Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1541514
Recreating Bruce's house in Colts Neck, where he recorded Nebraska on a 4-track, was a central part of shaping the emotional and visual core of the film. I visited the actual house with Bruce and Scott. It has since been renovated, but some of its bones remain: a ranch house on a reservoir, simple, isolated. It was nearly empty, but full of presence. That emptiness became a tool—the structure and natural light had to do the emotional lifting. I kept the furniture and decoration minimal. The space needed to hold solitude, reflection and peace. It needed to feel like Nebraska sounds. We built parts of the house on stage at Steiner Studios, including the bedroom, because we needed a controlled environment to shoot key scenes involving rear projection. We used LED screens with plate shots outside the windows to keep the emotional tone connected to the outside world. The bedroom was intimate and stripped down, made to feel like both a sanctuary and a void, while also maintaining elements from the original space, such as the carpeting. As for the corridor in the house, we used translucent plexiglass with rear projection material and even plexiglass molding to allow images to pass through surfaces, as an abstract metaphor, as well as projecting scenes from Badlands that were influential in Bruce's writing process. COLT'S NECK HOUSE - SET PHOTO COLT'S NECK HOUSE - SET PHOTO COLT'S NECK HOUSE - SET PHOTO COLT'S NECK HOUSE - LOCATION PLAN