ANTHONY MANDLER MONDAY TH JUNE AT - PDF document

After 22 years playing for the world’s greatest football teams David Beckham has retired. For the rst time in his adult life he has the freedom to do whatever he wants – and to mark the occasion he’s going on an adventure.He’s chosen Brazil, on motorbikes, and is travelling with three of his closest friends. Anthony Mandler, world-renowned photographer and video director; Derek White, an experienced motorbike rider who’ll get them out of a mechanical x; and Dave Gardner, his best friend since they were 14 years old.First stop is Rio. It only takes minutes for David to be spotted by fans and paparazzi. With the motorbikes giving them a speedy getaway and the crash helmet creating the anonymity David craves, they escape to a favela Passing a foot-volleyball game down on Sao Conrado beach, David can’t resist the temptation and plays with the locals until the sun goes down. They can’t believe their luck.The next day they y to Manaus, tropical gateway to the Amazon, and make their way deep into the Amazon where David is unknown.They enjoy the freedom of the bikes on the open road but are out of their comfort zone when night falls and they have to bed down in hammocks, in pretty basic conditions.Leaky canoes take them deep along Amazon tributaries where six feet (1.8 metre) long anacondas lurk in the water. While Anthony and Derek take a leap of faith and jump in, David and Dave keep their kit on and watch from the sidelines.The further they travel into the rainforest, the more David relaxes and reects on his surroundings. He hasn’t done anything like this before, but embraces what the jungle has to offer. He goes shing with the locals and camps out under the jungle canopy, becoming a dab hand at making a re and lleting sh.After almost 800 miles (1290 km) of boat and bike travel the group reach a tiny airstrip that will take them deep into the jungle to a remote territory where few Westerners have been, to meet the Yanomami tribe.For David and his friends this trip is a reality they have never known before. David Beckham Into The Unknown will air on Monday 9th June at 8.30pm One of the top commercial and music video directors of today, Anthony Mandler is known for pushing the entertainment. His cinematic approach to music videos consistently takes the standard notion of the Top 40 to the unexpected, creating the imagery that often propels them from ‘famous’ to ‘iconic’. Mandler’s vivid, emotion-driven storytelling can be seen in his ode to the American female archetype with Lana del Rey’s “National Anthem” and again in the follow-up collaboration for her haunting epic short lm “Ride”. Mandler has also helmed over 15 of Rhianna’s music videos and his other projects comprise a veritable register of chart dominators and VMA winners including Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Beyoncé, Drake, Justin Bieber and Eminem, to name a few. His third video for Jay Z, “Holy Grail”, featuring Justin Timberlake, received worldwide media attention for its dark subject matter and visually arresting imagery.Although known originally as a prolic music video director, Mandler’s lmic prowess continues to gather speed in the advertising world, having directed spots for high prole brands including Cadillac, Lexus, Max Factor, Duracell, Nike and Samsung.David Beckham Into The Unknown,Mandler’s notable collaboration with the sporting icon takes in many of the athlete’s endorsement partnerships such as Breitling watches, Motorola, EA Sports, Adidas, Yahoo and David Beckham Homme fragrance.Further to to his live action work, Mandler is a celebrated photographer. His celebrity portraits of icons such as Ryan Phillippe, Heath Ledger, Katie Holmes and Eva Mendes have graced top publications such as GQ, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire and Rolling Stone.Michele Kurland is a BAFTA-winning factual entertainment producer and Creative Director of Remarkable Television, part of Endemol UK, where she is responsible for creating and producing new formats as well as focusing on the continued development of existing shows. Prior to joining Endemol in February 2014, Michele was in charge of commissioning factual entertainment formats across Sky’s portfolio of channels, including Naomi Campbell’s model competition show The FaceAshley Banjo’s Big Town DanceBefore moving to Sky, Michele was Head of Factual Entertainment and Executive Producer for Talkback Thames where she executive produced BBC One’s The Apprentice, winning the BAFTA for Best Factual Entertainment Series in 2012.Michele also spent 16 years working at the BBC, during which time she worked on series including Trouble At The Top and the BAFTA-winning series The Carpet as well as creating and executive producing Living The Dream.Reecting on her experience of making David Beckham Into The Unknown,says: “As a programme maker, to be asked to go to the Amazon and make a 90 minute documentary with David Beckham, that was fantastic. To then discover he’s a really good guy....well, it doesn’t get much better than that!” ANTHONY MANDLER DEREK WHITE © FREDDIE