how we shot american candy

Q: where can I watch american candy?

american candy is streaming now on sbs on demand — free, nationally, no subscription required. search 'american candy' on sbs on demand or follow the link on our homepage.

Q: how did you get access to film the basketball tour?

relationship and trust, built over time before a camera appeared. access is almost always the central challenge of documentary filmmaking — and it's almost always solved the same way: by being genuinely interested in the people and the story, not just the film you want to make.

Q: what does run-and-gun filmmaking mean?

run-and-gun refers to a production approach where a single camera operator shoots in a highly mobile, responsive style — following the action rather than staging it, adapting to changing conditions in real time rather than controlling the environment. it prioritises access and authenticity over technical perfection.

Q: how important is audio in documentary filmmaking?

critically important and chronically underinvested in by emerging filmmakers. audiences will forgive imperfect picture quality much more readily than bad audio. good audio — clean dialogue, well-captured ambient sound, the right mics in the right places — is what makes footage feel real.

Q: would you shoot american candy the same way if you did it again?

mostly yes. the run-and-gun embedded approach was right for this story. I'd invest even more in b-roll capture and probably add a second wireless lav for key players earlier in the shoot. but the fundamental approach — single camera, fully embedded, following the story rather than staging it — was the right call.

American Candy started with a simple premise: embed a single camera operator fully with a group of Australian basketball players on a two-week tour through Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las Vegas, and see what happened.

The result is a feature documentary now streaming nationally on SBS On Demand. This is the production story behind it.

the approach: run and gun, fully embedded

The decision to shoot run-and-gun — single person, single camera, fully mobile — wasn't a compromise. It was the right approach for this story.

We were embedded with the team for the entire two weeks. Not as observers on the edge of it, but as genuine participants in the tour. That level of access — travelling with the boys, staying where they stayed, eating with them, being present for the mundane moments between the games — produced a kind of footage you simply cannot get with a larger crew. People forget you're filming. Or rather, they stop performing for the camera. That's when the real material appears.

A full crew would have changed the dynamic entirely. Two cameras, a sound recordist, a director separate from the camera — it would have been more technically controlled and dramatically less intimate. For this story, intimacy was everything.

the three cities

Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las Vegas each had a distinct character that shaped the footage differently. La was beach courts, palm trees, the mythology of american basketball culture that these young australians had grown up watching. Phoenix was heat, intensity, higher-level competition. Las Vegas was the tournament — the culmination of the trip, where everything they'd worked toward came down to actual games with real stakes.

The variety of location gave the film visual texture that a single-city shoot couldn't have provided. It also gave the story a natural three-act structure that we hadn't fully planned but recognised as it emerged.

audio: the detail that changed everything

One of the most important production decisions on American Candy was the audio setup — specifically, getting Coach Linton on a remote lavalier microphone.

The on-camera shotgun mic captured the broad soundscape of each environment — the court sounds, the crowd, the ambient noise of each location. But the lavalier on Coach Linton captured something different: the specific, intimate language of coaching. The instructions, the encouragements, the hard conversations at the sideline. The stuff that was happening three metres from the camera but would have been lost in the ambient noise without a dedicated mic.

That audio became some of the most important material in the film. It gave us access to the tactical and emotional core of what was happening — not just the visual spectacle of the game, but the human drama underneath it.

For any documentary filmmaker shooting sport or group dynamics: wireless lavs on your key subjects are not optional. The cost is negligible relative to what you gain.

beyond the court: the sideline moments

Basketball is the subject of American Candy. But the film isn't really about basketball.

The moments that define it — that audiences remember and respond to — happen off the court. An injury that puts a player's place on the team in question. The quiet conversations between boys far from home processing a difficult result. The individual ambitions and anxieties that surface when the pressure of competition becomes real.

Capturing those moments required being constantly present, constantly ready, and having built enough trust with the subjects that they'd allow a camera near them during genuinely vulnerable moments. That trust took time. It was built incrementally over days of being around, not asking for anything, just being part of the tour.

the interviews: a different kind of production

After the tour, we brought Coach Linton and several of the players in for more structured, higher-production-quality interviews. These were a deliberate contrast to the run-and-gun tour footage — properly lit, carefully framed, with time to go deep on individual stories, reflections and perspectives.

The combination of the two approaches — immersive observational footage from the tour and reflective, composed interviews after the fact — is a classic documentary structure. The tour footage puts you in the moment. The interviews give you the meaning. Together they create the full picture.

frequently asked questions

Where can I watch American Candy?

American Candy is streaming now on SBS On Demand — free, nationally, no subscription required. Search 'American Candy' on SBS On Demand or follow the link on our homepage.

How did you get access to film the basketball tour?

Relationship and trust, built over time before a camera appeared. Access is almost always the central challenge of documentary filmmaking — and it's almost always solved the same way: by being genuinely interested in the people and the story, not just the film you want to make.

What does run-and-gun filmmaking mean?

Run-and-gun refers to a production approach where a single camera operator shoots in a highly mobile, responsive style — following the action rather than staging it, adapting to changing conditions in real time rather than controlling the environment. It prioritises access and authenticity over technical perfection.

How important is audio in documentary filmmaking?

Critically important and chronically underinvested in by emerging filmmakers. Audiences will forgive imperfect picture quality much more readily than bad audio. Good audio — clean dialogue, well-captured ambient sound, the right mics in the right places — is what makes footage feel real.

Would you shoot American Candy the same way if you did it again?

Mostly yes. The run-and-gun embedded approach was right for this story. I'd invest even more in b-roll capture and probably add a second wireless lav for key players earlier in the shoot. But the fundamental approach — single camera, fully embedded, following the story rather than staging it — was the right call.