{"id":2829,"date":"2010-08-06T08:02:48","date_gmt":"2010-08-06T15:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moviesharkdeblore.com\/site\/?p=2829"},"modified":"2014-10-15T12:12:59","modified_gmt":"2014-10-15T19:12:59","slug":"exclusive-11-with-kristopher-belman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/behindthelensonline.net\/site\/interviews\/exclusive-11-with-kristopher-belman\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE 1:1 WITH KRISTOPHER BELMAN"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: debbie lynn elias<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"khris_belman_-_edited\"Akron, Ohio native turned long time Culver City resident, Kristopher Belman is a filmmaker with ethics, integrity, humility and talent.\u00a0 Always wanting to make movies, Kris had long been interested in a story that began in Akron, Ohio.\u00a0 A story involving legendary high school basketball coach, Dru Joyce, and some young, once unknown basketball players named Sian Cotton, Dru Joyce III, Willie McGee, Romeo Travis and a guy named LeBron.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As little kids, Sian, Little Dru, Willie and LeBron played basketball in a local gym.\u00a0 They were good.\u00a0 They were darn good.\u00a0 Early on they decided they wanted to play ball, together and win; win championships and be the best that they could be.\u00a0 As early as junior high they determined that they wanted to go to high school together, a high school with a great basketball program, a high school inner city kids from Akron wouldn\u2019t be attending.\u00a0 But attend they did.\u00a0 Winning, but missing that elusive championship title, eventually Romeo Travis joined this impenetrable fortress of friendship turning the Fab Four into the Fab Five under the watchful eye of Coach Dru Joyce, making their story the stuff that dreams are made of.<\/p>\n

As for Kris Belman, he too, is a man with his own dream.\u00a0 A dream to tell stories and make films.\u00a0 Transplanted to Southern California from Akron, when it came time for making a film in his Introduction to Documentary Filmmking class he knew the story he wanted to tell.\u00a0 Little did he know when he started with this little 10 minute student project, it would turn into a 7 \u00bd year journey that would change his life forever and help make his greatest dream come true.<\/p>\n

I had a chance to talk with Kris about making MORE THAN A GAME.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what he had to say.<\/p>\n

KB: Hey Debbie, how are you?<\/p>\n

DLE: Hey Kris, I\u2019m fine.\u00a0 How are you?<\/p>\n

KB: I\u2019m doing well.\u00a0 It\u2019s good to talk to someone the Culver City area.\u00a0 That\u2019s where I reside.\u00a0\u00a0 So that\u2019s exciting.<\/p>\n

DLE: Ah hah!\u00a0 That\u2019s good to know because then I get put this feature on you in the Culver\u00a0 City Observer.<\/p>\n

KB: That\u2019s great!\u00a0 I\u2019m a big fan of the City.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing how much it\u2019s has grown over the\u00a0 past couple of years.<\/p>\n

DLE: About this film.\u00a0 I absolutely love this film.<\/p>\n

KB: Thank you very much.\u00a0 I appreciate that.<\/p>\n

DLE: I\u2019m a big sports nut anyway coming from Philly.\u00a0 But this film!\u00a0\u00a0 How did you start this\u00a0 journey with this film?\u00a0 You\u2019ve got so much archival footage and then you also have\u00a0 footage that looks like you were there filming, which I don\u2019t think you were.<\/p>\n

KB: I was there in the latter part of their high school career.\u00a0 I was out here in Los Angeles going to Loyola, Marymount but I went back to my hometown of Akron to put together a ten minute film for one of my classes I was taking.\u00a0 It was an Introduction to\u00a0 Documentary class.\u00a0 It was important to me to do something for my hometown because I had just moved out here and all of my classmates gave me a hard time for being an Ohio guy. So I set out to do something Akron-based.\u00a0 I was really drawn to this article that I read about those boys.\u00a0 An article from their freshman year mentioned that four of them decided to go to high school together.\u00a0 And I just though that\u2019s such a unique kind of decision to make for someone that\u2019s so young.\u00a0 A couple kids were thirteen years old.\u00a0 High school is a time when a lot of people actually wind up splitting up friendship-wise.\u00a0 I knew that this particular high school wouldn\u2019t have been an easy or obvious choice for them, some of them being inner-city kids.\u00a0\u00a0 To me, that had the marking of something interesting and I decided to kind of pursue it.<\/p>\n

