The Match: Bringing soccer to life on screen

When it comes to soccer action, the scenes are 100% real. There are no doubles, no drop-ins of other people's feet handling the ball. Barry explains, "The essence of capturing sport to me is to shoot it real. It's much better to do that than cut from an actor's head to someone else's legs. It never really works."

From the very beginning 'Mean Machine' intended to re-write the rules.

3 simple rules to bringing soccer to life on screen

Rule 1: no ball skills no contract

"The actors we cast are people who are absolutely passionate about soccer."
- Barry Skolnick

The actors had to be able to play football. This was not going to be another movie where you see the actor running with the ball, and then the camera cuts to a close up of a real player's feet kicking the ball. "Casting was very important in that respect, " explains Skolnick. "Every actor that came in was given an intensive trial by our football consultant."

With Vinnie Jones on board to play the lead the challenge was to find actors who could convincingly play soccer.

Enter Wally Downes, manager and coach of Brentford Football club and ex-team mate/crazy gang member with Vinnie at Wimbledon FC. Wally was brought in early on in pre-production and given the illustrious title of Football Co-ordinator. His first task was to vet all auditioning actors on their ball skills. If they didn't cut it with Wally they didn't get through. "I had to make sure that the actors could kick a ball," Wally explains. "I graded those who came to audition from A, B, C down to E."

Barry adds, "that shocked a lot of agents because they would say ' he's fantastic, he used to play for Brighton you know' when they'd never played in their life before." Casting was therefore split into two sections - acting ability and soccer ability. "It was important to me that we didn't actually see them as actors before I saw whether they could play football," says Barry "I'd have hated to get an emotional attachment to someone on a performance basis only to find out they couldn't do it on the pitch."

The test was a daunting process, as Wally explains, "I devised a 30 minute training course where I could assess their soccer ability. First off I'd watch them run - if they're going to be playing soccer its important they run like soccer players. I'd then strike balls with them and have them juggle the ball on their own. Finally I'd put their ball control to the test - passing and playing under match like situations.".

"We did spend a lot of time on casting. It was actually more tiring than making the film as far as I am concerned. I found it absolutely exhausting, but it was worth it." Says Barry.
"You weren't the one out there 7 hours a day running around with the actors", exclaims Wally, "I was shattered by the end of it!"

For the actors, winning the part on the basis of their soccer skills was the greatest compliment they could be paid. As Omid Djalily confirms, "I was thrilled to be given the part of Raj just because it was verification that I was a good footballer - it was better than being told you're a good actor."

Some of Vinnie and Wally's old friends from their Wimbledon days were also recruited to take part in the film. Perry Digweed, Brian Gayle and Peter Downes were cast team members in the prison wardens team. "We were genuinely nervous of the soccer players when we first started," confesses Ralph Brown. "Here we were, actors playing soccer against the pros. It was quite intimidating."

However, once shooting commenced it didn't take long for them to integrate, the actors advising the footballers on how to perform to the camera in return for ball tips. "Our strengths lie on the stage, there's out there on the pitch," says Ralph. "It wasn't too long before we were swapping advice."

"They were incredibly supportive of each other," explains Barry when asked how the actors and footballers integrated on set. "Actors and footballers are from two very different worlds. Soccer is tough - it's physically and mentally demanding. It's certainly more bullish than the acting world and I think this probably came as a bit of a shock to some of the actors. But by the end of it they met in the middle."

Rule 2: All players must be soccer fit

"It's a boyhood fantasy come true. I'm being paid to train to be a footballer." - Omid Djalili (Raj)

Injuries on the field could cost the production a days shooting. It was therefore essential that all of the cast were soccer fit. In the final 8 weeks running up to the first shoot day the actors had to undergo a gruelling training schedule to bring their fitness levels up to peak. Long before the roll of the first camera Wally was putting them through their paces at a secret location in London. "The first objective was to get them through shooting injury free," explains Wally. "But at the same time they had to look authentic. They're not supposed to be top-of-the-league professionals, after all they are prisoners and prison guards, but they had to be fit."

Training started at 9am and ran through until 4.30pm every day. "We'd start with a 30 minute warm up with stretching and exercises before moving on to basic ball work - mostly passing - to familiarise themselves with the ball. Before breaking for lunch we'd work on physical levels with some non-competitive exercises. Throughout the afternoon we'd concentrate on soccer skills- heading, shooting, passing. I'd have them running and passing the ball, getting them used to the contact side of the game. It's one thing to be able to kick a ball but the real challenge is handling the ball when you've been running up and down the pitch."

