{"id":867,"date":"2013-03-01T18:26:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-01T18:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwolfepr.com\/dev\/?p=867"},"modified":"2024-08-20T22:16:12","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T22:16:12","slug":"gregory-crewdson-brief-encounters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwolfepr.com\/dev\/gregory-crewdson-brief-encounters\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Brief Encounters:’ Capturing the Cinematic Sensibility of Gregory Crewdson | DV Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters”<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

DV magazine \u2014 March 2013<\/em>
‘Brief Encounters:’ Capturing the Cinematic Sensibility of Gregory Crewdson<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shot over the past decade by director and cinematographer Ben Shapiro, Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters<\/em> is a methodically rendered portrait of the acclaimed photographer\u2019s work and process. Known for his meticulously composed, large-scale images staged with crews that rival many feature film productions, Crewdson creates narratives of small-town American life inspired by the worlds of Alfred Hitchcock, David Lynch, Edward Hopper and Diane Arbus. Crewdson\u2019s commercial work, including promos for the TV series Six Feet Under <\/em>and album art for indie group Yo La Tengo, has helped the artist establish an aesthetic that is immediately recognizable within the popular culture landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Shapiro first encountered Crewdson in 2000, while producing a segment for EGG<\/em>, a public television series about notable figures in the arts. Four years later, Shapiro was tapped to shoot a cable arts channel profile on Crewdson, following which he began to plan a larger film based around the artist and his work. Given unprecedented access, Shapiro accompanied Crewdson from 2005-2009, focusing primarily on the creation of his celebrated \u201cBeneath the Roses\u201d series. The film made its premiere at Sundance in 2012, and won The Maysles Brothers Award for Best Documentary Film at the Denver Film Festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom my point of view, the main thing that was fascinating about Crewdson was the sophistication of his process, the ambition and scale and attention to detail; the idea that you could take that amount of time and care, and the specificity of each individual component,\u201d Shapiro says about what initially drew him to the project. \u201cImagine making a film where you have one setup — There\u2019s no movement, no re-compositioning, just one actor in one position — and making that moment, that image, as perfect as possible. That was interesting to me as a filmmaker, because, as a filmmaker, you never have a chance to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working as a one-man-band, Shapiro shot most of the material for Brief Encounters<\/em> himself, as well as handling all of the audio. \u201cYou can track the progress of small-format video across the cameras I was using,\u201d he laughs. \u201cFirst was the Sony DV150 camcorder, followed by the Panasonic DVX 100, which holds up remarkably well for an SD camera. At a later point I switched to HD, shooting with the Sony EX1R. There was also material shot on HDV, 8mm home movies, and, of course, the photographs themselves, which were also used in the film.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Shapiro, the main challenge became capturing the scale of Crewdson\u2019s productions as they grew from the 10-12 people employed for the \u201cTwilight\u201d series to the 40-60 people used to complete \u201cBeneath the Roses.\u201d\u00a0(Read full story\u2026<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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