Director Doug Bollinger Discusses His Revenge Film Rock, Paper, Scissors (2018)

The film Rock, Paper, Scissors takes a common childhood game and twists it into a darker tale. This thriller directed by Doug Bollinger follows a couple who enact revenge on their enemies, testing the boundaries of their relationship. We sat down with Bollinger to discuss the inspiration behind the film’s title and his process for crafting this nuanced story of vengeance and moral ambiguity.

…

1. In your own words, can you tell us what Rock, Paper, Scissors is about?

Doug Bollinger: Rock, Paper, Scissors is a thriller that tells the story of a young couple who are navigating some issues in their relationship. Before they come to any resolution, they’re the victims of a home invasion, which obviously adds a lot more trauma and a pile of issues to their already struggling marriage. So they try counseling. They try talking it out.

Nothing seems to be working until they meet a bit of an experimental therapist who basically tells them they have to do something about it themselves in order to get better. They interpret that as finding these guys and getting their revenge.

2. What drew you to this story of vengeance and made you want to create this film?

Doug Bollinger: Well, Josh Lee, my co-writer and co-producer, and I are great friends, and we have similar tastes in movies, and revenge is one of those things that lends itself certainly to some great stories.

John Wick, Death Wish, or any western, usually it’s revenge by one person who’s been wronged. But we wanted to look at revenge instead of it just kind of affecting this one person, what if it were two? What if it were two in a relationship that already was struggling? What would it do to them? So that was really what was most interesting to Josh and I as we wrote the story.

3. How did you go about choosing the actors to portray the couple with such intense emotional arcs?

Doug Bollinger: Wow, not easy. We had a bunch of auditions, actually had a couple hundred people audition for the main two roles.

Now luckily, having had some experience in a few other films, I had some people that I knew that I called in, and Timothy Laurel Harrison was one of them. She actually had auditioned for a film that I had done about five years prior and I did not cast her. I cast someone else, but we kept in touch. When this was going up for auditions, I told her, you should look at this. There might be a role that’s right for you. Once she auditioned, Josh and I knew she was it. So she was cast first. We read her with a lot of guys. We’re near New York City, so we really have access to a great pool of actors.

She suggested Jeff Riverdy for the husband. Timothy had known him prior. We brought him in and they killed it together. They were amazing. Because these two roles really go through some heavy lifting emotionally, we really like the idea that these are two people that already knew each other. That trusted each other. They just had to trust us and everyone else on the cast and crew I had known or referred to me. We really created an atmosphere of trust so they could explore these intense emotions.

4. What was the inspiration behind choosing this particular title that would typically invoke a lighthearted childhood game?

Doug Bollinger: Well, Rock Paper Scissors gave us the concept of randomness in a way. It’s such a simple game, and it is quite often random what you throw. There is a randomness to it, and these victims were chosen in a bit of a random way. In addition to that, the title is referenced in the film in a couple of different ways that I’m not going to reveal. You’re going to have to check it out to find out.

5. The couple goes to extreme lengths in seeking retribution. How did you approach depicting their motivation and mindset through this journey?

Doug Bollinger: Building an atmosphere of trust. We had to have trust with the actors that are going to go through all of these intense things. I had to have villains that I knew very well. I actually play one of the villains and then three friends play the other villains. So these are the dastardly players in this story. I needed to have people that I could also trust. So that’s number one.

Number two, having a little bit of leeway to explore and and really explore what was going on for each character within the confines of a schedule, budget, a time frame and within the confines of safety, really let us kind of go to places with these actors that we really didn’t think we were prepared to. The end result is that I’m still dear friends with all of them. So I think they had a very good experience.

6. Did any particular films or filmmakers who have done revenge stories inspire your directorial approach?

Doug Bollinger: Josh and I, we have similar tastes in movies, and there’s a couple touchstones for us that we did discuss in the beginning stages of this, and that was Last House on the Left and I Spit on Your Grave. Now, if you’re thinking of those films and you watch this film, it’s very different. Those are very raw. They are very graphic. They have that gritty nature but that’s kind of how it started.

Over time the film became more cerebral and more psychological. It turned into something that I didn’t originally intend, and it became something that was very different. Certainly not better, because we love those films, and by the way, they’re also referenced in this film. But it turned into something that became more thought-provoking than we originally intended.

7. What were some of the biggest challenges in making this film on a modest budget?

Doug Bollinger: The biggest challenge for us was that it was better than we thought. What do I mean by that? We had planned to shoot this in about 10 days to two weeks. After a couple days, we started looking at the footage and thought, oh man, this is just better.

The actors are better than what we wrote. It looks better than what we paid for. It was elevated by the cast and crew, quite frankly and that didn’t stop there. It happened in post-production with the editing and the music and the sound. It just, every step of the way, other people made it better than we originally thought it was. Because of that, it took us way longer than we originally intended to finish. So although that was the biggest challenge, it also helped to make it what it is today, something that we’re very proud of.

8. Do you have any upcoming projects in the works?

Doug Bollinger: Well, some of the same people that are in Rock, Paper, Scissors are involved in our next project, and it’s called Scrawl. Scrawl tells the story of a writer that’s not really having too much success. He fancies himself as something that he’s not and he’s afforded an opportunity to improve his situation as a writer. The film asks how far will he go for success and hopefully that’s another thriller that fans of Rock, Paper, Scissors will love.