The story behind the recording of a pivotal musical album is revealed in Director Scott Cooper’s biographical musical drama, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.

Cooper’s film chronicles the making of Springsteen’s 1982 album, Nebraska, when the New Jersey rocker was on the cusp of global superstardom and struggling to reconcile the pressures of success with the ghosts of his past.

On October 4, after the DGA membership screening in New York, Cooper discussed the making of Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere during a Q&A moderated by Director Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher). He also spoke about the film during a conversation moderated by Director David O. Russell (Amsterdam) following the Los Angeles screening on October 19.

During the New York conversation, Cooper divulged how he collaborated with Springsteen — who isn’t a fan of fan of music biopics — to make what Bruce called “a Scott Cooper movie” and show him at his most vulnerable and, how that led him to make the flashback scenes black and white.

“Bruce said to me, ‘I only remember my father in black and white.’ Which is why the cover of Nebraska is in black and white. All the liner notes and the photography in the album were in black and white which is why I made the choice. Robert Frank’s [photographic book] The Americans is a book that means a lot to me and to Bruce. I mean, sure, it could be cliche in terms of flashbacks, but that’s the way Bruce saw the world and I made the film in the way Bruce made Nebraska.”

Cooper’s other directorial credits include the feature films The Pale Blue Eye, Antlers, Hostiles, Black Mass, Out of the Furnace and Crazy Heart. He has been a DGA member since 2008.