It felt fitting to gain a little insight behind the creative process & inspirations of Levi Cranston, friend of P.R & director before the release of our A/W 22’ campaign.

The term seeing through someone’s lens is given a literal meaning when you explore Levi’s diverse repetoir of works which have over the years, established a definitive style which Levi credits to the unconscious mind.’

What's your star sign?

Aries sun, sag moon, aquarius rising

Where are you currently based?

Gubbi Gubbi land, Alex Heads.

In your own words can you tell us what you do?

Film director. I try to mask fabricated lies and present them as dreams.

What does your process look like when creating & directing your work?

I walk around in circles a lot with an empty head. If I’m lucky the unconscious mind will work with me, piecing together this or that from memory. If I’m unlucky I’ll have to turn to looking, and that equates to borrowing. Which is fine, anyway. Kurosawa quoted someone saying creation is memory.

“Kurosawa quoted someone saying creation is memory”

How would you describe the evolution of your work overtime & what have the biggest influencers on this been?

Confronting your imagination is something I’ve begun to accept. I find conception of the idea the most fun. Being on set and editing are both opportunities for the director to perish. On set you are suddenly confronted with recording an image which differs to what you had in mind. Editing is worse because you begin to cut together images that aren’t at all what you thought you recorded, let alone imagined. If you don’t keep your head empty, your prejudice and expectation could ruin you.

What do you find most challenging with your works & what do you enjoy the most?
I’ve not quite discovered satisfaction of being an artist. I’m not sure what that means. Is it a feeling? Is it a vocation? Is it a matter of works? Does the shepard or weaver doubt what they make, what they do? A filmmaker in a digital medium is unfulfilling because your works are reduced to social media. The greatest feeling I’ve received from my work is having it projected to an audience. I was lucky enough to screen El Agua Mágica in Sydney because of Holly Ryan, and again in Noosa. That’s a terrific feeling.

If you were to give your younger self a piece of advice, what would it be?

Your confidence with which you were born and grown — it comes from expanding your virtues, not competing with them.

What are you currently being inspired by?

Tourist tea towels, W G Sebald, Henry Miller, and old hardback illustrated books — take my Beginner’s Guide to Persian Cats, for instance.; or Marsupials of Britain; or Furniture: A Concise History.

What are you currently working on or towards?

An approach to the year haha. Shit, it’s already March…

First thing you do when you wake up in the morning & last thing you do at the end of the day?

I wonder what the surf’s doing?

An album or artist/album to uplift & one to calm?
I’ve found the album Whities 029 by Lord Of The Isles incredibly striking. It’s this tugging forlorn mix of ambient electronic and breakbeat. The two closing tracks feature beguiling and devastating spoken-words by the Scottish poet Ellen Renton. It only runs about 19mins and I had it on repeat while flying to Sydney, falling asleep and waking up, letting it intrude my hypnagogic state. By the time I landed I was pierced by this foetal emotional state, I felt like I was in the womb, numb to everything but hypersensitive. I felt a great capacity for others but longed to walk my dreams, my introspection alone for a time.

You can explore more of Levi’s work at @levi.cranston and via vimeo

Words by Natasha Bruce