Sizzle Reel

An interview with Rough House Creative

Just around the corner from Circle Cinema in the Kendall Whittier neighborhood is Rough House Creative, a video production company that’s playing a prominent role in Tulsa’s slow-but-steady emergence as a filmmaker’s city. As the brains behind the studio, co-founders Christopher Long and Charles Elmore have shot feature films, shorts, commercials and music videos and collaborated with some of Tulsa’s most passionate and talented artists.

They’ve also spearheaded a video campaign called Make Tulsa Yours, a web series featuring conversations with small business owners and thinkers leading the charge in shaping Tulsa’s future (the series has featured The First Ward, Valkyrie and Clean Hands). 

In October, Elmore and Long will help in judge at the first-ever Tulsa American Film Festival.

The Tulsa Voice: What is Rough House? And how did it begin? 

Charles Elmore: Chris and I met in 2008 on a film and decided we wanted to work on short films and feature films here in Tulsa. We had full-time jobs but talked about breaking out and doing freelance together. Two or three years ago, we pulled the trigger. 

TTV: Really? Judging from your web portfolio (roughhousecreative.com), I would guess you’ve been open much longer. 

Christopher Long: A lot of that stuff we had done prior to forming the studio. It was still us, but some of it had not been branded under Rough House. 

Rough House was a way to merge our services for production. It could be as small as just the two of us, or we could hire a larger crew since we worked with so many different people. Rough House is the production side of that but also a studio of people working together creatively. 

TTV: So who does what?  

CL: I am basically a producer, assistant director—managing that aspect of it. We are both editors as well. I work on the pre-production side, and he is the director of photography: camera and lenses and concepts and visuals. We both collaborate, as well.

CE: We are pretty complementary to each other. I am doing a lot of the cinematography and camera work. Chris handles a lot of the producing and directing work. We are always bouncing ideas off of each other or talking about a project or sharing references. 

TTV: What films have impressed you lately? 

CL: Smaller stuff—movies that shrink everything down to the basics. There is a film called “Blue Ruin” (2013) that I really enjoyed. “Cop Car,” with Kevin Bacon, is fun and crazy—just the basics. You don’t need a backstory; it just goes. I really enjoy films that don’t have to explain themselves too much. There’s no reason we need to know all that stuff—we just need to know what’s happening. 

CE: There’s an Austrian movie called “Revanche” (2008), and there is an Australian movie called “The Snowtown Murders” (2011). They are both these small murder mystery movies that have real slick and methodical pacing. I like the movies that came out last year, “Selma” and “A Most Violent Year.” I really like the cinematographer of those two movies (Bradford Young). 

TTV: What about popular movies you don’t quite get? 

CL: To me, every film is worthy of being watched and dissected and talked about, for good or bad reasons. They still had a whole team behind them that supported the effort to get them out. 

Take “Jurassic World.” It broke all the box office records and all that. The movie is pretty terrible—it’s awful, really. It’s amazing that it’s there, in terms of the fact that a lot of work went into it. But it could have been so much better in terms of script and narrative. But people loved it. It’s one of those films that pulls the wool over your eyes and tricks you into thinking it’s good. But if you break it down on a basic level, it falls apart completely. It doesn’t have to be that way. 

You should check out a blog I read called Birthmoviesdeath(.com). Devin Faraci wrote an article called, “Movies Should Be Good.” It is basically saying that movies don’t have to be bad. We should expect them to be good. Summer blockbusters don’t always have to be terrible. 

TTV: Five filmmakers you’d like to have dinner or drinks with? 

CE: Probably Reed Morano. She is a cinematographer who just recently directed her first film. Her stuff is really awesome. Bradford Young. He was the DP (director of photography) for “Selma” and “A Most Violent Year” and other films. I’d love to talk to Lynne Ramsay. She directed “Ratcatcher” and “We Need to Talk About Kevin.” Steven Soderbergh would be the crown jewel of this. Of all the modern filmmakers, he is one of the great storytellers. He is not spoken of in the same breath as P.T. Anderson or Wes Anderson or Quentin Tarantino, even though he has created just as unique and distinctive a style. Jean-Luc Godard would be my fifth one. 

CL: Oh man. Just because he just passed away, I always wanted to talk to Wes Craven. P.T. Anderson would be one. Steven Spielberg would be incredible. Brian De Palma would be a good one, to pick his brain. Kubrick and Hitchcock would be wonderful, to see how their process is. I could keep going down a list and want to talk to each for different reasons. 

TTV: What sets you apart as filmmakers? 

CE: We strive to be collaborators with other filmmakers. We worked with Sterlin (Harjo) on “Mekko” (2015). Chris was first assistant director, and I was assistant camera to Shane Brown. We provided camera equipment, and our office was their production office. That’s the kind of stuff that sets us apart. We want to help other people make the films they are trying to make. We want to help legitimize and establish Tulsa as a film industry, much the same way Oklahoma City has down there. 

TTV: It sounds like you’re interested in making films for film’s sake. 

CE: Chris and I have had this conversation, and with other filmmakers around here—would it be better to go to a place like Austin or Chicago or Seattle or LA, where there is a well established, thriving film industry? 

The only thing slowing it down here is the network that wants to make films. Access to equipment is no longer a barrier that can’t be crossed. Access to stories, and creative outlets like editing software—none of that is out of reach. If we can make that work here in Tulsa, to find ways to help others make their films here in Tulsa, there is not going to be that mass exodus of creative people.

For more from Andy, read these little known facts about Cain's Ballroom.