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At Coachella 2019, superfan turned superstar Billie Eilish first meets Justin Bieber, her childhood idol. Months later, Bieber congratulates Eilish on her multiple Grammy wins by Facetime. Both moments reveal the adolescent awkwardness shared by millions and extreme fame known only by a few and are captured by Jenna Rosher in the documentary Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry.
“It was just good timing and good luck,” says Rosher, who
shot the film with director R.J. Cutler for Apple TV+. “I could have been at the
back of the stage or gone to the restroom and missed the moment when he called
her. To be there as she’s on the receiving end of complements from Justin
Bieber after so many years of being such a huge fan of his was unexpected. She
knows what it feels like to adore someone and how they impact your life and now
she knows what it feels like to have the adoration of fans.”
Cutler and Rosher, who previously worked together on a
warts-and-all expose of Anna Wintour’s Vogue called The
September Issue (2009), have captured that journey in a part
fly-on-the-wall, part concert and part coming-of-age movie. It charts the home
recording of her debut album “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?,” tours
with her to Australia and Europe en route to becoming the youngest ever Grammy
album winner at just age 18. All the while, Eilish is living out the more
mundane and relatable activities with her close-knit family such as learning to
drive and teen angst over her boyfriend.
“R.J. and [producer] Trevor Smith approached me in late 2018
about this project with an up-and-coming artist,” Rosher explains. “R.J. said
he wanted to make an observational film and for us to jump right in and capture
every aspect of this metamorphosis. The momentum for her had only just begun. We
had no idea what was going to happen. Our approach was to just hang out with
the family and see how they felt about us filming.”
Eilish and her parents (Maggie Baird and Patrick O’Connell)
weren’t strangers to film crew. Record labels had filmed occasional behind the
scenes footage for promos at their home in Highland Park, LA. Rosher wanted to
get up close and personal with her subject without getting under her skin.
“The approach from the get-go was to have a small crew and
full sensitivity and awareness of what was going on. That reflected in the
gear. Knowing it was a verité film I wanted to keep things lightweight so the
Canon EOS C300 Mark II is ideal.
“I started out with a bigger 17-120mm lens and we
immediately got feedback that it felt too big to Billie’s camp and her family.
Until this point, they’d been familiar with a lot of DSLR cameras and here I
come with something a bit bigger so I started to incorporate the L series
lenses and Canon Primes which were the perfect size.
“I was able to be fluid in and out of cars, following her in
and out of green rooms, buildings, onto stages. I used a monopod system to
support me so I could hang all day. That’s how we were able to capture a lot of
intimate moments with Billie and her family.”
Like any teenager, interacting with video comes second
nature to Eilish but the documentary portrays a young woman who seemingly
doesn’t act up to the camera’s gaze or switch off when the recording stops.
“What is refreshing and unique about Billie is that she is
truly who she is in the film,” Rosher says. “We were rolling most of the time.
Nothing was off limits. If she was eating then that’s when we’d eat. At times
we’d give everybody a break and not film but we’d still be in the room with
her, often rolling audio. That requires a lot of trust. Her openness and
willingness to let us be there especially during these difficult, emotional and
vulnerable moments is just a testament that.”
These pressures increase as her celebrity skyrockets. Eilish
shows the camera the journal in which she’s scribbled some lyric ideas,
including, in capital letters, “I WANNA END ME.” Her confidence is knocked by a
technical glitch during her performance at Coachella. After appearing in New
York she is criticized for reluctance to engage in a meet and greet with fans
who might well be eBay-ers only intent on flogging her signature.
At this moment, traveling in a van to another fan and
paparazzi confrontation, the film records her imploring her Mum and entourage,
“Can’t I have one moment where I’m like, ‘I don’t want to do this?’ All I hear
is BILLIE BILLIE BILLIE BILLIE every second of my life.”
As a result of the recent Framing Britney Spears documentary
the treatment of female music artists is in the spotlight. “I don’t think we
were invasive,” Rosher defends. “By that point we’d started to develop a real
strong trust with Billie and her family and I think that we bear witness to
what happens to a person when they go through fame. Having seen the movie, she
paid us the ultimate compliment that capturing this has helped her to process
and understand what was going on around her in a way that she was unaware of at
the time.”
As much a prodigy as Eilish is her elder brother Finneas,
who co-wrote and produced the album in their home studio. “Musically they are
intertwined. One doesn’t exist without the other,” Rosher says. “Their honesty
with each other was fantastic to watch. He is like her ultimate cheerleader but
he’s also her creative partner and it’s just how they play off of each other.
They’re also as hilarious as you’d expect of a twenty-something young man and
his teenage sister.”
The sibling relationship is caught in home videos shot on
iPhone and shared with Cutler and his editors Lindsay Utz and Greg Finton to
blend into the film. “Maggie just knew she needed to start filming her kids
from early on!” says Rosher. “In the grade we really wanted to maintain an
honesty, especially to the archival footage and, in terms of the contemporary
footage, to maintain the energy and richness of scenes. Her life is very
colorful — very green and blue — and we wanted to embrace that.”
Rosher set the key looks alongside Technicolor senior
colorist Doug Delaney. Once it was pointed in the right direction, colorist
Jeff Pantaleo continued with the HDR and SDR grades and ran future sessions
with Rosher and Cutler.
It’s clear that after a year of being in close quarters,
Rosher has developed a bond with the family. “I do feel a connection to them,”
she says. “I’ve not seen them since COVID shut things down but we communicate
and I’ve congratulated Billie on the film. I have such a tremendous amount of
respect for them all. Raising kids throughout this whole process and keeping everything
grounded in love and support is a whole other side of the music business that
has never really been captured. It is very inspiring.”
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