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“The
definitive history of
foosball in the United
States.”
- Bob Furr, Tornado Table
Inventor
Foosball
Movie Production Information
Robert Ismert earns his
first documentary feature
credit with “FOOS:
Be the Greatest”.
Ismert saw the opportunity
to document the story
of foosball as a different
kind of challenge. “I
had thought about tackling
a documentary for quite
some time,” said
Ismert. “My background
is in photojournalism.
I briefly worked at a
small newspaper, but didn’t
like the limited depth
that short deadlines usually
entailed. Documentaries
were gaining popularity
around the time I began
the project. I began to
play the game frequently
around the year 2000 and
went to a large tournament.
It was there that I saw
some of the real passion
of foosball and it just
clicked: here’s
my documentary.”
Ismert’s
original idea for the
documentary centered around
a doubles team from Dallas
that he would follow for
a summer leading up to
the 2003 Foosball World
Championships. As he became
involved with the development
of the material, the story
took on a very different
scope. “As I spoke
with more players, I learned
about the history of the
sport. The huge tournaments
of the 70’s and
the collapse in the early
80’s were very interesting
to me. So the more I researched
the sport, the more and
more I leaned toward a
complete history of the
game and less toward my
original concept.”
“FOOS”
began production early
March 2003 in Dallas,
Texas utilizing a hotbed
for foosball tournaments
as well as the Texas State
Championships. Having
recently purchased a Canon
XL1S DV camcorder, Ismert
essentially jumped head
first into the action.
“I had no idea what
I was doing at that time.
My foosball knowledge
was very limited and I
had no clue what questions
to ask or whom to ask
them. But I learned so
much from that first tournament
and it pointed me in the
right direction.”
Following
that tournament, Ismert
worked the next two years
interviewing players and
promoters from each era
of foosball. He traveled
from Minnesota to Las
Vegas and flew players
into Dallas to gather
the necessary interviews
to make the documentary
as complete as possible.
This was no easy feat
considering that Ismert
financed, taped, sound
recorded and lit each
interview by himself.
“I knew I had an
emotional and personal
thread that I could run
throughout the entire
history of foosball once
I interviewed Horton in
Minnesota. I only wish
my lighting and sound
experience were a little
more advanced at the time
of the interview. Horton
combined with my interview
of Scott Moreland and
finally my interview with
Lee Peppard really helped
me mold the movie.”
Research
was also a large part
of the documentary. Ismert
utilized the foosball
message boards on the
Internet as well as several
foosball historians. Attempting
to coral over 30 years
of foosball history proved
to be a daunting task.
“In a way, I was
very fortunate the movie
took so long to complete.
New images, video and
interviews kept popping
up that weren’t
available early on in
the process. The foosball
community was very generous
with their memories, but
so much has been lost
over the past thirty years.”
Post
production was entirely
done by Ismert as well.
Using a home PC, Adobe
Premiere and a borrowed
television monitor, Ismert
spent countless hours
transcribing, distilling
and refining over 70 hours
of video tape interviews,
500+ foosball photographs
and dozens of hours of
additional news and foosball
tournament coverage. “From
shooting techniques to
editing techniques to
sound techniques, I learned
so much throughout the
entire process. It was
quite a rewarding experience.
The most important thing
I probably learned…use
a script next time.”
“I
knew I wanted to capture
the essence of foosball
going into the project,”
Ismert said. “Hopefully
not only foosball players,
but the general public
will watch the movie and
gain a new appreciation
of what makes this such
a great game.”
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