Sports Media Watch

The film’s director/producer, Jonathan Hock, is no outsider to ESPN – he is the creator and producer of Streetball on ESPN2. But Fire, shot entirely in HD, was filmed independently by the Emmy winner’s personal production company – ironically, as a “day in the life” short piece for HBO’s “On the Record with Bob Costas,” which directly competes with Bristol’s Outside the Lines. After Hock spent another year with Telfair … and the new finished product won Best Documentary at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival … ESPN acquired the theatrical, video, and television rights to the movie last November. (Oh, but don’t worry, all you ESPN Mobile users – Bristol acquired the cellular media rights to the movie too. Phew!)

Was it a solid investment by ESPN? From a film perspective, I’d say yes. The movie opens with a look at Telfair’s family situation – a protective shell which goes far beyond blood lines or Brooklyn. His oldest brother Daniel has coached him from the age of six, playing the triple role of mentor, “father” hen, and yes man. Another brother Jamel, a professional baller in Greece, channels the bitterness of his own hoops dreams into a cautious, careful approach to Bassy’s success. Residents on the street attest that the community must embrace players like Telfair who can “complete the deal”, given how many young men fall short and fall into the same poverty that makes every day painful. While Bassy soaks it all in, and appreciates the sacrifices of others, he looks (and acts) like a kid who is greatly in need of the protection.

So maybe that’s why the film next shifts to Telfair’s press conference declaring his intent to play for Rick Pitino at Louisville. I’d like to believe that the plot was ruined just because I knew how the story played out, or because I can remember hearing draft rumblings about Telfair well before his seemingly honesty collegiate commitment. But it doesn’t take long for it to become clear that there is absolutely no chance Telfair is going to college once it’s clear he has some NBA potential straight from high school.

You see, ESPN doesn’t show high school games of basketball players heading to college, and they certainly didn’t do special features about that campus-bound player before the game. Shoe reps don’t make special visits to the student’s high school to shower love on him and his teammates (they save their pimp action for their own sponsored camps, according to the movie.) College coaches don’t equivocate about their prize recruit’s intent on coming to campus in the fall. Sports Illustrated doesn’t give a high school senior a cover shot. These things don’t happen to players who will spend the next year as BMOC. They just don’t. (Though 14,000 people will show up for a high school basketball game at MSG – it’s the best basketball they can hope to see at the Garden all year. What, you thought I wouldn’t work in a Knicks joke?)

But just because a result is certain doesn’t mean it is right, and Hock subtly shows us that Telfair may not be ready for the pros. This isn’t necessarily a slam on the kid. Telfair clearly loves winning, gutting out two regular season games on a sprained ankle, and risking more serious injury, just to get his Lincoln High teammates’ backs. With that kind of love for the game, maybe a few more years of playing (essentially) for fun wouldn’t hurt him. Plus, after a somewhat awkward outpouring of affection by the Louisville faithful before and after Lincoln’s exhibition in town, Telfair seems to genuinely enjoy soaking up the college atmosphere.

Unfortunately, there are some serious concerns about Telfair going pro, which seem to be apparent to everyone but Bassy himself. He’s short, but more importantly, he is a spotty shooter and can be rattled by crowds. He seems to struggle with the work ethic necessary to step his game to the next level … a weakness Jamel tries to sweat out of him with long workouts in Greece. And he’s naïve of the amount of money he’s about to come into, but more importantly, seems to be somewhat scared by the business side of being a professional athlete. That’s not a tonic for success.

But that’s not the way the story is meant to work out, so if you have a heart at all, you watch his almost inevitable slide with a bit of sadness. You wince as he trash talks every other player at the McDonald’s All-American game, and manages to look selfish in attempting to set an assist record to prove a point to scouts. You feel bad for him as he awkwardly shuffles through his simultaneous draft declaration and shoe deal announcement. You’re not particularly surprised when he disappears on Draft Day. You kind of understand. Bassy just wants to be away from the pressure, the risk of failure, and the spotlight of the community of supporters. And so maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that Telfair has so far struggled with the Trail Blazers, as Jason Quick writes for Bristol the day of the movie’s first broadcast.

OK, so it’s a solid movie. I definitely recommend it, and I’m not alone – ESPN’s own writers got behind the movie for the first time. (OK, well, not the first for Shanoff; he pimps everything.) Simmons gives a rare recommendation for another Bristol product, and manages to get in a dig on other EOE productions. Scoop Jackson, unsurprisingly, loved the flick to see it in theaters before the TV debut. And the Page 2 crew isn’t alone – the fine compilers at Rotten Tomatoes report that a strong majority of Internet reviews have been very positive.

Unfortunately, you’ll have a tough time actually SEEING the movie on TV. ESPN is barely showing the movie at all (click on “Upcoming Viewings”); only five of their total replays occur before 1am, and two of those are in the middle of the afternoon on weekdays. Of course, maybe you saw it on Sunday night during it’s original airing … assuming you didn’t need to work on the freshly released NCAA Tournament brackets, or watch the first new West Wing in two months and the first new Sopranos episode in two years. And even though the movie was shot entirely in HD, ESPN only has four non-late night airings of the movie currently scheduled for its high definition networks.

So maybe ESPN is counting on revenues from its theatrical and DVD releases of the movie. The DVD is immediately available online, but big screen revenues for the documentary aren’t encouraging. After a month in theaters, the movie has grossed only $25,000. While EOE’s distributor only released the film to eight screens, that’s an abysmally low figure. For comparison, Murderball, the documentary about wheelchair rugby, grossed twice as much (on the same number of screens) in its opening weekend. And Murderball was considered a box office disappointment, even for a documentary.

And it’s not as if ESPN didn’t pay a pretty penny for the rights to Through the Fire. Hock has shown affection for expensive filming – his last movie was an IMAX feature on Michael Jordan. In this film, he uses at least three HD cameras in the filming of the movie (the game shots are too good for one camera to be moving around), and those cameras cost thousands of dollars now. In 2003/4, when the movie was filmed, they were considerably more expensive. The film makers followed Telfair for a year, in and around New York (increasing production costs) – and even followed him on a series of trips, from Oklahoma City to Greece.

Maybe there are figures we don’t know about – Wal-Mart sponsored the initial airing, and there are always more advertising revenues from subsequent showings. Maybe DVD sales will outpace theatrical revenues. There’s also a chance that ESPN isn’t looking to necessarily make money on this deal, but rather keep a specific audience – NBA fans bored during college basketball’s prime season – they might otherwise lose. But on the surface, this doesn’t look like a good business deal for ESPN or EOE. If that’s the case, we should enjoy the moment while we can; once ESPN goes back to making this stuff themselves ... well, you know what hapepns.

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