A Marlboro resident and co-founder of an entertainment company has won an Academy Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his role in helping to create an animated short film that depicts retired athlete Kobe Bryant’s farewell to the sport of basketball.
Dan Goodman served as an executive producer of “Dear Basketball,” which received the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film at the 90th Academy Awards ceremony on March 4. Goodman, of Marlboro, is the co-founder of Believe Entertainment Group, New York City, which produced the film.
Believe Entertainment Group, which was founded by Goodman and Bill Masterson, has also produced series for digital and television distribution, including “The LeBrons” with basketball player LeBron James, “In the Booth” with DJ/producer Tiesto, “Money Where Your Mouth Is” with comedian Jay Mohr, “Poker Nights” with “Saturday Night Live” cast member Chris Parnell and “Tiger Beat Entertainment” with musician/actress Jennifer Lopez.
Goodman was previously the president of digital media for Media Rights Capital, where he worked on projects such as “Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Comedy” and the digital efforts for the 2009 film “Bruno.” He also worked as the chief digital officer for the New York office of Ogilvy, a global advertising agency.
Goodman’s involvement with “Dear Basketball” began when Believe Entertainment Group was contacted by Bryant’s agent.
“We are always looking for great projects and we said we would love to be involved in this,” he said.
The executives of Believe Entertainment Group learned Bryant was seeking the involvement of animator Glen Keane, who provided character animation for Disney’s “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin,” “Pocahontas,” “Tarzan” and “Tangled.”
“Dear Basketball” features music from Academy Award-winning composer John Williams, who provided the film’s score while also working on the score of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.”
“Dear Basketball” is a five-minute film which was drawn entirely by hand and has Bryant narrating his history with basketball and his eventual retirement from the sport over animated footage of child and adult versions of himself playing basketball.
Bryant, who played in the NBA for 20 seasons and earned numerous accolades during his career, retired at the end of the 2015-16 season. The basis of his narration for the film is from a letter he wrote in 2015 to announce his retirement.
Goodman said that as an executive producer, he and his fellow producers had oversight and helped build the project, which took two years to complete before it was released in 2017. He was involved with the sales and distribution of the film, and Believe Entertainment Group’s partnership with Verizon, which distributed “Dear Basketball” through its video streaming service go90.
Goodman also helped to produce a 22-minute documentary which shows how “Dear Basketball” was created.
“We had an amazing team and it was an amazing collaboration,” he said. “In the documentary, we wanted to show how three legends, Kobe, Glen and John, came together.”
The Oscar was the first for Keane, who is recognized by the Walt Disney Company as a Disney Legend.
“Glen is a great guy and an amazing talent,” Goodman said. “He brings a new meaning to the word ‘artist.’ He leaves no detail untouched, but he also says you can’t spend too much time on an image.”
Goodman described how “Dear Basketball” was a challenge for Keane because unlike his past films, for which he drew fictional characters, “Dear Basketball” saw him animate Bryant and required him to make certain his depiction of Bryant was accurate and recognizable.
Goodman had less time to work with Williams due to the composer’s concurrent commitment with the then-upcoming “Star Wars” film.
“John’s time was limited, but he still gave us his time,” Goodman said.
“Dear Basketball” was the first short film Williams worked on, as well as a first for Bryant and Believe Entertainment Group.
“Kobe was focused, determined and intense,” Goodman said. “He really wanted to do something meaningful. It was exciting to work with him as a fan and it was eye-opening as a businessperson.
“For Kobe, this was his first big project and his transition from a player to a businessman,” he said. “As a company, this was our first short film. Usually, short films are used for creators to showcase their capabilities. This was not only a creative showcase, but it also had an important message about following dreams and knowing when to take the next steps and leave that dream behind. ‘Dear Basketball’ is a heartfelt and sincere telling that resonated with fans and viewers.”
The film was brought to Verizon as a potential distributor and Goodman said the company’s executives were immediately excited about the film and wanted to be part of it. He credited Verizon with helping “Dear Basketball” earn a nomination for Best Animated Short Film at this year’s Academy Awards.
“Dear Basketball” premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City as an official selection and won Best Animated Short Subject at the 2018 Annie Awards, which are focused on animation. The film’s subsequent Oscar nomination brought Goodman and the rest of the team to the 90th Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles in the first week of March.
“It was surreal at the Oscars,” he said. “It was exciting and just a flurry of activity. You got to see the machine close up instead of watching it from home. We went for the project and we won. You can’t go to an awards show and have a better experience than that; going for your project that is up for an award and winning. It was a humbling and surreal experience and it is a nice and satisfying recognition of a lot of hard work from a lot of people.”
Goodman sees a positive future for digital distribution.
“We look at the Oscar as a good marker for where the business is going,” he said. “It shows that digital distribution has substance. You usually see short films in theaters, at film festivals or on a subscription-based platform, but this project was on an advertising-supported platform, not a subscription-based platform. It opens the doors of possibilities for creators and how they can get their work shown.”
“Dear Basketball” may be viewed online at https://believeentertainmentgroup.com/portfolio-item/dear-basketball/