Vas chips in, "There were a lot of great actors but when it came to the football they couldn't cut the mustard. But Barry, Matthew and Wally really put the guys through their paces. It's not enough just to be an actor on this movie."

Wally's training program extended to dictating their diet, "I devised a diet program for the actors consisting of non-fatty, high energy carbohydrate foods - red meats, chicken, pastas. I didn't tell them to cut out drinking but if they came in for training hungover it would be their funeral."

No one was given special treatment. "From day one I made I made it clear I was going to be training them like footballers and I have to say they were brilliant. I couldn't have asked anymore from them. They're certainly were no West End Wendies."

Rule 3: keep the camera on the ball

Following weeks of training, the prospect of finally playing soccer was tantalising. In the days leading up to shooting the soccer scenes, the tension was palpable as each player sussed each other out. "The psychology's started already," explained Omid, one week away from shooting the soccer scenes. "We've done the training so we know the level and already there's lots of macho bravado going on where we're showing each other our skills just to psych each other out." As Robbie Gee who plays Trojan confidently confirms, "Three weeks of football, solid. It'll separate the men from the boys."

Whilst the boys were getting ready to perform their newly refined soccer skills before the camera, the crew set to work on how to capture the essence of soccer on screen. Alex Barber (Director of Photography) explains, "At the very first meeting I ever had with Barry it was my brief was that we had to make the best football movie ever. To achieve this we decided to shoot on as many cameras as we could afford. That meant when we put it together, you could have the same shot running on three different cameras and cut between them. From there, the aim was to make it look as real as possible, which dictated where we positioned the cameras and what lenses to use - it was essential that we gave ourselves an opportunity to cut out to wide shot and then back in all in the same piece of action"

Barry adds, "About the only thing you can plan is the camera positions and where your organisation is off pitch. Using the four cameras we were able to cover wide and tight from different angles, so you had what's known as 'direct action' cuts - cutting from one camera to another without upsetting the flow. Basically we employed the same techniques as they do for shooting real soccer matches for television."

Once the cameras were in position it was down to Wally to ensure the action played out to brief. A typical day on the pitch would involve Wally behaving like a sergeant major, barking orders from the touch-line, remonstrating with the actors if they missed a ball and generally goading them until the desired shot was achieved. "Wally and I were like football managers," laughs Barry. "We'd be standing on the touch line watching the play, berating the actors and getting them to work harder for us."

"Wally was fantastic," he continues. "He's more a Soccer First Assistant Director than Co-ordinator. I would explain to him roughly what I wanted and he'd then drill the players [actors] until he had them working to the exact brief I'd given him."

Wally pitches in "I'd set up all the choreographed bits in the film, which is similar to what I do at Brentford Football Club - but here we have to be more concise because of camera angles and different set-ups that the director wants to have for different shots."

Once the players are out on pitch, however, the major challenge was controlling their play. "You can choreograph to an extent, but you have to be fairly brave and let the game flow within parameters to actually capture the material you want," explains Barry. "When it comes to shooting soccer you have to be a lot looser in your planning. Soccer is a very organic sport - you're relying on 22 individuals out there on the pitch and you're trying to capture the nature of the game with as much realism as possible."

Controlling 22 soccer-fit men on a pitch is no easy task, and there were times when the shoot did not go to plan. "Once the boys get out on the pitch they're playing football," says Wally. "The hardest task is making them stick to the brief. Some of the best scenes we shot were unplanned."

One the most difficult scenes to shoot ironically should have been the easiest. In this particular instant it involved one of the guards scoring a goal. "It was the scene where one of the guards gets to score a goal. I won't mention his name," Barry smiles ruefully. "That would be too cruel. We set the scene up, and all he had to do was kick the ball into the goal. Thing is he just lost it. We did take after take and he just couldn't get the ball in. His nerve went completely. After take 28 Geoff [Bell] came to the rescue and scored the goal."

One man whose nerves did not suffer him in his hour of need was Ralph Brown when the script required he tackle Vinnie. Ralph explains, "I went to tackle Vinnie. I ran at him full force and brought him crashing down. In premiership football it would have been a foul worthy of a red card. I thought, go I've done it now, what's he going to do? But Vinnie got up, dusted himself down, turned to me and said 'cream mate.' It was an inspiring moment."