Directors Comment

- Simon Rumley

               
I wanted to make a film which challenges traditional notions about what can and can't be done in the thematics and structure of filmmaking whilst retaining easily identifiable characters that undergo a gripping and emotive denouement. Importantly, I wanted the film to present a challenging and disturbing experience. In RED WHITE & BLUE, I present an everyday occurrence – casual sex and the one night stand – and posit the question: what if one of the things that brings you the most pleasure is the thing that actually kills you? With the increasing prevalence of AIDS and HIV, this is a question that has become pertinent to millions of people around the world and it is this, therefore, that I take as the starting point for RED WHITE & BLUE.

Very deliberately, this film begins as one type of film and over the course of 100 minutes transmutes into another, with its depiction of a ‘lost’ twenty-something girl, Erica, trying to survive and make sense of her life. For about the first 60 minutes, the film is pure montage; there are no camera movements whatsoever and the pacing and editing come from making sure we did many camera set-ups when filming. The sound design is incredibly quiet and spacious with score music being almost nonexistent for the majority of the film. The idea behind this is to try to persuade the audience of ‘the reality’ of the film, by using as few cinematic tricks as possible. Although set in Austin, Texas, this style of directing is, I suppose, very European and I think at odds with the American way of filmmaking where Hollywood prevails and where the majority of younger, more indie filmmakers want to become Hollywood directors.

      

The film tells a linear story but is structured in three definite sections, each of which concentrates on a different character who becomes the vessel for the story. As soon as an intimacy and empathy has been developed with the first character, Erica, the film switches to another character, Franki, a young emotionally unstable character who engaged in casual sex with Erica in the very first scenes of the film. Once we’ve seen her reality and then his, once their world has been established, bit by bit the screws are turned and the film becomes a descent into revenge, terror and tragedy.

Once Franki has taken his revenge on Erica, we approach the final third of the film which is centered around Nate (Erica’s platonic friend) who then wreaks revenge on those who did Eric wrong. It is at this point that the film becomes more ‘traditional’ in it production - there is more scored music, the camera moves constantly as it follows Nate around.

Although RED WHITE & BLUE is an intricate character study, told through a unique structure, it is, in its widest sense, not only an investigation into American culture but more so an analysis of where the Western World finds itself in early the 21st Century and is thus a film about the human condition, lack of communication and the futility of violence.
 

Read an interview with director Simon Rumley here!