How ‘Winning Time”s Rollerblade-Wearing Cameraman Helped Capture More Than L.A. Lakers Gameplay On the Court
14.12.2023 - 21:43
/ variety.com
Todd Gilchrist editor Season one of “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” ended on an appropriately triumphant note with the Los Angeles Lakers’ victory over the Boston Celtics in the 1980 NBA Championships. Not only was Jerry Buss (John C.
Reilly) vindicated after his tumultuous first year as franchise owner, but budding superstar Earvin “Magic” Johnson (Quincy Isaiah) and his seasoned counterpart Kareen Abdul-Jabbar (Solomon Hughes) put aside their differences to unite their teammates both on and off the court. For the acclaimed HBO series, repeating that success — dramatically, much less historically — would prove a more difficult challenge, and not just because in real life the Lakers wouldn’t win a second title for two years, and three more for a third.
After helming two episodes in Season One (including that nail-biting finale), Salli Richardson-Whitfield graduated to executive producer for Season Two. Looking forward not only at the complicated trajectory of the team but also the limitations of continuing to recreate famous plays from an historically well-documented ball club, she was armed with different goals for the show as she returned to the director’s chair three more times.
“If you just want to see basketball, especially some of these iconic scenes, you could just go to YouTube,” Richardson-Whitfield tells Variety. “How do we really get into these men’s heads, and what are they thinking and feeling on that basketball court?” She and her fellow directors from Season One worked from the style established by director Adam McKay on the pilot, which used multiple film formats (35mm, 16mm, 8mm and various vintage video cameras) to achieve a period verisimilitude.
The website popstar.one is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can
send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.