Visualising sport : A theory and practice of dramatic construction and cinematic form.

Between 1982 and 1991, I made twenty-five film/video productions involving sporting themes. These include both dramas and documentaries; popular action films for peak-time broadcasting and minutely researched specialised works. I am the only film director to have been official programme maker for the Union of European Football Associations, the International Federation of Football Associations and the International Olympic Committee. These organisations control the three largest television sporting-events. In order of popularity, they are: The World Cup, The Olympics and The European Football Championships. I was commissioned by them to produce distinctive works with an individual voice. These ranged from historical analyses to personal views on matters of record. These productions have enabled me to evolve and articulate a clear conception of sporting visualisation. The programmes have been broadcast, released theatrically and sold on video. They achieved world-wide distribution and most have been dubbed into eight languages. They exist as research tools in sporting archives and have been extensively used as source material for broadcasters. The films are analytical within the specialist traditions of sports journalism, they are not "live broadcasts" and all contain original material.The programmes of record have either been produced by a "dedicated film unit" able to acquire unique material (copyrighted images) or in collaboration with the host broadcasters offering additional camera positions and support from all "unmixed camera feeds". The archival productions have involved major picture research world-wide that has unearthed material thought to have been lost or not previously known to exist. Exhaustive research into newly discovered material has proved official records wrong and has proved that accepted filmed material has been incomplete or partially falsified. All the productions have been extensively authenticated. This body of work is an example of research through practice into dramatic construction and cinematic form within a particular genre.