Hamish Hamilton has directed more than a dozen Super Bowls, the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics, six Emmy Awards ceremonies, four Oscars and three Grammy Awards nights, among many notable events. He says none of these shows were as challenging as the first FIFA World Cup semi-final show he directed on Sunday.
“A lot of that is because he was the first,” says Hamilton, co-founder of the production company Done + Dusted. Hollywood Reporter via Zoom from his New Jersey hotel room the morning after the World Cup, calling the show “a challenge beyond a challenge.”
“Along with the Olympics, that was right there,” he says. “I’m sure the first Super Bowl Halftime Show was very difficult, but when I came they had already done over 40 shows. By the time I got to Super Bowl 47, the NFL had done everything very well. But in this kind of scenario, there are a lot of unanswered questions. There are all the people who have never done this before, and a huge amount of nervousness, we’re doing this in broad daylight, you have grass, you have a huge set of It’s very terrifying, because there are so many things that could It gets worse.
Fortunately for Hamilton and FIFA, they faced no technical hurdles on Sunday, and months of prep came and went in a fleeting moment as Madonna, BTS, Justin Bieber, an orchestra conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, Shakira, Burna Boy, the PS22 Choir and the Muppets arrived on stage in an 11-minute time slot.
“It’s a mixture of exhaustion, relief and happiness,” Hamilton says of the show’s finale. “I’m very proud of what we did to help bring Chris on board [Martin, of Coldplay, who served as curator] And global citizens’ view of life. They’ve had this dream for four years. “It is a tremendous task and we should applaud them for what they have done.”
Figuring out how to format the show to fit so many works in such a short time frame was a challenge of its own, but as Hamilton says, the bigger question was the “huge kind of logistical enterprise” involved in the wider production. There was “very strong daylight that kept coming on” which affected how the entire show was filmed. While NFL matches at MetLife Stadium are typically played on artificial turf, the FIFA Final is played on grass. The more sensitive surface affects everything in the first half, from possible stage sets to the types of cameras that can be used.
A lot of pressure was coming from outside as well. The halftime show was the subject of skepticism from football fans around the world, who questioned the need for the show and were concerned about how adding a concert to a game where the first half is usually only 15 minutes would affect the competition itself. The Cure’s Robert Smith made headlines last week ahead of the finals in his criticism of the show, writing “Pleasejustfuckoff.” The GuardianMeanwhile, he referred to the concert as “the halftime show that no one asked for.”
Hamilton, himself British and a lifelong fan of English Premier League team Arsenal, acknowledged these sentiments and noted that they are more prevalent in markets outside the United States, which have historically been more acclimated to the merging of music and sports thanks to events like the Super Bowl.
“I’m a football fan, I’ve been a football fan all my life,” he says. “Around the world, and certainly around Europe and the UK, I’ve seen some people who have said: ‘We don’t want your half-time show.’ “And we don’t want to Americanize the beautiful game.” And I was, of course, very aware of that resistance. It’s not so much the case in America, because sports, entertainment and music are much closer here than they are anywhere else in the world. But I was very aware of that, and also of stopping the second half if there are any problems with the turf. It’s difficult, it’s pressure.”
Will any doubters convert now that the premiere has come and gone with the rest of the tournament?
“It’s a very good question, I was very involved in creating the in-game show,” Hamilton says. “If there was someone else directing and I was just watching from London [as a fan]Maybe I can comment. But listen, it’s the World Cup final, it’s the greatest and most watched sporting event in the world. Having been a part of it as a live-action director, I would definitely say so, and I hope they do something else.
