More Than A Game hit me a on a personal level. No, I didn’t spew hate all over it because it involves a 
Cleveland team nor did I walk out of the theater cursing Kristopher Belman for being a Clowns fan or supporting LeBron James. No, his film impacted me in the sense that I have been there and seen what basketball players go through thanks to the adventures of my father’s days as a basketball coach (he still coaches, so the adventure is far from over.)
It likely won’t have the same impact on other movie-goers, but the themes of brotherhood, family, and pursing your dreams should touch anyone. Belman’s crafted a film that uses basketball as a means to show all of these themes, and doesn’t require knowledge of the game to enjoy it. He also wisely chooses not to keep the focus all on LeBron James but rather Coach Dru Joyce and his journey with these young men. Too soon? Maybe, but the story and themes are there and Belman has knocked it out of the park.
Recently, I had the pleasure of having a conversation with Mr. Belman as we discussed how well made his film was, how much his film hit me, and of course, I couldn’t resist giving him grief for being a Cleveland Clowns fan. I even dressed in my Steelers attire for this particular interview, and as always, had my Terrible Towel with me.
But enough of this, onto the meat…
What as a filmmaker and not a fan of Cleveland sports attracted you to this story?
Originally, the thing that I was really drawn to was the friendships. It started out as a ten-minute class project for a class I was taking in college and I’d read about what these guys were doing on the court. I had read an article that four of the guys had played together since they were in fourth grade and they made a pact that they would go to the same high school together. And that’s pretty cool that these guys are thirteen years old and making a heavy decision together, especially because the school they chose wasn’t an obvious choice for them. Four African-American kids from the inner city going to a school that’s predominately white. It’s a private, Catholic school like ‘Wow that’s real interesting.’ Through further research I found out that the reason they went there was because it was their best chance of staying together. I thought that was a really mature decision for kids 12-13 years old to make. It’s really unbelievable. I was really drawn to that and thought the friendship aspect was unique. As a storyteller, I thought the most interesting thing was the friendship.
The other thing I liked about it too was that you didn’t focus just on LeBron James, which is what I thought when I saw the trailer. I understand you gotta market it like that.
That’s actually one of my fears now. LeBron’s a double-edged sword now. He’s definitely going to bring people in, but my fear is that we won’t bring in the non-sports fans. I really feel that there are people who don’t like basketball that could really relate to the themes in the film y’know? I’ve screened the film in Singapore and London where basketball isn’t appreciated. I remember a lady in Singapore saying ‘I didn’t understand what was going on on the court at all. But I loved the film. I cried when these themes of brotherhood came up.’ To me that’s speaks volumes of the themes. Y’know, you just related to what your dad went through and you could see that. Because there’s six characters in the film, I feel like there’s a character everyone can relate to. I hope everyone is excited by the idea of LeBron but I hope it doesn’t limit us. I really want non-sports fans to see this too.
The thing for me was that it wasn’t about LeBron, but Coach Dru’s journey with these characters and how he was the assistant for a while and then he became the head coach. I just wondered if that was your intent to have it with Coach Dru as the main character and the five players are his supporting cast.
I’m glad you say that, I’m glad you picked up on that. Coach Dru really was the main character in the film, and that wasn’t the original intent. That’s something that evolved as I got further along in the process and got to know the boys. Originally I wanted to focus on the five players as one of the main themes. But as I spent more and more time with the team and the coach, I realized how important those boys where important to him and how important he was to them. It was kind of incredible really because he didn’t start chasing his dream ‘til he was in his mid forties. The film really is about dreams, and y’know his boys and their dream for the championship. The fact he was able to achieve his through them is really incredible. He didn’t come up as a basketball player, he had to learn through books and what not. That was pretty amazing, the things he was willing to go through to achieve those dreams. It evolved over time and it wasn’t the original intent.
Well the same thing with my dad. In his basement he had shelves, just bookshelves upon bookshelves about coaching basketball and videos.
Really? Just learning it all? That’s great. I think whatever you’re doing, it’s the person who says “I know-it-all” or they’re done learning, I think that’s when you fail. Coaches have to keep doing that. As a filmmaker, hopefully I’ll never stop learning. Otherwise I’ll have to retire and lose the passion or whatever. But that’s cool, that’s very true.
I’m a filmmaker too so I know what you mean.
Oh great, see? Yeah, you’re always learning. I think there are some filmmakers out there that think they’re done learning and that’s when they get full of it.
Every project, you gotta learn something. At least that’s how it is in my experience.
Yeah, exactly. I hope so, I hope we all do.
So did Coach Dru ever yell at you?
(laughs) I’m trying to think. (pause) I don’t think so. You know what? There was a policy where if you swore on the court you had to do push-ups and I think I might’ve sworn once. I don’t think he made me do them, but he jokingly threatened push-ups. And I realized I had to clean-up my act at that point. Coach Dru’s just not the yelling type. He’s very inspirational. As you see, one of my favorite scenes is half-time at the National Championship game. You expect an inspirational, giant rah-rah speech. But he went in there, it was almost like a sermon in a way. It was very reflective and I think that’s the reason they won the game. He broke it down to the off the court things that where important and I think that’s what resonated with those boys. So, he’s no the yelling type but he definitely gets his messages across.
