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5 Questions With … Frank V. Ross, director of ‘Audrey the Trainwreck’
Here, we talk to Frank V. Ross, director of the feature “Audrey the Trainwreck,” an intimate portrayal of the ennui and frustration suffered by 30-somethings stuck in a rut on the path most traveled. (Composer John Medeski jumps in at the end, as well, for his thoughts on the film’s score.)
“Audrey the Trainwreck” screens at 12:00 PM on Monday, March 15 at the Alamo Ritz and again at 11:30 a.m. on March 17 at Alamo South Lamar.
Have you worked an office job similar to the one Ron works in the film?
Frank V. Ross: No, my friend did. I went to her office to record some sound and when noon struck she pulled a box of wheat thins from her desk drawer and waited for me to be done so she could go to lunch. I don’t know why I thought it was so funny, all she said to justify her squirrel-like behavior was “People eat’em.” That element of office jobs is the interesting part for me. The decision to make it an ATM parts business was simply because I’m pretty sure there won’t be ATMs in 20 years.
Do you think most people hate their jobs?
Slippery. There has to be times we hate them, times we notice and verbalize that this sh** is getting old. Fleeting moments of anger and hate should be cultivated, because in those moments, we’re capable of so much. I’ve worked jobs I hate for the better part of my life and can’t claim to understand all people, but I know I’m not the only one letting jet run up my butt.
How do you go about making the mundane interesting?
The mundane gets a bad rap. Ron gets a cup of coffee from the same place everyday. That’s taken from someone I know, and probably someone else that you know or even you. My friend gets a coffee from the gas station every morning and I was incredulous when I found out - “Every morning?” “Every morning for the past eight or nine years.” It felt so private, this part of his everyday life that I was so oblivious too. So much of the mundane is never spoken about out loud, it makes it interesting to capture it.
How do you choose the scenes you use to show day-to-day life and how stultifying it can be? And how do you avoid unauthentic moments?
Film language has its established way of showing repetition, routine, and the resulting internal rage. In Audrey, I tried to show it in the ellipses of each moment. More than aiming for ‘authentic’ as a goal, which would result in its own kind of fake, I try to strip away anything that feels typical, or put there because it has to be to solve narrative problems. The unauthentic is only allowed in when you play smarter than the audience.
One song into the film, I wrote in my notes “funky piano, Medeski-esque” … then come to see that it was, in fact, (jazz pianist) John Medeski. How did you come to work with John and can you talk about that process?
No one else sounds like that guy, right? He’s the best. I’m just a fan, he had seen my previous film and liked it. I think the way I wanted to go about scoring the movie appealed to him. Didn’t want him to write anything, we’d watch the clips, John would play what he felt and I would jump up and down clapping when I liked something. He honed everything into a piece that he could recreate but still play around with. It’s amazing to see someone with complete communication within themselves between their imagination and what they can create.
John Medeski: For me, the process was natural and very fast. We worked together as I recorded the music, which helped a lot. Frank had completely clear vague ideas about what he was looking for. Perfect for me. He would give a general description of the style of what he was feeling for the scene and i would try a few things until he said, ‘yes….yes………yes.’ We would throw down a couple of versions with some different options and move on to the next scene. Without getting into any musical terminology, Frank communicated what he was looking for in a way that i could really understand. It was fun.
i hope he calls me again after he gets all famous.
Audrey the Trainwreck (first trailer) from David Lowery on Vimeo.
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