The Media Learning Curve II: More to document on LeBron and his pals

One of the interesting facets in the release of the new documentary "More Than A Game," about LeBron James' St. Vincent-St. Mary's high school squad from Akron, Ohio that won three state titles in his four years and was the consensus 2003 national champion, is how much this project strays from a typical sports documentary in look and feel.

We wrote more about James' participation in promoting it and his new book on the subject in today's media column (linked here) but weren't able to get indepth about the film's message.

While some may compare it in content to "Hoop Dreams," or a theatrical movie such as "Coach Carter," producer Harvey Mason Jr.and director Kris Belman have crafted something much bolder and appealing with "More Than A Game."

"I was never really a fan of docs," admitted Mason, whose media company expanded to take over in producing the movie that debuts in L.A., New York and Cleveland today. "I'd watched a few but they never really captured my attention. I'm more a scripted-film guy."

Point of fact: Mason produced three Academy Award nominated songs in 2007 from the soundtrack he also put out for the movie "Dreamgirls."

"From my perspective, I didn't want to make it feel like a doc, more of a scripted narrative film," Mason continued. "I didn't have a wealthy of doc knowledge, just a love of films. I've never seen a film like this, but it has such a great story, and it's real life. It's a movie, but also reality.

"One of the things I've been fortunate to have in my music producing and song writing is my tastes seem to be in line with what people like. When I'm writing or producint, I want something that works for them. I did the same with the movie. I did what I think I'd like, and hopefully, that falls in line with the public's taste here.

"Even with the music, we've already got a soundtrack and three songs and three videos that have been put out there and really taken off. We had an 80-piece orchestra at Warner Brothers sound stage just to do the score. That's stuff you really don't do for a doc. I think we pushed the envelope.

"Kris has a great vision on what it should look like and did much more research into the documentary field. I wanted to stay fresh and keep that outside eye on it."