The Sweet Science of Producing Boxing Shows

Jon says it was mostly a run-and-gun series of shoots for him—especially at the gym—with him working the 7D on monopod. At one point, they went out with the British-Pakistani boxer for halal burgers and filmed him at the restaurant; they went to a radio station to shoot an interview for a wake-up show; they followed him around a grocery store with a GoPro helmet cam strapped to Jon's head; they followed him running and training and doing "everyday life stuff." They also interviewed Khan's younger brother Harry, who Jon says is also a boxer training for the Olympics. They did controlled, sit-down interviews with Khan, his uncle, his father, and others in his crew, such as his conditioning coach. "And we also captured things naturally as they happened." They got slider shots in the corner of the ring, closeups of Khan "making mean faces to the camera," and shot him shadow boxing.

After each day of shooting, they would offload their footage and back it up 3 times, then "hand it off to the guy who said he was just there to pay for everything, who would then hand it off to the editor."

Drawing on Documentary Filmmaking Experience

For the interviews, they drew on their experience doing work for their commercial video company Third Frame Media. Although neither had any prior experience shooting boxing or other sports, they had produced independent music videos as well as documentary work, including a show they shot in Kivalina Island, Alaska , 80-100 miles north of the Arctic Circle, capturing the plight of Kivalina residents who are losing their homes as climate change causes their island to erode away, and suing for relocation funding.

Kivalina from Cristina Valdivieso + Jon Connor on Vimeo.

For other aspects of the Amir Khan project, Cristina and Jon's background in event work proved essential. "Our approach with doing wedding and events is a documentary/cinematic style. That lent itself well to what was going on here," Jon says. "On a wedding or live event, you have one chance to get a shot. Here, you had to be quick on your feet to get in there and get all your shots. I kept thinking, ‘This is going to an editor. What are the shots the editor's going to need?' I had to get in and get the tight shots, then get out quickly and get the wider shots."

According to Jon, someone with experience shooting events is, if anything, better equipped to take on a project like this, with its hybrid nature, than someone who's never shot a live event. "If you take someone who's used to doing commercial shoots, and throw them into live events, they might suck. But if you take someone who knows how to tell the story in a one-take, and put them in a place where they have a little more control, they're going to be a lot more successful," he says. "It's good training."