DLE: How difficult was it for you working on the film to go back and get cooperation from the\u00a0 school, the Coach and actually get the guys to participate?<\/p>\n

KB: It was a journey.\u00a0 There were many levels of difficulty.\u00a0 At first it was just hard to get in\u00a0 front of them because the Coach didn\u2019t want a distraction along for the ride.\u00a0 They were\u00a0 trying to do something special and they didn\u2019t necessarily want me in their head set.\u00a0 But it was just hard to get in touch with them.\u00a0 As soon as I got in front of Coach Dru and I explained to him that I\u2019m from Akron and this is a student project but most importantly, this isn\u2019t about LeBron [James].\u00a0 This is about these friends.\u00a0 This is a friendship kind of tale.\u00a0 That made him take a chance on me.\u00a0 They told me I could come to practice one day.\u00a0 I was told to come to practice one day and \u201cget everything you need\u201d.\u00a0 I came to practice that first day and I was like, \u201cWow!\u00a0 These friendships are really unique.\u00a0 I have to come back.\u201d\u00a0 So I decided to come back the next day and see if they said anything.\u00a0 And nobody said anything so I came back the day after that and it ended up being literally the next 7 \u00bd years of my life.\u00a0 I just kept coming around with this camera.\u00a0 Even after they were graduated, I was still popping in.\u00a0 It was great though because all along I was earning that trust and respect from those guys.\u00a0 They realized that even years after LeBron was in the NBA, I was still chasing this story that I told them I was going to do 5, 6 or 7\u00a0 years earlier.\u00a0 That made them open up to me and let me into their family lives and their lives.\u00a0 They would sit down and do interviews.\u00a0 I did interviews throughout the whole\u00a0 process but most of the ones used in the film were done 6 \u00bd years after I started.\u00a0 At\u00a0 that point, the trust and respect was there, where I could go places with them and have them\u00a0 take me to places in their life, through their journey, that they probably wouldn\u2019t go through with me maybe 2 years in the project.\u00a0 It was done over time.<\/p>\n

DLE: In the current interviews that you do have with them, you can see their faces.\u00a0 There\u2019s a\u00a0 lot of emotion but there\u2019s also a great comfort level that you see in each one of the guys as they are giving these interviews.\u00a0 Very casual and at ease.<\/p>\n

KB: Yeah and at that point I\u2019ve got a crew with me.\u00a0 The first 5 \u00bd years it was just me and a\u00a0 camera and some credit cards.\u00a0 They weren\u2019t used to any crew.\u00a0 Once I was finally able to\u00a0 get some financing to do some reshoots, that posed a different challenge.\u00a0 Now they walk in and there\u2019s a crew there with lights and they\u2019re like, \u201cWhoa!\u00a0 This is a different\u00a0 situation.\u00a0 This project\u2019s for sure, Kris.\u201d\u00a0 They weren\u2019t sure how to react and I was\u00a0 wondering if they were still going to be able to give me what we needed emotionally in\u00a0 front of other people.\u00a0 But, I think that just goes to show how important the journey was\u00a0 and how much they trusted and respected what we went through together throughout that\u00a0 6 \u00bd years.\u00a0 They were able to ignore the people around me and we could just sit there and\u00a0 connect.\u00a0 That was important and I appreciate that kind of trust and support I got from\u00a0 them.<\/p>\n

DLE: Do you think a lot of that trust comes from the fact that along the road you weren\u2019t\u00a0 exploiting your friendship with them while you were building their trust?\u00a0 You weren\u2019t\u00a0 going to the tabloids with stories about LeBron.\u00a0 You weren\u2019t trying to pit one against the\u00a0 other and gain favoritism.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen that happen with other filmmakers and situations\u00a0 where they get this idea, but at the heart, they are more interested in the celebrity they\u2019re\u00a0 gaining themselves as opposed to the story.<\/p>\n

