As a Grimsby Town fan at heart, Jack Spring’s career as a film director continues to grow through the ‘All Town Aren’t We’ documentary.
Born in London, Spring made his debut at the age of 19, with comedy film ‘Destination: Dewsbury’.
In 2021, he directed ‘Three Day Millionaire’ as his second feature film – starring Colm Meaney which drew critical acclaim and reached a #5 rating on Netflix in the UK.
Speaking to Soccerscene after the completion of ‘All Town Aren’t We’, Spring discusses his film directing journey to date, the origins of the documentary, key components of the editing process and his personal connection to Grimsby Town.
What led you into a directing career?
Jack Spring: My Dad and I made these little stop-motion animations such as David and Goliath and play figures that went on Windows Movie Maker, and we used the very early digital stills cameras.
When I was about 12 or 13, my friend at school got a Mac which had a digital video camera, and every weekend we’d make these small little clips.
From the age of 13, it really snowballed from there and I’m lucky that I knew what I wanted to do early on.
The harder part was learning all about the financial side and raising money in the notoriously unglamorous aspects that were involved.
I did go to university, but I found I was teaching myself more outside of that by making short films every weekend and I ended up making around 100 of those.
I made the decision to drop out of university because I needed to raise money, given investors were not keen on me as I was only 18 – it prompted me to figure out what to do next.
There was a startup company that I created, which taught me a whole lot about business – such as how to budget, how to schedule and to manage teams.
Off the back of that I went to those investors to show what I could do at a younger age, and I believe it helps to start young to get your foot in the door earlier.
Tell us about how the All Town Aren’t We documentary originated and what it was like creating it?
Jack Spring: All Town Aren’t We was the first series we’ve done; we did a couple pilots beforehand.
It was quite intimidating because we decided to do the documentary project after the story happened, literally walking down the steps after the final.
I’m a big Grimsby fan and my production company owns the Club, so it made sense to put the two together.
When it came to interviewing footballers, in top-flight competitions like the English Premier League or A-League in Australia you see the players as very media-trained and they don’t give the interviewer much.
However, at Grimsby Town they were brilliant, I was far more nervous interviewing my heroes in Grimsby than any other typical player.
Everyone was great in telling emotional stories and you see the players and staff more as actors rather than footballers with usual responses.
There were so many stories to be told and some of them didn’t even make the final cut. For example, parents that were disabled and the lengths that it took to get the game, or Harry Clifton – a homegrown player and cult hero – having to cope with his grandad dying just after getting relegated.
It’s a credit to the players for opening up as I’m sure it wasn’t easy.
How was the editing process and making those tough decisions on what to include or exclude?
Jack Spring: I deliberately worked with an editor who wasn’t a Grimsby fan supporter.
The reason behind that was he would work out which storylines only Grimsby Town fans would care about, and what general sports fans would pay attention to.
It was really helpful because the storylines that I thought would be worth it didn’t make the final cut as the editor did not think it was important enough.
If I didn’t have that, there would be far too many Grimsby Town-specific narratives like players getting dropped which the general person wouldn’t be drawn into.
What would you say to those who haven’t seen the documentary?
Jack Spring: The 12-month journey is genuinely the wildest sporting story to exist.
Grimsby Town has spent the last 20 years flirting between League 2 and non-league football, where the Club found itself in non-league for just the second time in its history.
There’s a massive difference in terms of the clubs that play there – as people are made redundant, there’s a lot less money involved and it genuinely affects an awful lot of people in the town.
Two local business owners bought the club as they were relegated, who are the best thing to have ever happened to Grimsby Town.
The documentary is the next 12 months since that change, which is bonkers.
Without giving away the ending, Grimsby Town’s whole season became very dramatic to see if they can even make the playoffs based on previous form.
The final episodes included possibly the best football game ever played against Wrexham AFC in a semi-final.
It’s one of the best sporting stories because it’s essentially a working-class town which used to have the world’s largest fishing port, but the industry died.
For a town that has been on a negative trajectory for a long time, to see them rise against the odds is something that will appeal to all sports lovers.
It’s highly emotional, highly gripping and an unbelievable sporting story that I was fortunate enough to capture.
All Town Aren’t We is now streaming exclusively on DocPlay in Australia and New Zealand.
