Happy Halloween!!

Here's my greetings to everyone. Hope you enjoy the doodle I made for the occasion...

Halloween is my very favourite holiday together with Christmas. I should shoot something that takes place during this special time. We'll see...
I can anticipate that I recently shot a new music video and that the overall atmosphere could be defined as slightly "halloweenesque". Keep watching for new posts, then!
Bye for now. I just made the drawing and I already have to leave. A masked party is waiting for me and some friends.
See you soon with new posts.

Image is copyright of © Matteo Bernardini.

The "Stranges" Photoshoot

Back in February Italian magazine Next Exit interviewed me on the "Ooh Yeah!" music video. What came out was a very nice two-page(!) article-interview, which was made even more special by a great photoshoot Turin-based photographer Stefano Stranges made especially for the occasion.
Stefano was asked by the guys at the magazine to make photos that showed me together with the cast of the video. It had to be funny, ironic and catchy. I think he made an excellent job.
Judge it yourselves by looking at these few grabs from the shooting...

Here I am, back on set and surrounded by three of my gorgeous ladies. Ehm...Can you see me?

A family portrait

Unfortunately we were unable to recollect the whole team for the day: the male lead (Big Rob) and one of our ladies (Angelica La Lapin)were missing, as well as cast/crew members Valerio Sacchetto (actual DoP and fake operator in the video) and Daniele Manca (actual production manager and fake director René at the same time).


The camera you can see in this picture is the very same HVX200 (I love you, Panasonic!) we used for the video. It was my graduation present from my beloved grandmother, which makes her the actual financer of the video. Granny as the new Larry Flynt? I don't think so.
She seemed to be a bit disappointed at first, but the positive reviews we received on prominent newspapers and magazines managed to let her "granny pride" prevail.

Photos courtesy of photographer Stefano Stranges. And many many thanks to my brilliant costume designer Micol Agricola, who created and (in some cases)re-created our looks for this photoshoot.

"Ooh Yeah!" - Memories from the backstage

These are a few photographs from the making of the video.
It was a pretty intense shooting, but we all had great fun!
I shall upload more photos (as well as more pics from the storyboard) on my website once it's ready. Meanwhile, enjoy the girls and Pizza Boy aka Big Rob in "action"...
Actress Linda Messerklinger aka Angelica La Lapin shows her surprise in front of Pizza Boy's not-so-hidden talents

Actor Stefano Blisa aka Big Rob aka Pizza Boy discussing the infinite potential of his character with the director (me)

The Dream-Team of the Golden Age of Porn: fake director René St. Claire (Daniele Manca) together with his star Big Rob (Stefano Blisa). Please, notice the exquisite gesture of René pointing at his primadonna's moneymaker...

I almost forgot: photos courtesy of Andrea Norzi!

"Ooh Yeah!" - Storyboards

Many people don't like to use storyboards on their sets, many others think they are fundamental. I belong to the second cathegory. To me it's vital that my collaborators know exactly what I want in terms of visual rendition, so I try to make drawings that help defining what's going in my mind.
I think it's the quickest way to communicate with your crew (especially your DoP), much quicker (and definitely more effective) than many words!
Plus I love drawing, I've been doing it since I was two and to me it's the most natural action together with breathing, eating, sleeping and ...well...whatever.




These are some of the storyboard plates (I should rather call them doodles) I made for "Ooh Yeah!".
Sorry for the annoying signs on the pictures, but I scanned them from my original working copy and I am always used to put a big cross on every shot once I get it...


Preparation and production were very close and we had very little time to get organised before the shooting.
The shooting itself was quite short (one day and a half) but I managed to get all that I wanted.
Some of the sequences were fully storyboarded, like the narrative sequence involving the pizza boy and the girls, as well as the notorious "Splash" sequence...



All images are copyright of © Matteo Bernardini.

Moby - "Ooh Yeah!" music video

I spoke about the video for Moby's single "Ooh Yeah!". In a nutshell: in summer 2008 I decided to take part in an international competition American musician Moby created for young directors from all over the world. Considering that the song was reminescent of 70s disco dance and that the expression "ooh yeah" was repeatedly used in the track, I thought that "PORN" would be the answer.
Together with my great cast and crew, I ended up winning the competition. The video is now the official one for the single and has been broadcasted worldwide. Sweet.
Click [here] to see the video. Enjoy...

A very few words about me...and the blog

Hello everybody!
My name is Matteo Bernardini and I am a filmmaker currently residing in Turin, Italy.
Some of you probably saw the video I shot for Moby's single "Ooh Yeah!". In case you didn't, I highly recommend it! :-)

I decided to create this blog to show some bits of my past and current works. You'll find sketches, storyboards, photos from the shootings and some videos too.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I and my crew do working on set!