Production team reveals creative lengths they sought to capture full story for A Beautiful Obsession
The latest title in Amazon’s burgeoning sports docs line-up makes use of the private voice notes of key contributors to advance drama and storytelling techniques for access docs, the creative team has revealed.
Workerbee and City Studios-produced A Beautiful Obsession is the four-part docuseries from Touching the Void director Kevin Macdonald, capturing the final two seasons of Pep Guardiola’s reign as Manchester City manager.
Although not a follow-up to All or Nothing: Manchester City, the series offers a similarly intimate look inside the club at the players and specifically the manager, who delivered a decade of dominance.
In multiple episodes, the documentary makers employ recordings of voice note conversations between City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak and chief executive Ferran Soriano, including candid discussions over the future of legendary player Kevin De Bruyne at the club, as well as dealings for transfer targets such as Rayan Cherki.
At a screening ahead of the documentary landing on Prime Video UK tomorrow (19 August) Macdonald and producer Gavin Johnson from City Studios talked about how they were able to get every contributor comfortable for the series.
“The voice notes, I think that was [director of photography] John [De Caux] who convinced me to see what Ferran and Khaldoon said about it,” Macdonald said. “And I was thinking ‘that’s never going to happen’. And lo-and-behold, after a number of weeks, they said: ‘Let’s do it.’”
Macdonald acknowledged this added a framework to the series from a narrative perspective, because it transcended the issues of setting up cameras and mics to capture intimate footage for the documentary and moved the dial in terms of access for these types of docs.
“In episode two, you are living that moment,” he said. “You’re hearing [material from] in the biggest stories, genuine behind-the-scenes stuff… you can’t be in every single room and conversation, but we’ve got this amazing access [through voice notes] to help with the story and feeling of access.”
And he said, while football departments could be uncomfortable with some aspects of access, they were open about others: “The stuff they hate us showing is the tactics - most other things, the raw environments, they’re cool with it and trust us.”
Trust at the highest level to ensure all content is on the table
De Caux, who runs the content team at Manchester City, said the decision to allow production access to personal voice notes and mobile phones was down to “trust over a number of years, through Pep, the players, and the club in general”.
“I certainly didn’t steal their phones,” he joked. “Being able to build those personal relationships, meant they were able to buy into the story. Kevin [Mcdonald] was also able to convince them, and when it came to a stylistic choice, it was something they were happy to look into.
“I was just amazed to know that these [high-powered execs] talk to each other with voice notes, like we all do. You get a lot of emotion. It adds to the authenticity.”
Johnson and Macdonald admitted the creative team pushed their access to the limits, noting a scene in episode three where they “had to deal with a lot of emotions” from the contributors, and “had to do a lot of coaxing to convince them”.
Macdonald added: “There’s a moment where there’s a lot of anger at Pep, and I’m amazed they let us use it to be honest.”
Commissioner Harjeet Chhokar, senior unscripted creative executive at Amazon MGM Studios, whose Prime Video sports films and series include Sven, Four Kings, All or Nothing: Arsenal, and Doubters to Believer’s Liverpool FC: Klopp’s Era, said he hadn’t encountered a previous sports doc which used voice notes as part of the material, but said he would encourage documentary teams to use them “if it’s on the table”.
Chhokar added that delivering “relatability” would continue to help the sports doc evolve.
“The world of sport is rich with stories and people that you want to know more about, but ultimately it has to strike a chord with you,” he said. “This isn’t just a doc about a great manager’s last two seasons, it’s about vulnerability, emotion and understanding who you are.
“There’s so much still to explore in sport, inherent in there is drama, human interest and stories.”
The series is directed by Macdonald alongside City Studios’ John De Caux and produced by Macdonald for Plan B/KM Films and Banijay UK-owned Workerbee, and Gavin Johnson and Ged Doherty for City Studios.
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