So did he grant you a lot of access to the team?
I did once they gave me the green light. Originally, I joined the team and they weren’t necessarily keen on the idea of having me around because it’s a high school team and they want to keep things low profile. Y’know, camers around the school they weren’t sure it was a good thing and they didn’t know what to do. And so I told them ‘Hey, this isn’t about LeBron (who was becoming an emerging star) and I’m just trying to get an A on my project. I’m from Akron and I’m doing a homework assignment.’ They thought that was cool and so Coach Dru gave me access to one practice. So I came and I was immediately blown away by these characters. Obviously the things they were doing on the court were phenomenal but I was blown away by these characters and I had to come back. I went home and I listened to the footage and heard him tell the guys practice was at 7 A.M.. Ok, I’m going to show up at seven and see what happens. So I just roll in like I don’t belong there and no one says anything to me. Practice comes and goes and I filmed several hours and I’m like ‘Ok, I’m going to come back tomorrow too.’ So I showed up again and it was just a weird thing where they never gave me the green light but they never gave me the yellow light either so I saw it as yellow and I tend to run the yellow light when I’m driving so I just went with it. After months and months in they accepted me as one of the guys on the team but couldn’t play basketball for anything and I was cool with that. So the access at that point it was kind of self-imposed and they said ‘Alright we trust you, and we’re going to let you be a part of this.’ I think it’s because they knew I didn’t know what I was doing. I had the camera, I wasn’t sure, I was always messing with focus, I didn’t know what I was doing originally. So it was my first semester with the camera and they sensed that about me so honestly, sometimes we’d be in the edit room and ‘Ah, hold on that shot longer’ or ‘My gosh that shot’s out of focus you don’t know what you’re doing. I get really angry, but I realized those same things that were detriments where the reason I was allowed to be a part of it. They didn’t see me as a threat. They probably never thought they’d even see the footage let alone see it cut together like this. So it really allowed them to be who they are and natural.
So how long was it between their high school career and when you started interviewing them again?
I did interviews all throughout my journey with them. And at the end of the day, the interviews I was able to get toward the end where just so much more emotional and I think because so much time had passed. The interviews you’re getting out of them are not just factual, but they’re emotional. It’s not talking about growing up without a father, it’s taking about what it was like growing up without a father. It was my last year with them, they were in high school and graduated in 2003, I went back and interviewed them all in the fall of 2007. So about four years. It was interesting because at that point they had a life perspective and they have a maturity. It goes back to that speech I referenced where Coach Dru says ‘what you guys have now you won’t understand until later in life.’ He was right in a sense, and they were able to expand on those ideas and reflect on them. Four years had passed, and I think it was meant to be that kind of time.
Let’s get back to how this was marketed as “The LeBron James Show”. Did you have to fight with anybody and say ‘we can’t have it like this?’
The marketing aspect of it? Not really, y’know I had mixed feelings about it. Overall I’m happy to be working with Lionsgate because they really do great jobs with specialty films. They know how to take a film like a Tyler Perry film or a Saw movie and really hit the audience and really pull that in. So I was excited working with them. It’s almost how I direct when I finally worked with the crew. Once I partner up with someone, I’m going to trust them. When I have a DP shooting for me, I’m going to trust them. He knows what he’s doing. I have input, we’re doing to back and forth, but at the end of the day he’s there because I don’t know how to light. He’s there because I don’t know how to do this. I’m going to put that trust in him and I take a long time making that decision to bring that person on, but once I do, this is what they do. That’s how I felt with Lionsgate. I’m not gonna go in there and fight about how they market the film, I trust them and I think they’re doing a great job and that’s how I am with my editor and DP.
What about when you were trying to get it made?
Yes and no, it was a fight to finally get financing so there it was tough to get someone to believe in the vision I had. I spent two years literally taking the same meeting. And the meeting was always the same result, ‘Hey, we’d love to cut you a big check about your LeBron footage’ or ‘we’d love to pay you to direct the LeBron portion of the movie but we’re not interested in those stories, they’re not marketable.’ The Coach Dru character, at this point I knew he was the main character but people saw that as the biggest mistake ever and said ‘you can’t market him.’ I literally had two years of that meeting and that was tough because I’m out of college at this point, student loans are kicking in, I’m working at a coffee shop and I don’t think about taking that check. But at the same time, you start getting a little bit depressed because you think ‘This is the industry I’m trying to get into and these people are telling me the story’s not good enough?’ Like, that hurts. When you come out of college you’re very impressionable, so it hurts a little bit. That was the fight, but when I finally paired up with someone, I met a man named Harvey Mason, Jr. who wasn’t in film. He was a music producer and he also coached his son in basketball and he really related to the stories. And I didn’t have to fight with him because he said ‘you know what, film’s not my world. I wanna support what you’re doing, I think you’re doing it the right way already and I wanna give you the means to do it right.’ And he was really hands-off in a way, and at that point it was fine. And LeBron and all those guys, they always respected the fact that it was the same story. LeBron never wanted it to be more about him. He loved the fact that the same thing I set out seven years ago was the same thing that’s on the screen now. I think they respect that a lot.
This was originally a school project. Did you actually shoot ten minutes and turn it in as a project?
Yeah, I turned it in as a project. I got a B+.
