martedì 26 aprile 2011

I'M A MICROSOFT AMBASSADOR!

A long time has passed since my last post, I know. I'm now ready to unveil some great news: I'm an Ambassador for the latest Microsoft Campaign.
I'm very excited about this and the next few months are going to be a real adventure...
I shall be shooting some brand new works for Microsoft, starting next week!
I'll try to keep you updated as much as I can.
Meanwhile, here is the link where you can find more information about the campaign (it's in Italian).

mercoledì 23 febbraio 2011

PEACE RIOT made it on La Stampa's Homepage

Once more great news!!
Since last night, my short film Peace Riot is available on the homepage of La Stampa's website.
La Stampa is one of Italy's prominent newspapers and it is indeed a great honour to have such a promoter.
You can get to the direct link by clicking here.
Enjoy it, if you still haven't...

VAMPYRE COMPENDIUM selected for David di Donatello Awards!!

Dear all,
on behalf of the extraordinary cast and crew that allowed me to get such a great result, I inform you that Vampyre Compendium has been selected for the 2011 David di Donatello Awards, which means ITALIAN OSCARS. The category is Best Short Film.
Fingers crossed from now on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

domenica 20 febbraio 2011

PEACE RIOT - my new short film and the story behind it

My latest short film finally 'landed' on the web!
It's called PEACE RIOT and it was produced by the Piedmont Region in partnership with the Social Services of the City of Turin. It came out of a wider project called Conosciamoci e facciamoci conoscere (Let's know each other and make the others know us), which required the direct involvment of kids from local high schools and Youth social centres. I thought the title of the campaign had to become the philosophy of this experience: the crew of young and valiant professionals and the group of kids know each other and together they give birth to a short film that allows them to be known by others, that is to say an audience (as wide as possible). I wrote the story and involved the kids as actors. Some didn't want to appear in front of the camera, thus they became on set assistants.
The first step - knowing each other - was a genuine adventure: together with Dario Cucco (a pedagogic consultant who is also a professional clown) I met with the kids and told them what a film set works like and what a director does. Some of my brilliant collaborators came along and did the same (you can find them all in the credits: wonderful, wonderful professionals and human beings).
Once on set, the kids discovered what making a movie really meant: the long pauses, the constant repetitions, the tricks behind atmospheric effects were all revealed at once.
Some of them got excited and some others got bored, but by the end of the last day of shooting (which also fit with the "grand finale" in the story) everybody went home with big smiles on their faces.
The secon and last step - be known by a wide audience - is happening now: the result of such a peculiar adventure can be seen here.
I can tell you I conceived this short as a journey through adolescence, but I really want everybody to see (and find) their own story while watching it.
All I can say is that I concentrated a lot on colours, which I always do in my works. They are useful to portray stories and characters, and especially what is harder to show on film: the mood.
Peace Riot is certainly no exception to this; but whether it represents personal growth, the difficulty of feeling alone and misunderstood until one discovers the power of the group, the devastating and "clean" energy of kids, or something else...well, I would like to leave all of this up to the spectator.

sabato 15 gennaio 2011

New Year, Great News...

The New Year just started and it couldn't start better! Great things are going to happen and I am terribly excited about the new adventure I'm going to be part of...
I'll tell more soon.
In the meantime, I have to post a few info I was unable to share before.
Let's start with the last Venice Film Festival: my short film "Vampyre Compendium" was invited to be presented there out of competition. The event was called "The Cinema Meets the Music" and Maestro Michele Placido (who sponsored the short) was there with me to present the film. It all took place on September 8th 2010.

Michele Placido and I presenting Vampyre Compendium at the 2010 Venice Film Festival


Here's a link to an interview to me and Maestro Placido (in Italian) from La Stampa (one of Italy's prominent newspapers).
The work was received very well and I got very excited. I hope everybody will manage to see it soon...