KB: I think it does.\u00a0 I think it really does, especially because there was a two year period after\u00a0\u00a0 I graduated from college and these guys were already in college and LeBron is doing his\u00a0 NBA thing. In the two year period where I really hit some low points when I realized I\u00a0 needed funding to finish this thing the right way and the way it deserved to be told and I\u00a0 also needed to get back in front of LeBron to do his reshoots.\u00a0 At that point getting in\u00a0 front of LeBron is a much different situation than it was when I was with them in high\u00a0 school.\u00a0 I hit some serious low points but those guys. . . 5 \u00bd years in, I\u2019m still trying to tell this story and they realized that I never sold the footage that I have of LeBron.\u00a0 I was\u00a0 offered serious amounts of money to sell the footage outright.\u00a0 They knew that I was still\u00a0 chasing this story that was really important to me to tell.\u00a0 They appreciated that and they\u00a0 respected me for that.\u00a0 It was actually the boys that got me back in front of LeBron.\u00a0\u00a0 Romeo [Travis] drove me over to LeBron\u2019s house one night.\u00a0 We kind of surprised him.<\/p>\n

I sat down and showed him a 12 minute edited kind of extended trailer of what this film\u00a0 could be if they all jumped on board the right way.\u00a0 That got LeBron excited and at that\u00a0 point he was \u201cAlright.\u00a0 Whatever you need from me, I\u2019m in.\u201d\u00a0 So I do think that the work\u00a0 that I\u2019ve put in and the fact that I wasn\u2019t out to exploit LeBron\u2019s story or the fame aspect of it, I think that definitely struck a chord with them.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bigger reason the film turned\u00a0 out the way it did.<\/p>\n

DLE: How did LeBron become involved as Executive Producer?<\/p>\n

KB: Honestly, after that night when I showed him the trailer, the 12 minute piece, and he said,\u00a0 \u201cWe need to get this done\u201d, it just struck such an emotional core with him.\u00a0 He really felt\u00a0 like this could inspire a lot of people and he wanted to help out as much as possible.\u00a0 So\u00a0 [LeBron being executive producer] was more of a support thing than anything.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t\u00a0 involved financially or anything like that.\u00a0 But he was very involved in the support system.\u00a0 If I wanted to go back to Akron and do some re-shoots in High Definition and get on the\u00a0 roof of the YMCA to shoot he skyline or do different things, sometimes it\u2019s hard for\u00a0 filmmakers to get permits and do those kind of things.\u00a0 But when you\u2019ve got LeBron James on your job as an Executive Producer, it\u2019s much easier to do things like that.\u00a0 It was mostly him supporting me and the vision.\u00a0 That\u2019s what was important to him at that point.<\/p>\n

DLE: That\u2019s one thing I find very amazing about your filming with these guys.\u00a0 People see the\u00a0 bad boy image, especially with LeBron, and here you show a side of them that really\u00a0 captures a true camaraderie through friendships, the real heart and essence of what makes\u00a0 these boys who they are.<\/p>\n

KB: That was important to me.\u00a0 As a filmmaker your stories are driven by your subtext and the\u00a0 things that are below the surface.\u00a0 The basketball was kind of the easy story.\u00a0 If this had\u00a0 just been a LeBron James story then the basketball wouldn\u2019t be any more important but it\u00a0 was important for me to use basketball to show them failing [to win the championship]\u00a0 junior year.\u00a0 And then to show them overcoming stereotypes and things like that, it is\u00a0 about basketball but in a lot of ways it\u2019s not and that\u2019s how I wanted it to be.\u00a0 I wanted it\u00a0 to go below the level.\u00a0 Even if you\u2019re looking at basketball footage, it’s reflecting something else. It\u2019s metaphoric.\u00a0 When Romeo fouls out junior high during that Roger\u00a0 Bacon game, that has nothing to do with that basketball game.\u00a0 He\u2019s not a part of that\u00a0 team on that court because he was not a part of the team off the court.\u00a0 You know what I\u00a0 mean?\u00a0 It\u2019s using the sport as\u00a0 metaphor and that was very important to me.<\/p>\n

DLE: You really bring that forward because there\u2019s so much that is conveyed.\u00a0 When something bad happens to one, they all feel it.\u00a0 When something good happens. . .when Dru Joyce\u00a0 is\u00a0 out there and makes those 6 baskets, 7 baskets in a row, you can feel, sitting in the theatre, you can feel the rejoicing and the mutual celebration that you have on that screen.<\/p>\n

