RED BULL – VOLLEYBALL
Filming
In the beginning of autumn 2019 Red Bull approached us with a request to film a documentary about beach volleyball. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics were just around the corner and this film was to be made in support of the athletes participating in the games.
During our initial interview with athletes Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Viatcheslav Krasilnikov we found out that fans have dubbed their tandem a “fantasy pairing” с the guys only recently started playing together and have already become world champions! A decision was made to expand on this theme to call the documentary “Fantasy Volleyball” and film it in the style of fantasy anime, a nod to the Olympics taking place in Tokyo. We came up with unique alter-egos for the athletes: Oleg was to be the Bear, and Slava, according to his coach, is a black Puma.
Unfortunately, by the end of January 2020 COVID interfered with our plans. The championships were canceled, all training sessions and preparations were put on hold. The Olympics were postponed to a later, at that moment unknown, date. We suspended the project but continued to develop the ideas in hopes of a quick resolution of the crisis.
By the end of 2020 we received information that the Olympics are planned for 2021, but no one would be permitted to attend, save for the participating athletes. The same rules applied for the play-offs leaving us no other option but to film the guys on their home turf.
During our initial interview with athletes Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Viatcheslav Krasilnikov we found out that fans have dubbed their tandem a “fantasy pairing” с the guys only recently started playing together and have already become world champions! A decision was made to expand on this theme to call the documentary “Fantasy Volleyball” and film it in the style of fantasy anime, a nod to the Olympics taking place in Tokyo. We came up with unique alter-egos for the athletes: Oleg was to be the Bear, and Slava, according to his coach, is a black Puma.
Unfortunately, by the end of January 2020 COVID interfered with our plans. The championships were canceled, all training sessions and preparations were put on hold. The Olympics were postponed to a later, at that moment unknown, date. We suspended the project but continued to develop the ideas in hopes of a quick resolution of the crisis.
By the end of 2020 we received information that the Olympics are planned for 2021, but no one would be permitted to attend, save for the participating athletes. The same rules applied for the play-offs leaving us no other option but to film the guys on their home turf.
Red Bull – Volleyball
Filming
In the beginning of autumn 2019 Red Bull approached us with a request to film a documentary about beach volleyball. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics were just around the corner and this film was to be made in support of the athletes participating in the games.
During our initial interview with athletes Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Viatcheslav Krasilnikov we found out that fans have dubbed their tandem a “fantasy pairing” с the guys only recently started playing together and have already become world champions! A decision was made to expand on this theme to call the documentary “Fantasy Volleyball” and film it in the style of fantasy anime, a nod to the Olympics taking place in Tokyo. We came up with unique alter-egos for the athletes: Oleg was to be the Bear, and Slava, according to his coach, is a black Puma.
Unfortunately, by the end of January 2020 COVID interfered with our plans. The championships were canceled, all training sessions and preparations were put on hold. The Olympics were postponed to a later, at that moment unknown, date. We suspended the project but continued to develop the ideas in hopes of a quick resolution of the crisis.
By the end of 2020 we received information that the Olympics are planned for 2021, but no one would be permitted to attend, save for the participating athletes. The same rules applied for the play-offs leaving us no other option but to film the guys on their home turf.
During our initial interview with athletes Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Viatcheslav Krasilnikov we found out that fans have dubbed their tandem a “fantasy pairing” с the guys only recently started playing together and have already become world champions! A decision was made to expand on this theme to call the documentary “Fantasy Volleyball” and film it in the style of fantasy anime, a nod to the Olympics taking place in Tokyo. We came up with unique alter-egos for the athletes: Oleg was to be the Bear, and Slava, according to his coach, is a black Puma.
Unfortunately, by the end of January 2020 COVID interfered with our plans. The championships were canceled, all training sessions and preparations were put on hold. The Olympics were postponed to a later, at that moment unknown, date. We suspended the project but continued to develop the ideas in hopes of a quick resolution of the crisis.
By the end of 2020 we received information that the Olympics are planned for 2021, but no one would be permitted to attend, save for the participating athletes. The same rules applied for the play-offs leaving us no other option but to film the guys on their home turf.
The crew:
Creative producer: Mikhail Mashtakov
Red Bull Athletes: Viatcheslav Krasilnikov,
Oleg Stoyanovskiy
Director: Yuri Khmelnitskiy
DOP: Vladimir Lobunets
Production sound mixer: Sergey Matveev
Producer: Guram Gabunia
Executive producer: Max Malay
Line producer: Elena Lyubovina
Film editor: Alexander Chebotaryev
Creative producer: Mikhail Mashtakov
Red Bull Athletes: Viatcheslav Krasilnikov,
Oleg Stoyanovskiy
Director: Yuri Khmelnitskiy
DOP: Vladimir Lobunets
Production sound mixer: Sergey Matveev
Producer: Guram Gabunia
Executive producer: Max Malay
Line producer: Elena Lyubovina
Film editor: Alexander Chebotaryev
At the closing of 2020 the athletes were scheduled for an extended training session in Sochi and Anapa. We managed to fight our way there, and finally, a year and two months removed from our previous meeting, we were able to roll our cameras.
During the 10 days we spent in Sochi we were able to talk to the athletes about nearly every topic, discussed every injury and victory, trained with Oleg according to his personal program, rode bikes with Slava. We listened to their conversations on the playing field.
While we were piecing together the structure of the project, it became clear that we wouldn’t be able to stick to the original plan of fantasy volleyball, so we started to rework the plot of the film in the direction of a fully-fledged documentary.
We managed to get a hold of the guys in the early summer of 2021, 2 months before the games, and we recorded some more interviews.
Despite the film officially releasing after the Olympics have concluded, we screened it for Slava and Oleg and their families before they left for the games. We really wanted to hype them up, to support them, and we succeeded!
2 years passed between the initial planning and the release of the project.
20 days were spent filming. An uncountable number of nerves were spent.
40 terabytes of video materials were accumulated. More than 200 scenes were cut.
Oleg and Slava won the Silver medals of the Tokyo Olympics.
During the 10 days we spent in Sochi we were able to talk to the athletes about nearly every topic, discussed every injury and victory, trained with Oleg according to his personal program, rode bikes with Slava. We listened to their conversations on the playing field.
While we were piecing together the structure of the project, it became clear that we wouldn’t be able to stick to the original plan of fantasy volleyball, so we started to rework the plot of the film in the direction of a fully-fledged documentary.
We managed to get a hold of the guys in the early summer of 2021, 2 months before the games, and we recorded some more interviews.
Despite the film officially releasing after the Olympics have concluded, we screened it for Slava and Oleg and their families before they left for the games. We really wanted to hype them up, to support them, and we succeeded!
2 years passed between the initial planning and the release of the project.
20 days were spent filming. An uncountable number of nerves were spent.
40 terabytes of video materials were accumulated. More than 200 scenes were cut.
Oleg and Slava won the Silver medals of the Tokyo Olympics.