[Elvis]

http://www.latimes.com/sports/nfl/la-sp ... story.html

NFL Films tackles challenge of making the 2016 Rams watchable

Sam Farmer

It’s an experience that neither the Rams nor their fans want to endure again. But the club’s first season back in Los Angeles was captured in minute detail by the highly skilled storytellers at NFL Films for the Amazon original series “All or Nothing: A Season with the Los Angeles Rams,” now available on Amazon Prime video.

The Times caught up with NFL Films coordinating producer Keith Cossrow, the “All or Nothing” show runner, and the director, Shannon Furman, about what went into the eight-episode project.

Q: You did HBO’s “Hard Knocks” with the Rams last summer. How did the decision come about to stay with the team through the fall?

Cossrow: From a league perspective, there was an interest in documenting the entire season of the return to Los Angeles. That was from the commissioner on down. There hadn’t been a relocation in a generation, and this one was different because it was a return to L.A. by a team that had spent its first 50 years there. Everyone was aware of the historical significance of the Rams returning. We knew we were going to document it somehow, so at a certain point it made sense to do it this way.

Q: What’s the difference between doing “Hard Knocks” at training camp and “All or Nothing” during the season?

Furman: It was completely different. Our crew is much smaller on “All or Nothing,” and we’re not airing it until later. I think the teams are a little less uptight during the season throughout the process. On “Hard Knocks,” if a fight breaks out, that’s a huge story line for us, whereas on “All or Nothing” that’s probably nothing by the time the show’s airing. The story lines and characters are different, because we’ve got a lot of guys that no one’s heard of on “Hard Knocks” so it’s harder to get guys like Aaron Donald and Todd Gurley involved. On “All or Nothing,” those are the people that you need to depend on.

Q: Can you describe the challenge of making an interesting story out of a 4-12 team?

Furman: The biggest thing for us was trying to find characters that people are going to care about. That’s why we kind of got lucky with John Fassel (the special teams coach eventually promoted to interim head coach). Because myself and Pat Harris, who helped me direct it, we loved him, and we noticed he was just different. He was a guy we wanted to root for, and we wanted to see him do well. So it was finding guys like that. It’s trying to humanize these guys that we see getting slammed all the time, getting to know them on a personal level.

Q: You begin the series with the firing of Jeff Fisher as coach. What went into the decision to start with that?

Cossrow: We knew that was the elephant in the room, and the thing people were going to be most interested in. Are they going to show coach Fisher’s firing? We decided this is at the heart of the story we wanted to tell. We wanted to lay that out very clearly in those first five minutes: We have a story to tell about the NFL that’s never really been told before. It’s a story about what happens to those seven or eight teams every season whose coach gets fired, and everything gets turned upside down for all those people.

Q: You captured some pretty incredible scenes, with Fisher telling the players he had been fired, and the subsequent meetings with the players and the remaining coaches. But you didn’t show the actual moment the Rams fired Fisher. Why not?

Cossrow: I think anyone who understands the nature of documentary filmmaking knows that it’s impossible to capture everything. You can have 10 cameras rolling 24/7 and you would still miss a thousand important moments. That’s just the nature of the beast. So I think the fact that Shannon and the crew were able to capture so much of what happened the day coach Fisher was fired, and that no one ever told us to turn off the cameras once they were rolling, is an extraordinary achievement and a testament to the job they did in the field building trust with the team.

Q: So what exactly happened on that morning?

Furman: We don’t have cameras in the coach’s office at all, and that’s one difference between “Hard Knocks” and “All or Nothing.” After the Falcons game, Coach Fisher and Coach Mac (Dave McGinnis) were together on Monday morning, prepping for the Seattle game. They were in Coach Fisher’s office. I touched base with coach Fisher, and then left to grab a smoothie for breakfast. I got a phone call from my production assistant who works the robotics cameras, and he asked, “How far away are you?” I said, “I can be there in three minutes.” He said, “Coach just told the staff he was fired.”

Q: Do you have a team lined up for “All or Nothing” this fall?

Cossrow: We’re talking with several teams, but we don’t have anything to announce at this point.

[email protected]

Follow Sam Farmer on Twitter @LATimesfarmer

[actionjack]

Watched every episode and really enjoyed the "behind the scenes" view of what goes into coaching an NFL team. Without question the players loved Coach Fisher and clearly felt bad about letting him down, but it is apparent to me the the Fisher culture was a bit too "country club and folksy."

Now, let me first say that I am not a prude and can curse like a sailor, but the constant yelling of MF at nearly every situation (read Greg Williams) can become counter intuitive when trying to lead grown men. I certainly have no idea if McVay, Wade et al have a similar style but I hope the new staff instructs, leads and generally imparts a more cerebral attitude to all facets of the team.