KB: Absolutely. That\u2019s a really great thing.\u00a0 We just got back from Europe where we premiered the film in London and in Paris.\u00a0 In London it was incredible because basketball is hardly recognized and known in London.\u00a0 A lot of people didn\u2019t know who LeBron was.\u00a0 But we had the screening there and there were people, during that scene you just mentioned, standing up literally out of their seats and cheering when Little Dru is hitting all these threes.\u00a0 It had nothing to do with sport at that point.\u00a0 It was about the overall theme of overcoming doubters and adversity. I love screening the film with people that aren\u2019t sports fans or that don\u2019t know anything about the game itself because they still\u00a0 connect with these characters the way sports fans do.\u00a0 That\u2019s because of the subtext.\u00a0 I\u00a0 appreciate you saying it as it\u2019s definitely something that was very, very important to me\u00a0 because I really wanted the film to stand out and be able to inspire people.<\/p>\n

DLE: Watching that scene in particular, but there are several others, and as I am sitting there, I\u00a0 got goosebumps watching it.\u00a0 Even now, just talking with you about that one sequence, I\u00a0 have goosebumps on my arms because your imagery is that powerful.<\/p>\n

KB: I appreciate that.\u00a0 Thank you very much.\u00a0 I\u2019m very glad it did.\u00a0 That\u2019s one of my favorite\u00a0 parts, too.<\/p>\n

DLE: Going hand in hand with that, what really stands out to me – and in all the years I worked\u00a0 in the industry and then working as a film critic now for 12 years – is something I\u2019ve never talked about, and that\u2019s the actual sound editing.\u00a0 Your sound editing here is spectacular.\u00a0 And particularly in that 7 basket sequence with Little Dru.\u00a0 You really selected music and then the oomph punches that you got with every basket, that you then have escalating witheach tone, with each basket, the sound is more intense.<\/p>\n

KB: Oh wow!\u00a0 You are the first person to mention the sound and that actually means a lot.\u00a0\u00a0 When I first said I want to take this film to theatres, this is something I thought I could\u00a0 strive for in a way.\u00a0 It was important to me to make ti stand out from other documentaries\u00a0 in a lot of ways and one of that was sound.\u00a0 I had the privilege of being there for so many\u00a0 unbelievable on the court experiences.\u00a0 When you\u2019re in the stadium you hear the squeaks\u00a0 and you hear the crowd and all those things.\u00a0 I wanted to replicate that because while this\u00a0 is a documentary, I wanted it to appeal to non-documentary fans as well so that the\u00a0 message could spread.\u00a0 So, it was important for me for ti to be a theatrical experience.\u00a0\u00a0 We were able to do the sound mix over at Universal Studios and the sound supervisor was actually from Akron, Ohio, so he was really supportive of the story.\u00a0 We had an incredible sound team and we spent a lot of time making sure that the squeaks and all those things were isolated and they were in the back of the theatre or the front, the cries of the crowd, you know really trying to wow the audience and make them feel all the court stuff.\u00a0 I\u00a0 really appreciate you mentioning that because that was very, very important to us for the filmmaking team<\/p>\n

DLE: It really furthers the film and that\u2019s one of the things that helps take it beyond being a\u00a0 sports movie and makes it a movie.<\/p>\n

KB: I appreciate that.\u00a0 That was very important to me.\u00a0 I\u2019m really glad you said that.<\/p>\n

DLE: Who was your sound supervisor at Universal?<\/p>\n

KB: Scott Hecker who is from Akron.\u00a0 That was definitely a huge part of it.\u00a0 He was following those stories from LA while it was happening so he was really excited about jumping on board.
\nDLE: What year did you actually start this?\u00a0 What year were you in college when you got this\u00a0 great idea?<\/p>\n

KB: I was a junior.\u00a0 It was 2002.<\/p>\n

DLE: When did you ultimately finish?<\/p>\n

KB: Started in \u201802 and finished in late \u201808.<\/p>\n

DLE: And you\u2019ve already got a deal putting it in theatres.\u00a0 That\u2019s not bad.<\/p>\n

