Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson uses very constructed, Hollywood method of image making seen more often in movies than in photography.

Shooting with a large format camera and using professional actors he creates scenes of strangeness in his work, often shot either in twilight or darkness. It is full of unexplained events such as beams of light coming down out of the sky or people making piles of flowers for no apparent reason.

These photos are always at the start or the end of an event, ever during it. This creates a mystery over the narrative, he leaves us to guess at what has happened. It’s as if it was the start of a horror movie or an alien invasion.

He repeatedly uses the idea of nature invading the urban space, exploring the dichotomy between the two the randomness of the natural world and the order within our everyday life.

Anne Hardy

Anne Hardy is an artist who’s photographic practice is based on creating environments largely out if objects that she’s found. In doing this she creates the suggestion of the people that use the space without actually showing them, she leaves who they are as a mystery, letting the viewer imagine there inhabitants.

The titles are important to her work, she decides them after she has completed the work and if she is unable to think of one to her satisfaction she will leave it untitled.

Most of these rooms are made over the course of several months from objects that she has found. One of her biggest influences is the fantasy element involved in these rooms and she has cited sci-fi as one of her biggest influences. Her other influence is architecture and the idea that a building can shape people’s lives.

Possible Location

This is a potential location that I found, it is in Plymouth just of Union Street. It is an old industrial site that is currently being used as an art gallery. The walls, floor and ceiling are all made from concrete and it is littered with things such as wires and old piping that could come in use when building my set.
Unfortunately almost all the walls have been painted white but there are still some in the pit area (See fist image below) that are still bare concrete. There is a lot of miscellanies clutter in it as well but some of it may be of use.
I am almost certain that I will be able to do a photo shot in there for two reasons, firstly it’s not open Monday to Wednesday and secondly I work there and therefore I know the people that run it.
I was thing of using it to recreate the image of the scene with the fountains at the start of burning Mississippi as that was a shoot that really inspired me.

These are a couple of scenes that I liked whilst watching the move

This image is one that is shown at the start of the film, it shows two fountains, one for white people and one for coloured people. It’s an image I really like because it’s of its simplicity and starkness.

This is a scene where a group of cop attack some black people as they leave the church, light by a single lamp, it shows the small child's powerlessness against his abuser.

This scene is almost at the very beginning of the film, it’s where the three civil rights workers are killed. Some of the cuts in this scene are similar to ones they've done before, especially the start of blood simple. My conclusion is that the Coen brothers really like their cars.

This image is of a destroyed kitchen and represent Mrs. Pell's broken life after her husband has been convicted she said that she was going to rebuild. I don't think I'm going to attempt this scene because of the amount of things I would need.

Burning Mississippi

"Burning Mississippi" is a film focusing on the 1950's civil rights movement. When three young civil rights activists are murdered by a police officer. Two FBI agents come down to investigate their disappearance and quickly discover that it was the police that were behind it. The rest of the movie is about these two agents attempting to catch the people responsible amid the rising ethnic tension in the state that is caused by their presents.

Two police officers have a relationship that is often seen in police shows, the old, experienced one that knows the area and the new idealist city cop conflict over how to solve a case. They finally get a breakthrough when the though, Mississippi born, Anderson violently threatens the deputy sheriff Pell and scares witnesses into testifying.

I liked the 1950's styling the movie has as well as the dark aesthetic and stories line. Possible problems are getting models of the right race.

Corridor shoot

Shoot of a corridor, i think there quite similar providing i can get the lighting right.

Hotel

This is a hotel in plymouth that i stayed in last summer, I think it a bit too modern to use as a location also it would be a bit exspensitive to use for one photo shoot.

Local accents in Fargo

There is an importance placed in the geographical location, the fact that it’s in the far north next to the Canadian border, there is also an importance in the accents and language. This regional quality gives it an element of humour and charm that would other wised make it a dry and dull film. (for instance the way that they repeatedly refer to one of the hit men as “funny looking” or the use of the word “super”.

Texeco locations

I found a Texeco that has some similaritys to the one in the film but not many, proberly need to keep on look. :(

Use of car in Fargo

The plot tends to revolve around cars, to the extent that its almost pivotal to story. Most of the talking tends to happen in a car, Jerry Lundegaard works in a car dealership and the two men they hire to abduct his wife kill the police man after he pulls them over for a traffic violation.
Cars provide a location in two ways, first as a scene in which two people sit next to each other and talk. The second way that it is used is by a car driving down a road off into the distance surrounded by snow. This is used for instance as the opening scene as well as in one of the last scenes in the movie. This use of cars serves to highlight to remoteness of the area, there is also something sublime about it. Having said that I think it is also quite a cliché shot in cinematography.

There some problems with using this as a location, first being that i don't have a car and secondly I wouldn't be able to so it without snow.

Short blurb to "no country for old men"

No country for old men is a 1980s modern western about a man (Llewelyn Moss) who finds the bloody aftermath of a drug deal that goes wrong. He takes a suitcase full of money from the scene and heads home, later that night he attempts to return to help a wounded man but is chased away by Mexicans.

The sheriff, Ed Bell finds the site of the murders and start on the trail of both moss and bell. As the story progresses it rapidly turns into a chase move with Moss running from remorseless killer Anton Chigurh who has been hired to return the money. This results in a tense moment in a hotel room where Llewelyn is almost caught but escapes because he has hidden the money with the tracking device in ceiling vent which means Anton goes to the wrong room.
They eventually come face to face in another hotel and after a short fight both of them are wounded, moss escapes into Mexico and ends up in hospital. He is later killed off screen.

Chigurh finds Moss’s wife and says he will flip a coin to decide if she will live but if tells them that there’s no coin, just him. He then walks out and is hit by a car.

Fargo plot

Fargo is a film, based on a real story, about a man called Jerry Lundegaard who hires two people (Gaear and Carl) to kidnap his wife so that he can claim ransom money but everything goes wrong when the hit men are pulled over by a police man and is shot along with two civilians. The deaths are investigated by Marge Gunderson, a police officer who is seven months pregnant

When they attempt to do the hostage trade it is carried out by Jerrys farther in-law wade how insists on trying to see his daughter before handing over the money, this results in him getting shot along with the man who mans the barrier.

The hero Marge eventually finds the killers simply by driving past the place they are hiding in and spotting the car they were using.
By this time Gaear has killed Carl with an axe and is disposing of the body using a wood chipper, he tries to run away but is shot in the leg and arrested. Whilst riding back to the police station she asks him if it was worth killing all those people.