Buying a cash-strapped, more losses than wins Welsh football team might seem like an impulsive decision by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney if they had not demonstrated repeatedly that they are two of the savviest and most entrepreneurial forces in Hollywood. Reynolds and McElhenney may not have known much about football (soccer in the US), Wales, or running a sports team, but they knew that not knowing would make good television and their FX series, “Welcome to Wrexham,” soon to start its 4th season, has been popular with fans of sports, fans of the two popular stars, and fans of comeback stories. “Wrexham” editors Michael Brown and Michael Oliver are both Emmy nominees. In an interview, they talked about how they got started, their love for sports stories, and creating a hybrid that is as much about the community as about the games.
How did you end up as an editor?
Michael Brown: I came into it through a technical background. I was in middle school cooking up VHS tapes, VHS machines together and connecting things in the back and figuring out how the cords worked, the TV and everything, and I really enjoyed the technical aspect of it.
I realized I needed to shoot things if I wanted to do stuff, so I ended up wanting to be a director. Like, oh, I graduated high school, moved out to L.A., and went to a technical AVID school. So I was learning AVID at this place called Video Symphony. And it was all things AVID, training you up to be an assistant. I fell into love with the editing process, just putting together stories and puzzles and figuring out how to tell stories that way. I grew up with the digital revolution as it was going from tape to digital, so it was at a good time.
Michael Oliver: I basically got my hands on it in high school. My high school had a little TV production class, and it sparked my interest. I got to do the tape-to-tape editing for the first time. But where I really fell in love with it is when I went to college at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. It’s actually one of the top sports TV production colleges in the nation. And when I went there, I didn’t know what I was wanting to do, but I went in there, did a tour and everything, and then saw that they had a full TV production program, and I’m like, ”You know what? I really enjoyed it in high school. Why not give it a shot here?” I lived in the TV studio because I loved it so much. And I ended up being one of the many people to learn AVID for the first time. I actually had to teach our professors how to use it because I was just in there so much and just playing around with it.
And I became in charge of a Division 1 hockey team broadcast that was all student-run. We competed against Fox Sports at the time. I absolutely loved it. And basically from there, I would work the hockey games on Fridays and Saturdays, and then Sunday mornings I would just go down to work for Fox Sports doing the Vikings games.
I was a TV nerd. All I wanted to do was be in production because I just loved the rush. I loved everything about it. I loved all the technical stuff. Once Fox Sports found out I graduated college, they brought me out here to Los Angeles and I’ve been out here since. What I usually work in is docuseries that are based on sports ideas and sports teams because I like to tell true stories. I like that inspiration.
So were you football fans (we’ll use the term the rest of the world uses) before this show?
Michael Brown: I grew up playing football all the way up until high school and then my interests switched to different things. But I was always a fan. You know, the Olympics, watching the World Cup as a kid, it was the only time that it was really front and center for Americans up until a few years ago. But yeah, I spent a little bit of time abroad, I would watch the matches in Spain. I really enjoyed the atmosphere, the passion. It’s a little bit more of a cult kind of following that they have across the pond for football. I had never worked in football before in all of my sports editing. So it was really exciting to get to jump into that side of it.
Michael Oliver: I played football my entire life. I started playing football at six years old, and I played all the way through college. So, it was part of me. I love the sport. And basically, I only want to do sports, that’s all I want to do. Everybody has a great story to tell. Sports is usually the best people who have the best stories, coming from nothing to make it to something. Fox Sports got the World Cup. I was one of the main editors for Fox Sports for all the World Cups that they’ve had, in charge of all the United States Opens and some features and any big game opens.
This is not the typical sports story. You’ve got an audience who may be fans of the game, but this is not, you’re not following a championship team, at least at the beginning. And you’ve got people like me, whose entire knowledge of football comes from “Ted Lasso,” and how do you edit to be able to give the information they need to both kinds of audiences?
Michael Oliver: For me, it’s basically like keeping it simple. You don’t want to get into the tactics, don’t want to get into how the team’s playing. You just want to do basics. Something that both audiences can understand. I can tease the main audience who know about the sport of football.
Going back all the way to Season 1, it was something that we had a real struggle with. There’s so much to know about the English football system, like relegation. You of explain things when there is need to know, at the point in which somebody’s getting confused or asking questions. You just explain that one bit. And so we were able to stretch out explaining the game and the system throughout a few episodes, doling it out. But the best part about the series is more than anything, it is a story about people.
Michael Brown: There’s always something that you’re diving deeper into the into the aspect of Wrexham. There’s always something more to learn on all sides that didn’t necessarily involve the football. So that was one of the most interesting parts for me. There is always something around another corner to discover. Keeping things fresh is something that really helped us and helps an audience to stay engaged, not being able to to wait to see what’s coming up next.
It is unusual in a sports context to spend as much time as you do on the community.
Michael Brown: The entire series is about and for and by the people of the town. That was one of the things that Rob and Ryan really recognized pretty early on. They just fell in love with the people first. The heart is the thing that pulled them there. When you look at the characters in the town and you’ve seen the series, they just stick out like shining stars. There’s something so beautiful and unassuming. Working and telling stories for as many years as I have, I’ve never gotten to work with footage from people that are so open and so honest. That was one of the most beautiful things for me, in terms of the characters.
