box office, he knows how the media works; e.g. the scene in which he turns off the tele and tells the presenter to f-off, was planned in advance.
I think the producers are going for a redemption narrative with Jose like Rocky Bilbao emerging triumphant when everyone had written him off.
I know a few Americans who support Spurs because they consider them a rough diamond.
Are they filming a second season out of interest?

Hopefully not, we’ve got enough tourist fly by night AFTV type fans.

 

[Dr Rocktopus]

One thing that hasn't been touched on that I liked, when Lampard comes on the screen and Eriksen is just trying to make an innocent conversation with Jose and Christian says 'good guy?' before Jose responds, 'Yeah, professional as a player, best I have ever seen'. The way he said it I thought was definitely an intentional thing to try and tell Christian he is unprofessional, there seemed to be a mutual understanding of what he was doing when he said it too (at least how that's how I saw it).

Personally I didn't interpret it that way. If it was a barbed comment at all I think it was aimed at the squad in general, but it seemed like a genuine response.

I didn't get the impression from the episodes so far that Eriksen was being unprofessional. He was still training, joining in the dressing room banter, and greeting Levy and Mourinho when he saw them.

He wasn't refusing to play either. He wasn't playing that well, but it sounds like that's continued at Inter so I think there's something else going on; maybe a lack of confidence or he's physically shot.

 

[ArcspacE]

Seems like the most ‘damaging’ meme so far has been the Kane ‘we qualify tonight’ pre-match talk

Rest has been really fascinating viewing - with Jose switching the TV off being cult of course

 

[Team Tanguy]

Hopefully not, we’ve got enough tourist fly by night AFTV type fans.

That is literally Levy's biggest aim as with every other club tbf.

 

[Elias]

I don't think it's in Levy's hands. Why would he have sanctioned that heavily edited dinner conversation where Jose looks like he just wants to eat his dinner in peace while baldy's blathering on like a needy cling-on? It's clear that Jose's talking as well but we don't hear that side so it makes Levy look a bit sad.

In practice, it depends what the editorial control contract clause actually states.
Two quick examples.

Many years ago, I made a 50-minute BBC2 documentary about M&S. Contractually, we granted them a Fine Cut viewing in the edit suite the night before I was about to go into post-production and lock the film down. M&S came in and didn't like some elements, particularly the way a couple of individual stories were told, but their editorial rights were essentially limited to correcting anything clearly factually wrong or legally risky for their business. They had no right to say "we don't want you using that clip of our CEO because he looks like a plonker".
Essentially, if the camera is rolling, and the participants know the camera is rolling, and someone says something caught by that camera that they later regret, an editorial control clause would not usually cover that. Otherwise, the broadcaster may as well let the company edit the footage and deliver a pure PR commercial. In the M&S case, I think we ended up subtly rewriting one line of commentary to avoid an (unintended) implication they thought was legally contentious.

A second example was with a Time Team Special. I'd filmed in Buckingham Palace with Tony "Baldrick" Robinson. Suddenly Prince Charles' Chief Press Officer waltzed into my cutting room along with the Time Team Executive Producer. They wanted to watch a Piece To Camera we'd filmed in a specific location in Buck Palace. My editor had to play the footage frame by frame in two key segments. I now know what they were looking for. It was a security concern.
If the Palace had told Time Team to cut a certain sequence from the film for security reasons, I have no doubt they would have done so.

But as a general rule, broadcasters are loathe to cede meaningful editorial control to the party they're filming. Amazon may be less strict about this than the traditional broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Ch4 etc), and they may have given Levy & the club more power.

Given the financial value of image rights and agents' desire to market their players for profit, I'm actually amazed we were allowed such intimate portraits of key moments such as Sonny's red card against chavski. I note in that section we see Sonny's real time reaction in the changing room, and this is intercut with an interview clearly conducted later where he accepts he made a mistake and let down his teammates.

