John D. Kretschmer earned a BA in Journalism at UNC Chapel Hill and then passed on a Madison Avenue copywriting job. At the time, Dino DeLaurentis was building a movie studio in Wilmington, NC -- “And that just seemed so much more interesting to me!” Landing his first job as a set dresser on the feature film, “Marie,” Kretschmer was soon building custom practical lamps and fixtures for cinematographer Chris Menges.
As a leadman, John worked on many iconic features including “The Abyss,” “The Crow,” and “The Twelve Monkeys.” For Cameron’s underwater epic, John lead a set dec “frogman” team that trained for and dressed sets underwater.
John’s break came with a call to design the feature film, “Sex and the Other Man” in New York, where he built two interior sets in Hell’s Kitchen “42nd St. stages-with-a-lumber-store-next-door.” His feature credits include “The Grave” and “Deceiver” for Josh and Jonas Pate. And the blockbuster hit, “The Strangers” (Universal) where the movie’s poster features the design and decorating effort. For “Summer Catch” (Warner Bros.) John and his team built a baseball diamond from scratch.
Eight seasons of “Homeland“ traveled John to six countries on three continents and earned him three ADG Award Nominations. John describes his tenure on Homeland, “whereas the whole is greater than the sum of the parts . . . we formed a unique family that continued to grow and gel across many cultures and lands.” His television credits include the series “Dawson’s Creek,” “One Tree Hill,” and “Army Wives;” and the pilots for “Seal Team,” “Containment,” and “Chicago Fire.”
John and his team recreated the LA Riots of “1992” (Lionsgate) for director Ariel Vromen. Other new credits include the limited series, “A Friend of the Family” for Peacock and the pilot for AMC’s“61st Street.”