KB: Honestly, we premiered last year at the Toronto Film Festival and that was a life changing moment.\u00a0 That was the first public screening and it was the first screening that LeBron and all those guys were there.\u00a0 I can honestly say it was the most nerve-wracking two hours or hour 45 of my life.\u00a0 It\u2019s a 1200 seat theatre and it sold out.\u00a0 I\u2019m sitting next to Willie [McGee] and Coach Drue and Lebron and Little Dru and all the others.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know if the general audience is going to like it.\u00a0 I don\u2019t if these guys who let me into their lives were going to like it.\u00a0 It was an unbelievable nerve-wracking experience.\u00a0 But when the\u00a0 film was done, all five guys are standing there, hugging each other and crying, and you could tell that it really struck a moment with them.\u00a0 And that was very validating to me from a personal level.\u00a0 From a filmmaking level, the audience responded really well. We ended up taking second place to \u201cSlumdog Millionaire\u201d which, of course, went on to do so many great things.\u00a0 Toronto was just so life changing.\u00a0 It really reaffirmed the whole\u00a0 journey.<\/p>\n

DLE: Taking second to Danny Boyle is nothing to sneeze at.<\/p>\n

KB: He\u2019s one of my favorite filmmakers and I was so shocked that it happened.\u00a0 I was asking,\u00a0 \u201cWho won?\u201d and then they mentioned and I was like, \u201cThat\u2019s the greatest thing.\u201d That\u2019s\u00a0 probably better than a win for me.\u00a0 Just seeing my name next to Danny Boyle\u2019s in some\u00a0 articles.\u00a0 Danny is incredible.\u00a0 I was very, very appreciative of that.<\/p>\n

DLE: I love Danny.\u00a0 I\u2019ve known him for quite a few years.\u00a0 With \u201cSlumdog\u201d and all his other\u00a0 successes, he\u2019s very humble, just like you also are very humble.\u00a0 You are dealing with\u00a0 some of the biggest talents in the sports world, the most recognizable people, and you\u00a0 come across with this great humility and sense of pride that is so refreshing.<\/p>\n

KB: I was part of a really special journey.\u00a0 These guys really let me be a part of something\u00a0 unique and inspiring.\u00a0 I\u2019m inspired by being a part of it.\u00a0 I feel very fortunate to have been part of their journey.\u00a0 It was just unbelievable.\u00a0 I\u2019ve made lifelong friends in a community. Those families all took me in, in a way, and I know we\u2019ll always stay close. I\u2019m very appreciative.<\/p>\n

DLE: How supportive were the families in giving you the archival footage from the boys\u2019\u00a0 younger days and some of the home movies and whatnot?<\/p>\n

KB: They were really supportive.\u00a0 I think that was earned over time. Five years in, I\u2019m still at it\u00a0 and I\u2019m still trying to go after that same story I set out to do.\u00a0 They respected that.\u00a0 So when I asked for things, they worked so hard for me in a lot of ways. They searched their\u00a0 basements, they looked through scrapbooks, they really tried to find everything we asked\u00a0 for.\u00a0 It was unbelievable.\u00a0 I had a box sent to me from Romeo and I open it up and inside\u00a0 there would be his original baby footprints from the hospital.\u00a0 Not copies, but originals.\u00a0\u00a0 They really took me in and embraced that, sending me everything.\u00a0 It was unbelievable the\u00a0 amount of trust they gave me.\u00a0 Especially considering some of these people, as the film\u00a0 shows, they are inner city and trust doesn\u2019t necessarily come naturally to them because of the things they go through.\u00a0 For them to take an outsider like me in to that kind of home\u00a0 environment and trust me with those things, it was unbelievable.\u00a0 It\u2019s why I felt an overwhelming sense of obligation and appreciation to make sure the film demonstrated\u00a0 that trust and gave the story justice.<\/p>\n