I would not be surprised to learn that the club and Sonny's agent were shown that original footage, and they then asked for an interview with Sonny to be filmed where he could reflect on what happened with intelligence and considerable humility.

I don't have a problem with that.

 

[Fattynomates]

Are they filming a second season out of interest?

Yes, Spoiler Alert, Spurs sign Gareth Bale and end up winning the PL and the EL!

 

[Kristeva]

There is no such thing as a "fly on the wall" documentary. Everything broadcast on network TV is edited. Editing creates meaning, narratives, And when I say "creates", editing can quite literally change what happened by 180 degrees. It's one of the reasons I left network TV, because I have red lines I'm not prepared to cross.

But haven't we known this for years, not trolling or anything, its just we were talking about this kind of stuff in Art college back in the 80's. 'Death of the Author' and all that jazz.

I'll admit though I find young people rather gullible regarding the meanings of what they consume, despite being raised on a diet of social media.

 

[Elias]

But haven't we known this for years, not trolling or anything, its just we were talking about this kind of stuff in Art college back in the 80's. 'Death of the Author' and all that jazz.

I'll admit though I find young people rather gullible regarding the meanings of what they consume, despite being raised on a diet of social media.

Absolutely.
But, not dissing the original poster, look at the title of this thread:
Amazon fly-on-the-wall documentary about Spurs

I have noticed posters talking quite extensively about certain reaction shots of players and analysing their meaning.
So , with Serge Aurier, we see Mourinho telling him, in front of all the players, that - I paraphrase - he's afraid Serge will give away a shit VAR penalty when he's marking in our box. (About 20 minutes into Ep2.)
There are a couple of reaction shots of Serge looking taken aback and shocked at what Mourinho has just said.
There's also a reaction shot of a group of players. Kane and Verts look surprised at Mourinho's bluntness. Dele smiles like a kid.
Now, I hope all those reaction shots genuinely happened at that time.
But given it looks like a single camera shoot much of the time, I'm pretty confident a couple of those close-ups of Serge are not his direct reaction to Mourinho's words, which are delivered either in a wide shot or laid under a close-up of Serge. They're probably filmed a little later in the team talk, when the director & DoP realise the Mourinho-Serge exchange is the highlight and they'll need more cutaways to edit the sequence.
All of this is standard documentary making practice. It would be incompetent of the Amazon team not to get those extra shots.
But we are also trusting the filmmakers that they accurately depict the reactions of all concerned.
In this case, I suspect they probably do.

 

[Dr Rocktopus]

Absolutely.
But, not dissing the original poster, look at the title of this thread:
Amazon fly-on-the-wall documentary about Spurs

I have noticed posters talking quite extensively about certain reaction shots of players and analysing their meaning.
So , with Serge Aurier, we see Mourinho telling him, in front of all the players, that - I paraphrase - he's afraid Serge will give away a shit VAR penalty when he's marking in our box. (About 20 minutes into Ep2.)
There are a couple of reaction shots of Serge looking taken aback and shocked at what Mourinho has just said.
There's also a reaction shot of a group of players. Kane and Verts look surprised at Mourinho's bluntness. Dele smiles like a kid.
Now, I hope all those reaction shots genuinely happened at that time.
But given it looks like a single camera shoot much of the time, I'm pretty confident a couple of those close-ups of Serge are not his direct reaction to Mourinho's words, which are delivered either in a wide shot or laid under a close-up of Serge. They're probably filmed a little later in the team talk, when the director & DoP realise the Mourinho-Serge exchange is the highlight and they'll need more cutaways to edit the sequence.
All of this is standard documentary making practice. It would be incompetent of the Amazon team not to get those extra shots.
But we are also trusting the filmmakers that they accurately depict the reactions of all concerned.
In this case, I suspect they probably do.

It's the same with Big Brother and similar shows. Semi-fiction painted with real footage. It's a constructed narrative for entertainment rather than accuracy.