Manchester United: 3 players, 3 sets & 20 minutes each...

We had the chance to shoot with ManU. And it was a huge challenge. When I was asked if we were up for the task... if we‘d be able to pull it through... the answer was obvious:

YES!

But we did not have the slightest clue what’s going to hit us.

Honestly, who would let such an opportunity pass?

After planing for more than 2 month, the big day was about to come. The goal was to shoot with 3 players between 12-16 takes each. Sounds easy.

But believe me... it was not.

Why? 2 reasons: 

We had only 20 minutes per player. No more... not a single second. I thought they were joking. But... no. Each player had a timekeeper with him, who was tracking our time. Not his.  

It was rather stressful to hear:” Sir, you have 3 minutes and 20 seconds left...” in a typical British and polite accent.

Meaning: you better hurry the f...up!

We did not know if the players will show up one after the other, all together or in random order and time. So we had to plan for every situation and every possible combination. The result: 3 sets (2 green-screens + 1 locker-room). 3 directors, 3 camera crews (professionals from the UK with lots of movies under their belt)... you get the point. The crew was much more experienced than I was. So when I had to make the directors speech I had only one request: please make the takes sharp. Believe it or not... they were chuckling. All of them. So far so good. At lest the mood was… well good ;).

We had a plan. All was sorted out. Until the night before the shoot, when one of our team had the brilliant idea to make an excel sheet and see if every possible situation will work out.

Guess what: It did not.

But 3 hours later we managed to tackle the problem. That’s what a great team does. Team?! Lucky-us we had 2 peeps going over all the possible situations... again. 

But the sucker punch was about to come. The first player walks in and right at that moment the clock starts ticking. We did not know until then that hair, makeup and styling was included in the 20 minutes. Boy did we sweat! Rush like crazy. Being faster as planed for every shot was the key.  At the end it worked out. We managed to get all the shots in the can. But when I checked the footage on my laptop the next day... 80% of the shots were unsharp. No more chuckling.

An other lesson learned. Even if they have much more experience than you do, look over their shoulder and double check. If so much is depending on so little time, errors occur. It will happen. 

In the end it all worked out. But it was a hell of a ride. The most important lesson I learned: Plan as much as you can to avoid all possible pitfalls. Have a plan A, B, C and D ready. But stay sharp to improvise if you have to. Murphy's law will hit you. Guaranteed.

And if one of the players comes in with the wrong shoes on his feet... don’t yell at him. Even if he burns 5 minutes off your precious time.

But that’s an other story ;).