Tyson Fury defeated Arslanbek Makhmudov in his comeback fight last weekend in a stacked card exclusive to Netflix, which also featured Conor Benn’s clash with Regis Prograis in a high stakes co-main event.
Coming live on Netflix from Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday 11 April, Whisper was the production partner for event organiser Sela on behalf of rights holder Netflix. SVG Europe caught up with Jamie McIntosh, director of production at Whisper, to find out more about this epic Fight Night.
Boxing clever
Whisper had been “in conversation” with Sela about working together when Netflix stepped in to broadcast the Fight Night. McIntosh says of the relationship between event organiser Sela and rights holder Netflix that, “it was a total collaboration between everybody”.
He goes on: “Netflix have a boxing brand from previous events they’ve done, so it was about working with them to stay within their boxing brand that they’ve built up over time, but also feeding in ideas from our side, working with Netflix and Sela. It was a full collaboration, and that was from everything from the actual setup on site, to the VTs, to the walk-ons. It was always a discussion amongst all parties.”
On the strong American style of the show, from the fireworks to the commentators, McIntosh states: “That is obviously the style of the programming [Netflix has] done previously. There was definitely an element of us trying to make parts of [the production] more British,” he notes on the fight being held in Britain.
“This was [Netflix’] first UK live event, so they want to start to build that identity here as well. Previously everything has been done in the US so obviously there was always going to be an element of that transferring over, whether that was with the talent or how elements came across on screen.”
On what Whisper brought to the production, McIntosh says: “It was a case of working with Netflix and with Sela to first of all offer the event at the scale they wanted. It was obviously a big event; it had the feeling of a large stadium show in an arena, and also [we wanted to transfer] that onto screen. I think that was a key objective for us and I think that certainly came across in Tyson Fury’s walk-on with the fireworks, with the LED designs, and the way it was captured.
“Secondly, I think it was using some of Whisper’s storytelling where we could on some of the VTs. It was just trying to get elements of that across, whilst also working with Netflix and Sela on how they wanted some of the stories to come across; there was elements of working with them on how certain styles they’ve built up at Netflix in particular [should be] crafted and created.”
Inside one of the Gravity Media OB trucks at tottenham Hotspur Stadium for Fury v Makhmudov and Benn v Regis Prograis in a stacked card exclusive to Netflix
Up in flames
Sela leaned on its previous experience of organising shows at Tottenham to make sure this Fight Night had all the pizzazz it deserved, starting with the walk-ons.
Says McIntosh on the fighters’ walk-ons: “[Sela] worked alongside Arena Video [event production services company] who did the AVL and subcontracted the special effects [including pyrotechnics]. Then it was a case of them working with our director as well, and time coding those walkouts.”
Sela worked alongside Whisper’s inhouse graphics department, Chapter Three, to design the visuals for the night. Chapter Three provided the broadcast graphics, the walk-on graphics, as well as graphics for the screens all around Tottenham and all the real estate around the grounds. Whisper also worked with Girraphic that did the augmented reality (AR) graphics on the night as well.
The walk-ons included synchronised music and pyrotechnics, all of which had to be perfectly timed and understood by both the fighters themselves and the broadcast production team to ensure the fans in the stadium and the fans at home were able to experience the full effect. A lot of time weas dedicated to rehearsals to make that happen.
By the end of the rehearsals, McIntosh says: “We were in a place where we knew that a pyro was going to go off at the exact time that [a certain] beat of a song went off, and same with lights, the same with flames.
“There was a moment where in the Evanescent song for Tyson [Evanescence’s ‘Bring Me To Life’] where at the exact [same time], the pyro goes off with the camera change, as the flames then go to the beat of the song. All of that is time coded and all that is synced up between the truck and front of house and rehearsed to get that moment.”
He adds that, “there was a massive cheer from the truck as [we got] a great shot of Tyson from behind as he had his arms in the air and he’s going [towards the ring], and you can just see in one side of the shot, the flames are going to the beat of the music, whilst all the fireworks are going off on the roof [of the stadium]. I think there was that moment of, “he’s actually done what we needed him to do at exactly the right time!”. There’s a lot of variables in that, and obviously we can’t control the fighters.”
Jamie McIntosh, director of production at Whisper [right] hard at work on the Fight Night for Netflix
Doubling up
The main production for the Fight Night was on site, using two trucks from technical services provider, Gravity Media. Normally only one OB truck would be used, but the complexities of the walk-ons plus the gravitas of the two fights meant Whisper decided two would be the best option.
Says McIntosh: “We had one truck doing the prelims and then the second truck doing the main Netflix show. There was a lot of rehearsals that needed to go on and a lot of complications around walk-ons and the complexity of all of that. Sometimes with combat sports in general, you look to just use the one truck, and get into the event as you go on, but due to the length of [the Fight Night] and the amount of fights, we felt that given the nature and the size of the event, splitting it into two trucks was the best way to go.”
McIntosh comments on Gravity’s contribution: “We worked with Gravity for the event, but also they helped us in Fight Week as well, where we had a flypack at The Pelligon for the press conference and weigh in, just due to size of the venue.”
Offsite on the night, Gravity Media also provided remote facilities at its production operation in London at Westworks for Whisper’s alternative languages for Netflix, overlaying the international audio tracks in real time with eight languages, including English.
There were 25 cameras on site to capture the excitement and every blow, from a mixture of Sony line cameras, a Spidercam, two Batcam drones – one large and one small – plus a shallow depth of field camera and Batcam Hold cinestyle camera, plus Stedicams and roving RF cameras, and a tracking tower cam for the walk-ons, which is not normally possible due to the need to remove some ringside seats to install the tower.
On the roving RF cameras, McIntosh says: “We used lots of RF, especially underground. Everyone wants that shot of when [the fighters] arrive at the bottom of the elevator in their nice car. We had it with Conor Benn this time where he pulls up in his Royals Royce, and you’re underground about two floors down; it’s a lot of RF.”
Whisper also worked with Netflix on its subscription services. Explains McIntosh: “We supported Netflix for its SVOD versions. Effectively we set up an automated post production workflow that would section up the programme recordings, add those into trunks, and transfer them to Netflix’s cloud-based edit infrastructure in real time. That means that their editors then could access the media and edit stuff down immediately as have to do an SVOD version live. That was all set up in the background to go simultaneously whilst we were on air so that their editors worldwide could access it to cut that up.”
Overall, the event went smoothly thanks to over 275 people on site across broadcast and AVL, with a tremendous effort from all involved.
The production in numbers
220 square metres of led video installed across the canopy, tunnel & led floor
300 lighting fixtures
50,000 light up wristbands
Broadcast in eight languages – English, Polish, Italian, Spanish, Spanish LATAM, Portuguese Brazilian, French & German
4 connectivity partners
2 OB trucks + Flypack at The Pelligon for fight week events
Over 80 boleros covering broadcast, event team & AVL
Suppliers
OB facilities – Gravity Media
AVL – Arena Video
Broadcast & creative graphics – Chapter 3
AR graphics – Girraphic
Camera List
9 x Sony F5500 (Cinematic Cameras with Fuji Duvo series lenses)
6 x Sony F3500 (Standard Line Cameras)
3 x Sony Z450 (RF & Steadicam)
2 x Sony P50 (Overhead Robotic & Spidercam)
1 x PTZ
2 x Batcam Hold
1 x Batcam Fly
1 x Baby Bat
4 x Superslow & 7 x RF
7 x cameras for Press Conference & Weigh @ The Pelligon