Box To Box Films Co-Founder Paul Martin On The Making Of ’Sprint’; The Netflix-Effect On Sports + Challenges Of Track Documentary Storytelling

"Sprinters are just this A-type. Because they have to be. What you realize is this sport is probably won and lost in those moments right before, it’s won and lost on the line, it’s won and lost when the gun goes off. It's all about projecting your presence onto your biggest competitor. As soon as we got into it, these guys didn't hold back, whether it was Noah (Lyles) or Fred (Kerley), whether it was the rivalry between the Jamaican women, it was all there and none of them held back with it."

Paul Martin is the co-founder of Box to Box Films, the production company behind the hit Netflix sports documentary series including Drive to Survive and Full Swing. Track finally got its version as SPRINT was released on Netflix on July 2nd.

In this episode, we discuss the making of the series; the Netflix effect that people talk about in sports and what were some of the challenges in capturing an individual sport like track, which has tons of stars who could pop out of nowhere. Plus: Is a middle distance series on the table?

Time Stamps:

– 3:56 - The impact that Formula 1: Drive to Survive has had on Paul’s career.

– 8:57 - How Paul and James transitioned into athletics + what made it compelling to them. 

– 14:12 - What Paul loves most about today's sprinters + why he wants to share their stories. 

– 19:46 - How Paul was able to get the biggest sprint stars onto the show. 

– 23:00 - The timeline of how season one came together. 

– 28:54 - Why Paul chose to hone in on sprints first as opposed to other areas of track and field. 

– 32:27 - Elements from Drive to Survive that could help track and field break into the mainstream.

– 36:01 - Ideas on how to make following along track and field more engaging.

– 41:04 - The moment in SPRINT that Paul found the most emotional.

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