There But Not There: Gregory Crewdson Documentary

This video was made in 2017 from footage captured ten years earlier by Juliane Hiam while working as casting director for Gregory Crewdson's series BENEATH THE ROSES (2003-2008). The short doc premiered at Camerimage 2017 in Poland on the occasion of the joint opening of GREGORY CREWDSON: CATHEDRAL OF THE PINES and DAVID LYNCH: SILENCE AND DYNAMISM at CoCA in Toruń. The doc was subsequently screened at David Lynch's Festival of Disruption 2018 at Brooklyn Steel, NYC. Dir. by Juliane Hiam, Edited by Zak Arctander. ©Crewdson Studio.

[@davidftlauderdale]

Incredible photographer. By far one of my all time favorites.

[@williamcurwen7428]

Gregory Crewdson’s work is an authentic portrait of the moment of now. I particularly like his portrayal of the familiar as innately beautiful. I predict he will become rediscovered every fifteen years or so, forever. His understanding of his own world is a unique reference point which future historians will come back to visit over and over again to try and understand the early 21st century that has now become a reality to all of us. I am glad he decided not to go to Hollywood.

[@andydreadsbmx]

23:40 is the perfect shot that brings what is being said to life. It's very surreal seeing that and how perfect everything looks and the light is amazing!

[@TheonlyViera]

Gregory is definitely My inspiration for my art

[@murilobernardo1870]

You’re amazing!❤️

[@darrendavy4248]

Amazing images, thank you.

[@leoquesto9183]

Great to see your approach to image building in your always strong work, Mr. Crewdson.

[@NoNameNo.5]

I love his stuff….reminds me of my childhood (take from that what you will) And Hoppers art

[@Project_2501]

Gregory Crewdson is THE most inspirational photographer to me! I own all his books and "studied" his works in detail. I admire his ability to create "worlds" in a time where images have become such an inflationary good that nobody seems to care about story telling anymore. I ran my own Crewdson'esk project this year in Germany because I wanted to see if I can pull off something of that quality and learn from the process and incorporate aspects of it into my own photography. What can I say, I tremendously failed! Though I am a cinematographer, I needed to do this as a private project and basically zero budget and therefore needed to be extremely creative, because I do not have access to Crewdson's film production level light setup, crew and actors/models. I did this with two of my students as assistants and a simple "semi-pro" light setup and a variety of digital and analog cameras. The biggest format possible was analog medium format on an RB67, which was the most pleasing aspect, because it also was the hardest and most tricky part to get right - analog also just looks so much more pleasing than the boring digital images. I tried both, strobes and constant LED lighting, each turned out to have it's own possibilities and limitations. But in neither case I was able to shoot during day time and the fall off of both techniques doesn't work on images that show as much environment as Gregory Crewdson's works do. So there was a lot of post production necessary, which all in the end didn't give me the outcome I wanted. To find the right models is also tricky, because you can't afford professionals when there is no budget and I figured that a model is rather unsuited for a staged and thought through image like this when they actually need to "act". At least the specific things that I wanted obviously were too much for a regular model. So the whole thing was a disaster, but I greatly learned from this experience and I will definitely give it another shot in the next summer and try to use what I learned to make it work this time. I also came up with a couple of new ideas, so it will likely not only be one next try, but a few. I am so looking forward to going out and shoot again!

[@canturgan]

He uses a large format camera to correct for converging and diverging verticals, also for the resolution.

[@Project_2501]

@@canturgan Correlation?

[@canturgan]

@@Project_2501 If you're trying to replicate his images you'll need a few 10k lights and a smoke machine. You might be able to get away with a perspective control lens on a smaller format but it's not as good as a view camera's rising front and tilt swing controls.

[@Project_2501]

@@canturgan I know. As I said, I do not have access to movie production grade equipment, so I need to get creative with what is available to me. I know the gear he uses - countless production level HMI lights with lenses and grids ($30k these days to get modern equivalents, which can be rented and not purchased but still not affordable for normal mortals), light modifiers/blockers/reflectors, cranes, tons of water (for exterior shots), a large format field camera which consumes 15 bucks each time to take a shot because the film and processing is that expensive, generators. Not even listing the staff and actors. This is even just a fraction of what goes into a shoot like this when we think of locations scouting, hiring people, getting permissions and flooding scenes with props, costumes and all kinds of other things. Don't get me wrong, but what are you even trying to tell me, which I haven't already explained in my initial comment?

[@canturgan]

@@Project_2501 What he's actually doing is creating a mood, taking everyday scenes and building a story around them. That's the starting point, not the equipment.

[@maint9417]

1:49 "Turn the car around, no McDonalds on the way home!" , "WAAAA I want apple pieeeee", XDDDD