Interview With Brooke Goldfinch
We spoke to the director about their film RED ROVER…
https://www.brookegoldfinch.com/redrover
How did you come up with the idea for this movie?
It all started years before I made the film with an idea for the opening scene. I was walking to the Post Office and I imagined this really fun dinner party, where people had gathered with all the best food, dressed up in their best clothes, to see their best friends. From the outside it would look like a wonderful event, but when you looked at one teenage girl at the party, you got the hint that something wasn’t quite right. Years later I had a horrifyingly vivid dream about the end of the world, and I remembered that scene that I had come up with, so I put them together.
What drove you to use the visual language that you did for this particular movie?
I had become known in film school for shooting in a very static way — wide symmetrical shots in the vein of Roy Andersson. I loved Roy Andersson’s shorts and the multilayers of storytelling happening in a single frame. I experimented with how to use this style in very mundane, domestic settings. But by the time I was in pre with Red Rover, I was becoming increasingly frustrated with this approach.
What is it about the Roy Andersson approach you were employing that frustrated you? Do you see yourself ever going back to that method?
There were three reasons it was frustrating. Firstly, choosing any one style and repeating it is boring. Secondly, when you are using wide, static shots, you need to direct the audience’s eye within the frame itself, using props, costumes and performers. You can’t create movement and dynamism by using angles inherent in the frame. Everything is flat. These shots are particularly merciless because you use wide lenses which mean you can see absolutely everything in frame. For this reason, it’s harder to hide your budget limitations. You can see the fraying fabric that your designer is trying to sell as curtains or that the bookshelf that isn’t quite right. Thirdly, I just wanted to move. I wanted to run and jump with the camera. I wanted the audience to feel excited and activated and I wanted to get the camera off sticks.
Let’s get back to the short, please talk about working with the cinematographer.
When I teamed up with the amazing cinematographer, Ben Rutkowski, I told him I wanted every shot to be beautiful. I wanted the world to look absolutely, painfully stunning so while the audience watched the film they would feel the agony and grief of losing the world forever. I asked Ben to help me add movement to our shooting style. I came to him with a detailed storyboard, with specific frames in mind and he would do beautiful dolly movements or gentle pans.
Because we had a young cast, with varying amounts of onset experience, I didn’t want my actors to be encumbered with complicated lighting set ups that limited their movements and meant they had to hit precise marks. Ben did such a great job of lighting the sets so the actors had freedom to move, but he didn’t compromise on the aesthetic of the lighting. It looked glorious!
As well as Ben, I had other really remarkable heads of department. Laura Moss, my Production Designer, was really instrumental in creating the look of Red Rover. I had created a detailed Look Book that showcased how I saw the family and the world they inhabited, and she ran with it. She has a really deft touch, adding dimension to the story through physical details. For instance, in the movie, the kids find an empty house. Laura had a whole narrative about who had lived in the house. She placed luggage at the door as if they had left in a hurry and a hundred other details like that. My costume designer, Liene Dobraja, was really careful to choose fabrics and textures that look really sumptuous and tactile on camera. She also told a story with each item of clothing, bringing the characters to life.
What other movies or arts did you consume in preparation, or what of those inspired you for this production?
I feel like my references are really obvious in the film. The cinematography was greatly inspired by the works of Terrence Mallick, particularly The Tree of Life and by the cinematography of Harris Savides, my all-time favourite. I also saw Melancholia around the time I was writing the film. I tired of the rich entitled central character in the Lars Von Trier epic. I just wanted to know what was happening in the village. With Red Rover, I set out to answer that question.
Talk about a pleasant surprise you had during production.
At times it felt like the shoot was cursed. On day one, our picture vehicle exploded, we lost our location and then we got lost trying to find the new location. When we finally arrived, we had to film the most climactic scene of the movie while people were doing their laundry. We even had a typhoon, which I think is fairly rare in upstate New York. There were times I thought we wouldn’t get the film made but the biggest surprise was how my cast and crew rallied together and stood by me. I will always be grateful to them for their courage in the face of really terrible luck. We also had a lot of amazing locals come to the rescue, including the waiters at Dos Amigos, Wurtsboro, who lent us their truck for a week with no charge.
Talk about a pleasant surprise you had during post-production.
We had spent the entire budget on the film and we were totally out of cash. I went home to Australia and was surprised that I could apply for post-production funding from Screen Australia, our national film body. I was so pleased and surprised to get it!
Why do you think you were driven to make this specific movie at this specific time?
It’s hard to say where ideas come from. Growing up in a religious community and losing my faith as a teenager had a big impact on me and has influenced my work. There’s something interesting to me about how civilized and adult teens are. In some ways, they can be more gracious in the face of a crisis. In Red Rover, the teens slowly and childishly play out their young romance under extreme and terrible circumstances, not knowing quite how to communicate their feelings before it’s too late. The pair face a potentially dire fate but they are also granted a new freedom for the first time in their lives as they are separated from their parents. It allows them to explore and see the world differently.
Did the film come out how you thought it would?
Film is a tricky beast. Mostly films never live up to your grandiose expectations, especially when you have a small budget. Red Rover was different. It’s not quite what I had in my head, but that is because I had such wonderful collaborators who took my original concept and extended it. Through every detail, they added more depth and story.
Do you have your future filmography laid out?
I’m in development on three projects that I’m absolutely obsessed with, a feature and two TV shows. Cannot wait until I can say more! ☺
If you could focus your life on one thing that didn’t have to do with movies, what would that be?
I think about this a lot because a career in film is gruelling and I often dream of changing course. I am fascinated by psychology but I’m not sure I could be a therapist. It’s emotionally draining and I can’t hold eye contact for that long.
What do you hope to pass along to other artists?
Honestly, sometimes it feels like we are actually living through the end times. In Australia, we’re currently in lockdown because of the Covid-19 pandemic and I have become a little pessimistic and disillusioned with art. There’s no point creating art that never gets watched because human beings have made themselves extinct! My message would be this; please vote for people who commit to emissions targets, please put your money into ethical companies, recycle, care for one another and raise children that can save us all from destruction.
What is its role in times of a pandemic? Some people only think it should make you smile or warm your heart, I think here we think it is best that art open the ways people think, to push back only if a little bit. What are your thoughts on that?
I suppose I’m a big believer in the power of art to reach people and change the way they see the world and I think we need that right now. I grew up in a religious, politically conservative, racist household and I will always be thankful for the TV in the living room that opened up my perspective. It not only showed me how different people lived but put me in their shoes as they struggled to overcome injustice, discrimination and adversity. And yes, you can get that experience from mass produced, mainstream content, but what you get from art is the less sanitised, saccharine version. Art shows you something beautiful, whilst at the same time acknowledging that life is pain. Maybe that’s what the role of art is now? To remind people that amongst the pain and fear, beauty still exists, and the planet, and maybe even mankind, is worth saving? Or perhaps not.
How could your life, as a filmmaker and in reference to your career/art, be improved? What do you wish was different?
I wish I got paid more so I could spend more time on the art of it and not as much time hustling!
tinyletter.com/ToEachTheirOwnCinema
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