CLAIRE AN INTERVIEW WITH DAVID BECKHAMCan you tell us about the lm and how it came about?The lm is something I’ve never been able to do before now. When Anthony and I rst started talking about it we wanted to go to a place where I had actually been before but in a different direction and this was how we came up with going to the Amazon. I’m a big motorbike rider and so are two of my three friends that came with me on this trip, so it was the kind of journey that had no schedule. My whole life, my whole career has been about having a particular schedule that I’ve always kept to, so we just wanted to be able to jump on the bikes and do what we wanted wherever we wanted. It was important to also nd somewhere where I was unrecognisable, and we found that. It was a really special journey. We met some incredible people along the way, saw some amazing things, all in a country that is the home of football.How much did you know about the plan before you set off?Anthony was totally clued up about the whole plan, he just didn‘t brief us very well, especially Derek who came with a suitcase of ‘going out’ shirts! He wasn’t expecting to camp, he wasn’t expecting to go into the jungle so it was a whole surprise for him. Dave and I were better prepared but Anthony still didn’t tell us much which is actually what I wanted. Obviously he briefed us slightly, but things like staying in hammocks every night, sleeping in the jungle, things we were going to see, people we were going to meet, that was a total surprise.What were the main challenges of the trip?The main challenges of the trip? How long have you got?! The rst challenge for me was getting comfortable in a hammock. I’ve been in a hammock before with the kids or with Victoria, but sleeping in a hammock that was going to be your bed for 12 days, that was a whole different thing. I can’t lie, my rst night’s sleep in the hammock was terrible, I had about 30 minutes sleep. About two days later someone decided to explain how best to sleep in a hammock and after that it was great. Not showering or washing – I’m a clean person so that was pretty tough for me. And then riding the bikes. I’m used to riding bikes, but not in that terrain or in that kind of weather, so that was difcult. Being away from the family was hard too. I wanted to take this trip with my friends and do something that I’d never done before, but being away from the kids and Victoria was a challenge for sure.Was the experience everything you’d hoped for?It ended up being everything that I’d hoped for and more. It’s an experience that I’d denitely do again because it involved being away with friends, on motorbikes and being in a place like Brazil. I love Brazil in general, but to I’d do it again. Now that you’ve seen the lm, what are you most proud of?That we came out of the jungle alive! And that I got to see more of my friends than I’d ever seen in the whole time I’ve known them. Seeing Dave really, really struggle that was a pleasurable part of the trip! These are friends that I wanted to have on this journey with me and I know they loved it and I know they’d do it again. It was everything we’d all hoped for.Were there any particularly scary or funny moments that took place that are maybe not in the lm?There’s hours and hours of scary, funny moments that denitely could not be broadcast on the BBC! Some of the language was slightly colourful – not from myself of course, I don’t swear too much – but from the other guys it was. The moment we stepped off our bikes and set foot in the jungle stands out. We were literally three metres into the jungle when we came across a tarantula and that was like “OK, we’re in it now”. And there’s a moment when we start walking into the jungle and you can see the atmosphere change within me, Derek, Dave and Anthony. You can see our faces change, our eyes change. All of a sudden we’re hearing monkeys and our guides are telling us about the jaguars and that started worrying us a little bit. It was starting to get dark as well so we literally had to set up camp, put hammocks up, get a re going. That was when we all realised we were in it for real.Can you tell us about the tribe you visited on your Amazonian adventure?Obviously one of the exciting parts of the trip was meeting the Yanomami tribe. They had never let cameras into their village before so it was kind of nerve-wracking when we rst arrived there. That for us was the exciting part, going into that kind of atmosphere, knowing that we were in a place where the people didn’t know anything about football and they didn’t know anything about me. One of the tribesman turned round to me and said: “What do you do? What do you hunt? What’s your jungle like where you live?” It was a real eye opener and when he asked me:“So, what is football?” I tried to explain it in the best possible way. I didn’t explain it very well, to be honest, as the only time that I’ve ever had to explain football before is probably to my wife. But visiting and being allowed into the tribe was a huge honour. AN INTERVIEW WITH “David and I share a love of motorcycles and for my bachelor party last year I took