Producer Joe Sabia first encountered tennis legend Roger Federer in 2019 for Vogue’s “73 Questions” series. Sabia enjoyed the interview and kept in touch with his team. Three years later, as Federer looked to retire from the sport as a professional player, Sabia was brought into his offices. Federer was planning to officially announce the news via his Instagram page with an audio message accompanying the post. His team pondered if Federer’s retirement should be filmed.
But Sabia responded, “Yes,” believing “it’d be a mistake not to.’”
As conversations went back and forth, the idea was that the video would be stripped back, private, under the radar, and like Federer himself, effortless. So, Sabia used two cameras, and the idea was to shoot an 8 to 12-minute film. “If Roger doesn’t want anyone to see it, I’m completely fine doing this, knowing that it’s going to be just for friends and family,” Sabia said.
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