Either Fisher was a tremendous actor or truly didn't see his termination coming, but in there lies one of the problems. He couldn't see what everyone else did and that he was a dead man walking. Truly hoping for a complete culture change and hoping McVay leads us to the promise land.

I hear what you are saying, but if you ever watched any the seasons of Hard Knocks, I would say the Rams cussed the least amount. It is pretty standard.

[Elvis]

I hear what you are saying, but if you ever watched any the seasons of Hard Knocks, I would say the Rams cussed the least amount. It is pretty standard.

Exactly, all that swearing is just part of NFL culture (for the most part). I don't think it's a positive or negative. Now if all you do is yell at your players and try to motivate them without teaching and scheming at a high level, well then i don't think you're going to get very far.

We pretty much only saw the motivational stuff but that doesn't mean they weren't doing the other stuff too.

Gregg Williams is hella entertaining but he's also a good tactician and generally fields very good defenses.

The offensive coaches, OTOH, don't seem to have any scheming, teaching or tactical chops when it comes to fielding an NFL caliber offense...

[actionjack]

Sucks Singletary is no longer with the team.

His speech gave me goosebumps. I rewinded and watched it a few times. It was epic.

Totally agree, loved him in Hard Knocks, when he was coaching up Tree. I really wish he was part of the team still....

[actionjack]

I will have to rewatch that part maybe but it looked to me Snead was improving our ability to move things around in the draft for some gain while getting the players both he and McVay were wanting. TE and receiver sounds like a McVay preference.

He was def picking with McVay in mind, but from a scouting standpoint, based on what he was saying at the combine, these are guys Snead liked.

[SWAdude]

He was def picking with McVay in mind, but from a scouting standpoint, based on what he was saying at the combine, these are guys Snead liked.

Liked equally as much as McVay. I thought they shared equally in who they chose.

[/zn/]

Liked equally as much as McVay. I thought they shared equally in who they chose.

I genuinely hope not.

As the saying goes, coaches scout for 1 month, scouts scout for 12.

It's just not plausible that McVay could sit down with the tape of every single decent college prospect before him and go through it to find who he likes.

He relied on Snead and the scouts doing the vast majority of the work and then told them the kind of player he likes and they in turn recommended some guys to look at.

That means most of the work is being done by dedicated personnel people.

Snead's job is to figure out the kind of player McVay wants. That means McVay communicates and Snead looks.

When it is time to rank the board, long before the draft, at that point coaches and personnel people hash it out.

Once you leave that process with a ranked board, in a lot of ways it no longer makes any sense to say whose pick it is. They have consensus on rankings they stick to, combined of course with a sense of the team needs. BUT it is all still massively determined by this dynamic---Snead knows all the players, McVay knows the kind he wants for his system...which means he communicates that to Snead.

It would be as if the chef sat at the table with you and talked about the menu and maybe made a few changes, then during the meal also sat down and sought feedback on it. You may be a big part of the process, but you didn't cook the meal, or order the ingredients, or write the menu.

....

[Hacksaw]

Epi 6 after Fish got canned, Boras said it. "We were all hand picked by that man", which lays it out neatly. He was making a different point but that confirms it.
"I feel a change of weather in the wind".

[snackdaddy]

I finally started watching the show. So far I've seen half the episodes. I gotta admit, my opinion of certain people changed after watching. In McVay's first draft Snead looked like the man in charge. McVay looked like the guy who had important input but it was Snead's show. And that is how it should be. He didn't have the appearance of the guy in charge previous year with Fisher. I came away more impressed with Snead after watching that.

I also have a newfound respect for Fisher. I thought he handled himself well after he was fired. I actually felt bad for him. Not enough to want him back as head coach. But it was clear he was loved. In another profession he'd make a great boss. I loved that scene when the ref told him to talk to his players about the chippiness and trash talk. He told them crank it up even more. And that sly face he made when he said it was priceless.

Looking at it from a purely productive standpoint, it was clear the offensive staff was not up to producing an NFL caliber offense. I believe Fisher does not have the confidence to change his coaching philosophy to a more modern style of offense. He's in his comfort zone with his old school smash mouth intimidation methods. That just doesn't work in today's NFL.

I think McVay will be much more successful as long as he doesn't ignore his defenses and special teams. So far it looks like he values that but knows its not in his area of expertise. He'll let the specialists in those areas do their jobs.

I also loved the comment by Snead and Mcvay that they need guys who can make plays with the ball. Snead knew they did not have that with Fisher. I think Snead will be just fine as the GM without Fisher looking over his shoulder. He looks confident in the draft room. Its his ball game now.

[RamsFanSince82]