Director's film-school project turned into critically lauded 'More Than a Game'
Cary Darling
Issue date: 11/3/09 Section: Entertainment
"I became an unofficial member in a way, just me and my camera," he said. "They called me 'Cameraman.'"
From the beginning Belman said what he wanted to capture was not so much their winning style of play - though there's plenty of it in "More Than a Game" - but the dynamics of their friendship.
"You could walk in a room, and after 10 minutes, you could see these guys have been together their whole lives," he said.
That's when Belman decided that what he wanted to do couldn't be captured in a 10-minute project.
"I thought I was going only to film them for a day or two," he said with a laugh. "But then it became a balancing act [with school]. I had a lot of excuses. I had a lot of illnesses."
Although he turned in his short film - "I got a B-plus on it" - he continued to work on something longer. It was a process that would continue after he graduated in 2004.
"I spent the next year editing it, and I spent two years trying to find financing," he said. "To get the film to [what I wanted], I wanted visual effects and original music. My credit cards would only go so far."
By this time, it was getting tough to reach James - a star player for the Cleveland Cavaliers - for follow-up interviews and many of Belman's friends were urging him to cut his losses and drop "More Than a Game."
"That was a pretty rough two years," he said. "I was turning down pretty large sums of money to sell the [James] footage, and my friends were telling me I was wasting my time and move on."
He finally found a producer and then distribution fell into place through Lionsgate after the first public screening at the Toronto film festival last year, where "More Than a Game" came in second to "Slumdog Millionaire."
Looking back, Belman said, the long gestation process worked.
"To sit down with LeBron James for seven hours, in front of a camera, and talk about growing up without a father, I don't think a lot of people could get that," he said. "Even if they did, it would be what I call 'Podium LeBron,' the one you see after a game. I had to make sure he was 'Living Room LeBron,' a little rough around the edges. It took six years to get that."
Belman isn't done with basketball yet. Someday, he'd like to dramatize the story of famed '80s-era Loyola Marymount basketball players Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble and coach Paul Westhead, whose aggressive, "run-and-gun" style briefly turned the small college into a b-ball powerhouse. (Gathers collapsed and died of heart failure on the court in 1990.)
But before that, he wants to do something unrelated to sports.
"I'm really afraid of being pigeonholed," he explains. "I've got a lot of screenplays that I'm reading. I'd love to do drama, or even comedy. I prefer stories that are character-based. If the characters have heart and there's a positive message to it, then the genre doesn't matter.
"I come mostly from a comedic background. Lots of my short films were all comedy-based," he said. "Now I'm going to have a hard time convincing people I can do comedies."
From the beginning Belman said what he wanted to capture was not so much their winning style of play - though there's plenty of it in "More Than a Game" - but the dynamics of their friendship.
"You could walk in a room, and after 10 minutes, you could see these guys have been together their whole lives," he said.
That's when Belman decided that what he wanted to do couldn't be captured in a 10-minute project.
"I thought I was going only to film them for a day or two," he said with a laugh. "But then it became a balancing act [with school]. I had a lot of excuses. I had a lot of illnesses."
Although he turned in his short film - "I got a B-plus on it" - he continued to work on something longer. It was a process that would continue after he graduated in 2004.
"I spent the next year editing it, and I spent two years trying to find financing," he said. "To get the film to [what I wanted], I wanted visual effects and original music. My credit cards would only go so far."
By this time, it was getting tough to reach James - a star player for the Cleveland Cavaliers - for follow-up interviews and many of Belman's friends were urging him to cut his losses and drop "More Than a Game."
"That was a pretty rough two years," he said. "I was turning down pretty large sums of money to sell the [James] footage, and my friends were telling me I was wasting my time and move on."
He finally found a producer and then distribution fell into place through Lionsgate after the first public screening at the Toronto film festival last year, where "More Than a Game" came in second to "Slumdog Millionaire."
Looking back, Belman said, the long gestation process worked.
"To sit down with LeBron James for seven hours, in front of a camera, and talk about growing up without a father, I don't think a lot of people could get that," he said. "Even if they did, it would be what I call 'Podium LeBron,' the one you see after a game. I had to make sure he was 'Living Room LeBron,' a little rough around the edges. It took six years to get that."
Belman isn't done with basketball yet. Someday, he'd like to dramatize the story of famed '80s-era Loyola Marymount basketball players Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble and coach Paul Westhead, whose aggressive, "run-and-gun" style briefly turned the small college into a b-ball powerhouse. (Gathers collapsed and died of heart failure on the court in 1990.)
But before that, he wants to do something unrelated to sports.
"I'm really afraid of being pigeonholed," he explains. "I've got a lot of screenplays that I'm reading. I'd love to do drama, or even comedy. I prefer stories that are character-based. If the characters have heart and there's a positive message to it, then the genre doesn't matter.
"I come mostly from a comedic background. Lots of my short films were all comedy-based," he said. "Now I'm going to have a hard time convincing people I can do comedies."
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