Behind the scenes of the Oklahoma movie 'What Rhymes with Reason,' about teen depression
SPENCER — Perched in his director's chair behind an array of lights, cameras and monitors, Kyle William Roberts watched Gattlin Griffith step in front of a green screen and hold up a compass.
"The compass is a big part of the journey. ... As this is a story of identity and purpose, the compass obviously represents direction in that journey — and the journey of life," Roberts explained during a break in filming on his coming-of-age movie "What Rhymes with Reason."
Standing on the visual effects soundstage at Green Pastures Studio in Spencer last fall during the last day of filming, the Oklahoma City filmmaker pondered his own eight-year journey to make his heartfelt, homegrown movie. Along the challenging trek, Roberts, his cast and crew made it to the top of Mount Scott in time for a sunrise shoot, staged an 1980s-theme high school prom inside the real-life Jones High School and safely navigated a global pandemic.
"It's all flooding into my head, us going to Turner Falls and Robbers Cave and the Wichita Mountains ... and Red Rock Canyon, all of these beautiful places in Oklahoma. And at that same time, we're filming these very personal stories," Roberts told The Oklahoman behind the scenes at Green Pastures Studio.
"I'm just looking at this and thinking, 'Wow, what an opportunity we get to tell this story.'"
The next step in the journey of "What Rhymes with Reason" will take Roberts to familiar territory: His sophomore feature film will have its world premiere during the 23rd Annual deadCenter Film Festival, set for June 8-11 in downtown Oklahoma City.
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Roberts' "What Rhymes with Reason" will be one of the opening night films at this year's deadCenter. It will show at 6:30 p.m. June 8 at Harkins Bricktown 16 in a double-header with fellow Oklahoma filmmaker Zachary Burns' darkly comic "Hell Hath No Fury," which will make its home-state debut at 9 p.m. at Harkins.
University of Oklahoma graduate Lagueria Davis returns to deadCenter with this year's official opening night film. "Black Barbie: A Documentary," which chronicles Black female representation through the history of the first African American Barbie doll, will show at 7 p.m. June 8 at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
The closing night film, "Fancy Dance," which was widely praised in its January world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, will be screened at 6 p.m. June 11 at First Americans Museum. Seneca-Cayuga filmmaker Erica Tremblay, who hails from Oklahoma, filmed the family drama in her home state, where it was one of the first recipients of the Cherokee Nation Film Incentive that launched in early 2022. Tremblay also will be honored as this year's deadCenter Oklahoma Film Icon Award recipient ahead of the screening.
“deadCenter is proud to highlight Oklahoma filmmakers whose unique voices have made their mark on our state’s cultural tapestry,” said Sara Thompson, deadCenter Film’s director of programming, in an email.
Other feature-length films made by Oklahomans that will play this year's deadCenter: Husband-and-wife Edmond filmmakers Jeremy and Kara Choate's "The Awkward Stage," about a middle-schooler named Eugene who falls in love with a sculpture of his school's founder; the documentary "Bad Press," which follows Angel Ellis, a Mvskoke Media reporter based in Okmulgee, as she fights for truth and transparency after the Muscogee Nation starts censoring its free press; and "Riding Legacy," which rounds up the often-overlooked story of the modern-day Oklahoma Black cowboy community.
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Setting his character's compass aside, "What Rhymes with Reason" star Griffith awkwardly reclined on a curved chair and acted out falling into an endless abyss for several takes in front of the Green Pastures Studio green screen.
"It was great for shooting our stuff for the Void — which is this headspace that Jesse, our lead, gets in, in the film — and it's just pretty incredible where we've come from 10 years ago, even two years ago or three years ago, when we didn't have this type of stuff here," said Roberts, whose new movie qualified for the state's new film rebate.
The final day of filming on "What Rhymes with Reason" on a 3,000-square-foot VFX soundstage was a far cry from the last day of filming on Roberts' first feature film, the 2014 sci-fi coming-of-age indie "The Posthuman Project." That was a night shoot on location in a real alley off Automobile Alley that dragged almost until dawn as Roberts and his small crew struggled to keep a key prop from shattering on the concrete while capturing a crucial action sequence.
"We didn't really have a legit gaffer, or a grip and electric (department). 'Posthuman Project' was a 40-person crew, and this is like 90. ... But some of the people are the same," he said.
His superheroic teen drama won Best Oklahoma Film at deadCenter 2014, and Roberts has returned to the OKC film festival several times with short films and commercial projects that he's developed through his Reckless Abandonment Pictures. Along with its deadCenter opening night screening, "What Rhymes with Reason" will have an encore showing at 4 p.m. June 10 at Harkins.
Even when he was working with big brands like Disney, DreamWorks, Nickelodeon, LEGO, Hasbro and National Geographic, Roberts said his new movie was the story he wanted to tell all along.
"It's something that I’ve felt like has been put on my heart since I was about 18,” he said. "I wanted to make a coming-of-age film that was a mental health piece but through an adventure lens."
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How is the Oklahoma-made movie 'What Rhymes with Reason' dealing with issues like depression and suicide?
Made in partnership with Oklahoma’s 988 Mental Health Lifeline, "What Rhymes with Reason" follows Jesse Brandt (Griffith, whose credits include series like "The Boys" and "Star Trek: Picard" along with movies like "Green Lantern," "Changeling" and "Couples Retreat"), a high-school senior who tumbles into the darkness of depression after a tragedy. In an attempt to find meaning and direction, Jesse and his friends embark on a quest to find a legendary landmark hidden in the Oklahoma wilderness.
Jacob Ryan Snovel, one of the movie's Oklahoma-based producers, said he and Roberts were interested in making a film that touched on issues of faith but didn't fit the typical faith-based movie mold. They call the project a "faith-adjacent" teen adventure.
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"These are just characters that grew up in Oklahoma, so of course, they're gonna speak about God in a certain way. ... We're not preaching anything at all. It's characters in the wilderness talking things out," Snovel told The Oklahoman as he watched Roberts direct Griffith on the right way to hold the compass.
"But obviously, these have become major issues — teenage suicide, depression, anxiety — that a lot of people are dealing with and talking about more and more. ... What I enjoy about this script is it genuinely comes to those topics from the characters talking about it, speaking through it, figuring things out."
DEADCENTER FILM FESTIVAL
When: June 8-11.
Where: Multiple venues in and around downtown Oklahoma City.
Tickets and information: https://deadcenterfilm.org.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma film 'What Rhymes with Reason' takes on depression, suicide
