The idea
Sport Crime was born from us, silently and secretly in order to protect the blossom. We realized there where fictions and dramas about almost everything but sport, meaning its stories, its atmospheres, its scenery, its values and rules. There’s a lot of us in it, our experiences as players, coaches, reporters and commentators plus our skills as writer and our passion as fiction addicted. Sport is often used as a metaphor of life and actually it contains life in all aspects. At different stages and levels, it matters to everyone. Interest and identification from a large, various and diverse audience are guaranteed. We developed the idea melting the traditional key aspects of drama and the fresh and original world of sport.
The format
Sport Crime is meant to be an appealing, abrasive procedural with 6-10 x 45’ episodes per season. Sport Crime is a genre on its own, but contains other genres. Sport-related cases can be legal, medical, spy, police, psycho-thriller, mentalist, financial, according to the episode. Sport Crime is full of action, danger, psychology, rock and humor. It tells the stories of “Seams Agency”, based in Lugano and ready to intervene when an alleged crime or infraction endangers a team, a sport venue or an athlete. The mission of the agents is to protect the sport and its values at any cost. Each episode is based in a different sport and ambience, with lots of insight in sports, places and history that often become a sort of funny, short and deep documentary. The whole series is designed for multiple interests, from the “muscular” and spectacular to the brainy and cultured one.
The production
Producing Sport Crime means being a team also behind the cameras. Besides the usual production work, facing the peculiarity of shooting real sport actions involving not just actors but also actual professional athletes or teams means getting prepared on that sport and its features, be ready to adapt to all unexpected, respect the physical and mental needs of athletes or players, respect the order of the day but always being ready to take advantage of the surprising, positive and enriching gifts that sport can give (for example: a former champion dropping by unexpectedly just to say hello). This can be demanding, of course, but also very exciting and solidly bonding. Sport people are generally very welcoming and used to schedules and media exposure. They gave us availability (and also locations for free), advise and engagement. They’ve been patient and collaborative, and thanked at the end of the day. For Luca as an actor performing Dabs is physically quite demanding. All physical actions (sporty or not) are real, no stand-ins or tricks. Producing “The Legacy Run” meant 3 weeks of intensive shooting so, after that, you need some rest, just as in sport, where recovery is pivotal to guarantee the next performance’s high level.
The budget
Involving real sportsmen, sport venues and beautiful but mostly unknown places and locations gives Sport Crime the opportunity to cut down the budget. Teams, sports and places have the chance of a worldwide spot, therefore we fork out no money, there are so many options to choose from. To the viewer it is a fairly high-budget product, but since me and Luca naturally cover several key positions (main characters, writers, executive producers, and Luca also does all the music) the gain line is closer and the high budget quality maintained. Let’s say the Sport Crime machine is very powerful and rational, like a professional club with a strong feeder team that doesn’t need to buy too many players, so it can save the money for the relevant things, guarantee a good income and still compete for the Championship.
What do you like about the show?
The show has a nice tempo with two attractive leading characters and uses sports indeed in a different way. Also camerawork and music looks adequate in this stadium. But obviously the series is more driven by the desire to amuse and entertain then to be a journalistic revealing. Although Sport Crime seems to focus on a relevant theme, the execution doesn’t reveal many actual motives so the show misses real urgency.
You instantly are longing for a good story about what happened recently with Maria Sharapova.
How do you find the storyline?
Very plot driven. Nothing wrong there, but mainstream in this stage and a little old fashioned; especially the way they build the characters of the Seams-team. You have seen such line ups often before. Why not use more fantasy? Like they did with the team around Mr Robot, for instance.
Must say there are some nice details introduced in Sport Crime: like a pic of a boxing Pope and the now and then humorful rivalry between our male and female leads Dabs and Dani.
Do you think such a series would work on your market?
Don’t see this series land at public broadcasters, maybe at one of the commercial channels.
In your opinion, what would be the potential of such an idea for international roll-out?
You always hope for a series of international caliber and excellence that is confrontational and thought provoking. Sport Crime isn’t that at this stage, could be a challenge to bring it on that level… Although the arena changes from Croatia to London, Perpignan to Verona I still believe that a good sport (crime) story on a local level can also be quite universal. For now, this show could work on a commercial channel. Maybe even on sport channels as extra program or counterprogramming.
What do you like about the show?
I like the theme. There are few series that aim for the sports arena. Series like Friday Night Lights I really like. I have problems with the genre. What is it? It’s a mix of documentary, satire, comedy, but also horror. And therefore it makes me confused rather than engaged in the characters.
How do you find the storyline?
The storyline is well crafted.
Do you think such a series would work on your market?
It’s hard to say. Due to the mixture of genres it´s difficult to decide who is the main audience for the series. ▪
