5 Questions with Chris Osborn
We’re closing out the week with “True Blue,” director and film curator, Chris Osborn’s beautifully-shot and acted new film. We asked him about the setting of Atlantic City, his creative process with his actors and D.P., and balancing filmmaking with his curatorial efforts...
1) Can you talk a bit about the origins of this project?
”True Blue” really started with the characters, who each lived in their own story idea at first. Larry came from my fascination with multi-level-marketing schemes. The products sold through them are always dubious and weird, usually some kind of health supplement, but the real goal is, of course, is to attract other people into the gambit, to sell the art of selling. So much of this work now is done on social media, and a lot of my early research came from just falling down rabbit holes online, watching sellers tout the given scheme as the solution to all their life's troubles. Some of the personal stories they told in these videos were pretty harrowing. It became difficult for me to tell how much of the story was a put-on just to drum up interest in the scheme and how much was a real confession of strife and loneliness. Probably a little bit of both. The schemes deliberately poke at these insecurities in people. Sellers are really just trying to get close to other people, but they only know how to do that by gamifying these relationships for their own monetary gain, which is deeply sad to me. It was interesting to personify this through Larry—he genuinely doesn't know how to connect to people any other way.
Patrice, on the other hand, is specifically based off a friend of mine, a bodybuilder I met on a music video shoot. My friend was the most charismatic, effervescent person. He held himself to a strict raw-vegan diet and had experienced a genuinely impressive body transformation in the throes of grief and a deep depression. He struggled to use this very, very personal story and make a living off of it. He'd go on morning talk shows to talk about it and was once a contestant on American Ninja Warrior. He always had some kind of hustle: he had a cookbook, he had a exercise plan, at one point he was writing a metal opera. He wanted me to make a documentary about him. A few years ago, my friend sadly took his own life. It really, really shook me up. There was a loneliness and pain in him that reveals itself now in hindsight.
So I had these two deeply lonely characters, with a similar kind of pain stemming from the uniquely isolating characteristics of life under capitalism. It only made sense for them to meet in the detritus of Trump's fallen empire in Atlantic City, a city similarly sapped of its beauty by charlatans and conmen.
2) This film has such a rich atmosphere. I love the look of it. What was your process working with your D.P., Jeff Melanson?
Thank you! Jeff is a genius. I know his work has been featured on NoBudge before, and I can see a future in which Jeff is one of our most renowned cinematographers. Jeff stepped onto “True Blue” fairly soon before production, and even with a limited amount of prep time than normal, he jumped in headfirst and left his mark on it. The film changed a lot from when he joined the project—the tone shifted toward something a bit more mature, a bit more sensual. While I'd maybe started from some of the typical, grittier references for casino-set, neon-drenched movies, Jeff and I were able to bounce ideas off each other and push toward a more uniquely romantic aesthetic. I just feel like he brought this swoony quality to it and helped me figure out that I was making a doomed romance rather than a seedy study of Atlantic City. He helped open things up, both visually and emotionally. Shooting Super 16 helped a lot too of course. It was the first time I'd ever directed a project on film, but Jeff was very familiar. I think we struck a perfect balance of the inherent grittiness I originally sought by shooting on 16, and a lush, sensual warmth that Jeff was after. It was an incredible experience.
3) Also, you get such great performances. How hands-on are you with your actors?
Thank you! I mean it's easy when you cast literal legends like David Warshofsky and Michael James Shaw. It was admittedly intimidating at first — after all, David has worked with Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Spielberg, Miranda July, and countless others, while Michael is a Juilliard trained performer who'd worked with Todd Solondz on Wiener-Dog and did Avengers: Infinity War right after True Blue. But they both treated mine as seriously as any other project. They brought so much of themselves to their roles. The three of us spoke candidly about experiences we'd had that all imprinted themselves on the characters. I tend to give the actors quite a bit of freedom to interpret and blur themselves with the writing. Michael especially had so many weirdly serendipitous parallels with Patrice that came up through our conversations that it made sense to just nudge him toward creative decisions and encourage him to go deeper and more personal with it. David required a more hands-on and direct approach than I was used to, which was an amazing lesson for me. I tend to keep things looser and more collaborative with everyone on-set, but on the first day, David really taught me how to ask for what I want and be clear in my direction. We all pushed each other in different ways and the film was better off for it. Working with actors is my absolute favorite part of the filmmaking process but never have I learned more or felt more immediately connected with my cast than here.
4) Another very distinct presence is your setting of Atlantic City. Was the relationship with that particular place there from the beginning? Did you have any connection or past experiences there?
I'd never gone before I had the idea for the film. I think I had the idea to set “True Blue” in Atlantic City shortly before I visited for the first time — it was over Thanksgiving weekend, by myself, which was a very interesting way to see it for the first time. I felt very much like Larry on that first trip. Space and setting is very important to me when working through an idea — I sort of have to marinate in a place for awhile and soak up its textures before I can write about it properly. I visited about four times after that, just sort of as foraging trips and location scouts, meeting and talking with strangers and learning more about it. I hope I did Atlantic City justice because everyone we met and worked with there was so lovely and helpful. It really is a wonderful place.
5) In addition to filmmaking, you also curate a really cool series called "DEEP". Which came first, filmmaking or curating? And how do you balance the two?
To me, they come from the same place. I think if you watch D E E P, even though it's a showcase of much more experimental work, there are little similarities to my own work that are recognizable, little giveaways to what's important to me, and where my taste lies. They don't feel that different in my head.
There's little to balance because I just care about good movies and want to present them in the strongest possible way. I get so excited and nourished by watching good work that I want to share it with everyone. I then take it as inspiration to do better in my own work. Watching a curated program with an audience teaches me more about how my own films could play in a crowd. One practice bounces off and affects the other.
That said, “True Blue” is the last film I directed before really committing to D E E P. I'm very excited to see how the influence of D E E P leeches onto my own filmmaking more from here on out.
Contact Info:
Email: christopherm.osborn@gmail.com
Social Media:
Twitter: @Chris_Osborn, IG: @chrisosborn