ten of my closest friends on a road trip to Napa Valley. During the trip David told me he’d never done anything like this – a trip without his family, just with a few friends.It’s something that most of us take for granted, but when you’re as famous as David it is virtually impossible and it can cause you to retreat into a limited space that you know is safe. Try and imagine a moment in your life – maybe when you graduated or had to give a big speech – when all eyes are on you and how that felt. Then imagine living like that every day.To go somewhere really remote for more than just a few days where nobody knows you is something that David has been unable to experience for over 20 years. He is one of my closest friends and it was great to be able to curate an experience like this for him.It was important to me that we created an authentic journey. I didn’t want the audience to feel as though they were watching something that was fabricated or that it was just the four of us making the trip. There were ten of us on the shoot which included members of David’s security team. I wanted to expose the process and for the audience to see a producer or maybe a safety guy. My thought was if there’s going to be ten people, I might as well show them.I didn’t tell David much about the trip before we left as part of the lm was the unveiling of the journey. We talked about the bigger concepts such as the search for anonymity.We visited some pretty remote places where the relationship between the tribespeople and outsiders has been very strained for many years and fame, money, any sort of power have no meaning or inuence. We’re not being judged as lmmakers or footballers – we are simply men who are either trusted or not trusted. That was the point that I wanted to get to, to take David to a place where he’s judged purely as a man.The thing that makes me proudest about this programme is that I’ve helped David have a journey that he’ll never forget; where he experienced so many things that he’d never experienced before and that I was able to be there to witness it. That makes me proud as a friend and as a lmmaker.” DAVE GARDNER © FREDDIE CLAIRE AN INTERVIEW WITH “When you consider the life of a professional footballer it’s easy to forget that there are numerous things they can’t do in their free time – they can’t ski, they can’t ride motorbikes because of the risk of injury. They have to be protected.So, for 22 years David Beckham has never done any of these things and when he retired the question arose: what if David Beckham were to go off and do something completely different and experience not being so protected. David is an iconic gure and I think that we are all fascinated by fame and how people can be presented to the public. The level of David’s fame is like nothing I’ve ever seen before, but I actually realised that there wasn’t a great deal about him out there. He does lots of interviews and does a lot of work for charity, but you rarely get a sense of what he’s really like.I hadn’t met David prior to making the programme and I think I was a little worried that we’d get a David Beckham with a very polished veneer, but he’s completely grounded and lacking in pretension. He’s a very attentive, thoughtful person, both on and off camera.The hardest part of making this documentary was trying to plan the trip. The Amazon isn’t a place that you’d normally choose to go on motorbikes, but it did have that attraction of being remote. The problem with going into the unknown is that you can plan as much as you like, but it may count for nothing once you get there. We did have times where things didn’t go to plan, but there was a very strong feeling that everybody had to pull together to make it work and that what we wanted was for David to experience this freedom that he’d never had before.The weather was also a challenge. The rain was so hard that it almost hurt you when it hit you. It did bring a sense of drama to the lming, however. As we got to the Amazon the rain hit us and it was like unveiling a curtain and going into another world.Anthony and I had a great team with producer Wendie Ottewill, cameraman Neil Harvey and the local guides who were amazing, in particular Conrado who you will see in the lm. I think they were quite fascinated at us coming into the Amazon where they live. What we perceive as remote and lacking in so many of the everyday things we use, they see as an environment that provides them with everything you’d ever need. One of the things I hope we’ve achieved is to make a lm that perhaps redenes what a celebrity documentary is about. It has to look beautiful but as the credits roll I want people to feel that they’ve seen the real David Beckham.” PRESS CONTACT Charlotte ScarboroughCommunications Ofcer, Brands, Content, Digital – BBC WorldwideTel: +44 (0) 20 8433 2009Email: charlotte.scarborough@bbc.com © ANTHONY MANDLER#BeckhamUnknown DIRECTOR ANTHONY MANDLER EXECUTIVE PRODUCER MICHELE KURLAND LTD RUNNING TIME: 1 X 90’ A DBRAZIL TV LTD PRODUCTION FOR THE BBC © ANTHONY MANDLER MONDAY 9TH JUNE AT 8.30PM ON DAVID BECKHAM IS REPRESENTED BY XIX ENTERTAINMENT