DLE: How many hours of film did you end up with?<\/p>\n

KB: 700 hours of footage overall.<\/p>\n

DLE: Kris, what is it that you want the audience to take from this film?<\/p>\n

KB: I would really like the audience to learn a lesson about dreams.\u00a0 Those boys had a dream\u00a0 and Coach Dru had a dream.\u00a0 I feel that going after dreams is one of the hardest things\u00a0 you can do in life.\u00a0 A lot of people are afraid to chase their own dreams, so they make you feel bad about chasing yours.\u00a0 They tell you it\u2019s not smart or it\u2019s not the logistical thing to do.\u00a0 And those boys\u2019 dream was pretty incredible – try and win a national basketball championship from Akron, Ohio.\u00a0 Ohio is a football state.\u00a0 It\u2019s a lofty goal. Yet, they used each other and the friendship they had to ignore the naysayers and to go after it anyway even though it took nine years.\u00a0 And then there\u2019s Coach Dru who didn\u2019t even start chasing his dream until his mid-40’s.\u00a0 Because of those boys he decided he could still go after his\u00a0 dream.\u00a0 I feel like it is a basketball film and it is a sports story, but at the same time it\u2019s really more of a story about dreams and surrogate family.\u00a0 I feel if you can surround yourself with people who are positive and if you can believe in yourself and what you\u2019re chasing, then you should always go after your dream no matter what it if it\u2019s not\u00a0 basketball, if it\u2019s being an artist, being a lawyer.\u00a0 For me, I thought my story paralleled those in a lot of ways because I wanted to be a filmmaker more than anything.\u00a0 I wanted to tell stories.\u00a0 And here I am 7 \u00bd years later.\u00a0 I was able to achieve my dream with those guys as they achieved theirs.\u00a0 Because they took a chance on me and because even when everyone was telling me it was too hard and that trying to tell the Coach Dru story was a waste of time and I would never get it off the ground, I called Willie or Sian [Cotton] and those guys would tell me, \u201cStay at it.\u00a0 You\u2019re doing it so far. It\u2019s gonna happen.\u201d\u00a0 We surround ourselves with the right positivity and here I am, I was really able to achieve my dream.\u00a0 I just feel like it\u2019s a film about dreams and I hope people can take that away from it.<\/p>\n

DLE: Thank you so much, Kris. I think MORE THAN A GAME is one of the finest documentaries I\u2019ve seen this year.<\/p>\n

KB: Thank you.\u00a0 I really appreciate it.\u00a0\u00a0 Nice talking to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: debbie lynn elias Akron, Ohio native turned long time Culver City resident, Kristopher Belman is a filmmaker with ethics, integrity, humility and talent.\u00a0 Always wanting to make movies, Kris had long been interested in a story that began in Akron, Ohio.\u00a0 A story involving legendary high school basketball coach, Dru Joyce, and some young, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2832,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[491],"class_list":["post-2829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","tag-exclusive-11-with-kristopher-belman"],"yoast_head":"\nEXCLUSIVE 1:1 WITH KRISTOPHER BELMAN - Behind The Lens Online<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Behind the Lens is your home for in-depth movie reviews, filmmaker & celebrity interviews, and more, all by industry professional and film critic debbie lynn elias...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/behindthelensonline.net\/site\/interviews\/exclusive-11-with-kristopher-belman\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EXCLUSIVE 1:1 WITH KRISTOPHER BELMAN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Behind the Lens is your home for in-depth movie reviews, filmmaker & celebrity interviews, and more, all by industry professional and film critic debbie lynn elias...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/behindthelensonline.net\/site\/interviews\/exclusive-11-with-kristopher-belman\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Behind The Lens Online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-08-06T15:02:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-10-15T19:12:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/behindthelensonline.net\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/khris_belman_-_edited.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"391\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"587\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"debbie lynn elias\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"debbie lynn elias\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"20 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/behindthelensonline.net\\\/site\\\/interviews\\\/exclusive-11-with-kristopher-belman\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/behindthelensonline.net\\\/site\\\/interviews\\\/exclusive-11-with-kristopher-belman\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"debbie lynn elias\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/behindthelensonline.net\\\/site\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2d9b602095eb0ce3d363efb75ad0b5d4\"},\"headline\":\"EXCLUSIVE 1:1 WITH KRISTOPHER BELMAN\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-08-06T15:02:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-10-15T19:12:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/behindthelensonline.net\\\/site\\\/interviews\\\/exclusive-11-with-kristopher-belman\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":4002,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/behindthelensonline.net\\\/site\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/behindthelensonline.net\\\/site\\\/interviews\\\/exclusive-11-with-kristopher-belman\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/behindthelensonline.net\\\/site\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2010\\\/08\\\/khris_belman_-_edited.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"EXCLUSIVE 1:1 WITH KRISTOPHER BELMAN\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Interviews\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/behindthelensonline.net\\\/site\\\/interviews\\\/exclusive-11-with-kristopher-belman\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/behindthelensonline.net\\\/site\\\/interviews\\\/exclusive-11-with-kristopher-belman\\\/\",\"name\":\"EXCLUSIVE 1:1 WITH KRISTOPHER BELMAN - 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