An in-depth conversation with director ROB SCHROEDER talking about the intriguing, twisting, turning, and often mind-blowing sci-fi mystery, ULTRASOUND. A fascinating conversation on a fascinating film.
With extensive producing credits to his name as well as a director of the acclaimed series Variety Studio: Actors on Actors, ROB SCHROEDER makes his narrative feature directorial debut with ULTRASOUND.
SYNOPSIS: “Driving home late at night during a heavy rainstorm, Glen experiences car trouble. Near where his car gets stuck, he spots a house, knocks on the door and is greeted by an oddly friendly middle-aged man, Arthur, and his younger wife, Cyndi. The strange couple pours him a drink, and then more drinks, followed by an unexpected offer that Glen can’t refuse. Elsewhere, a young woman, Katie, is feeling emotionally weighed down by a secret romantic arrangement that feels like a textbook case of gaslighting. And at the same time, in a nondescript research facility, medical professional Shannon begins questioning her role in a bizarre experiment, fearing that she’s doing more harm than good.”
To be blunt, ULTRASOUND is a total mind fuck – in a good way. Characters converge and nothing and no one is what or who they appear to be. Keeping us on our toes for the entire film, after establishing his characters and providing some unusual situations as set-ups in the first half of the film, your patience is rewarded as the second half kicks into high gear with a full-fledged, non-stop adrenaline rush. A story built upon distorted reality and manipulation with a subtext of politics and ethics, ULTRASOUND twists and turns with unexpected surprises and reveals.
Directed by Schroeder and written by cartoonist Conor Stechschulte based on his graphic novel Generous Bosom, ULTRASOUND is buoyed by a standout cast, among them, Vincent Kartheiser, Chelsea Lopez, Breeda Wool, Rainey Qualley, and Bob Stephenson.
Delivering one of the strongest performances of ULTRASOUND, Breeda Wool is superb and really embraces the character arc and development of Shannon, a psychiatrist working on the therapeutic potential of hypnosis with electronic tones. At first, you get the sense she’s kind of clueless, but we slowly see more confidence and engagement and interaction as the story progresses and with that Wool brings some wonderful facial expressiveness and body language that simmers to an ultimate boil and explosion in the third act. She is fascinating to watch. Also standout is Bob Stephenson who, as always, brings us something memorable, and does so here with “Art”. With a creepy vibe from the moment we meet him moving into a sleazy vibe, it’s not until that third act before we find out just who Art is. Stephenson pushes the creepy envelope extremely well.
One of the real joys of ULTRASOUND that is glorious from beginning to end is Matthew Rudenberg’s cinematography. Rudenberg knocks it out of the park with imagery and a visual tonal bandwidth that is rich, textured, polished, metaphoric. Color is king with the specific uses of reds, yellows, and blues. Some stunning dissolves and superimpositions add a nice visual texture that compliments the sonic detail. But hand in hand with the cinematography is the work of the sound team, particularly important given sound is an integral part of the tale. Great attention is paid to sound, be it frequency tones, thunder and heavy rain, a subtle sound of a faucet running in another room. Interesting is that a lot of expected ambient sound is not present, something which Rob and I discuss in this interview.
ROB SCHROEDER holds nothing back in this exclusive interview as we dive into the making of ULTRASOUND, from the origin of the idea and Stechschulte’s crafting of the script, designing the visuals, finding a location, budget and how that impacted production choices, production design, developing the visual design and visual grammar with cinematographer Matthew Rudenberg, editing, casting, sound design and mix led by Bob Burrito and his team, Zak Engel’s electronic score punctuated with operatic notes and sonic noise, and more.
TAKE A LISTEN. . .
by debbie elias, exclusive interview March 2, 2022
ULTRASOUND is in theaters and on-demand now.
