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NEW DANIELE SILVESTRI MUSIC VIDEO – QUALCOSA CAMBIA

Here’s Daniele’s latest music video I shot entirely on green screen.

Produced by Pulse Films and Indiana.

Directed by Giorgio Testi.

Graphics and editing by Filippo Rossi.

KOWA ANAMORPHICS WITH THE BRMC IN BERLIN

In December 2017 we filmed four music video for the American band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club in the famous Babelsberg Studios in Postdam, just outside Berlin. Excited by the job, filming one of my favourite rock and roll band, and with the rare chance to design the lighting from scratch and control it fully I devised a set of color schemes for each song, helped by the use of specific gels and a set of Arri SkyPanel S-60C all connected to a DMX board.

More recently, last March I believed, I met with Anna Piffl at the AIC micro salon in Rome, excited by the fact that I had used lenses that were rehoused by the company she now manages, the brilliant P+S Technik, she asked me to write a few lines explaining my choices. Here they are coupled with a few pictures of the day and a backstage video (shot and edited by Luca Previtali):

“Filming BRMC music videos in Berlin – December 2017 – released spring 2018

When Giorgio Testi, my long-time friend and collaborator, asked me to join him on a new job financed by Apple Music he was going to direct, about filming the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club band in Berlin I was elated, not only because of the coolness of the job itself but also because I’d always loved their music. Giorgio and I have been very lucky over the years working for some of our idols like the Rolling Stones, Gorillaz, Pixies, Killers and Blur, just to name a few, but BRMC held a special place in our heart. A band for true rock and roll music lovers, their latest album was one of the best ones yet…

In the last few years size and high sensitivity on high end digital cameras’ sensors has meant a rediscovery of anamorphic glass, of each and every kind. We had recently filmed a show using old Kowa anamorphic lenses that Giorgio had fallen in love with. In contrast with the vintage Lomo anamorphic lenses, which we had used in the past, Kowa’s were lighter and warmer. I liked their look and I thought it was going to be perfect in a rock and roll scenario. However I, on the other hand, wasn’t a big fan of their original housing, often hearing complaints by my camera department on their user unfriendliness and overall stiffness. As I was trying to weigh my options I was given the opportunity from SeeYou Rent (where Gunnar Weber’s Bear Films, our production on the ground in Berlin, was renting the camera kit from), of hiring the P+S Technik rehoused Kowa Anamorphic lens set instead (provided by Ludwig), I jumped at it. I went to test the lenses the day prior the shoot at the rental house, where I was joined by my focus puller, Sebastian Katzer, who had been brilliant prepping the kit for me as he would be assisting me during filming.

I found the new housing very solid, made of high quality and precision. The bigger barrel, common front diameter of 80mm and 77mm thread for screw in filters render the lenses more easily employed on all sorts of application as well as more easily coupled with modern wireless lens control systems that the older design wasn’t particularly friendly with, given its inherent stiffness and small size. I find the Kowas to be quite soft generally, within the set I was given the 50mm seemed particularly so, in fact I ended using it less than the other three focal lengths and avoided using any diffusion filter with that particular focal length. I am not a fan of very shallow depth of field in and on itself, I like it but it has to serve a storytelling or visual purpose at least for me. In this particular case, being old glass, the lenses have a greater degree of optical and chromatic aberrations around the edges, especially on the two wider focal lengths, than we are used with newly designed anamorphic sets (the optical distortion found on the outer edges of the 40mm is more similar to the 35mm anamorphic JDC Xtal Xpress lens than that of the new Cooke 40mm anamorphic for example, which still has some contrary to for instance the ARRI Master Anamorphic who have almost none). For this reason I tried to keep them within a T4 to T2.8 throughout the shoot, only a couple of times going wide open as I was also asked to film mostly at 50fps and my lighting set ups where under at times. Doing so would not cancel out the optical shortcomings of the lens design itself but would help make them match more closely to each other as I found that when these lenses are used wide open (as with most vintage lenses, anamorphic or spherical), they tend to sway one way or the other often losing contrast and definition more so than when they operate slightly stopped down. Indeed, at T4 they were truly beautiful. The warmer flaring on this lens compared to the archetypal blue anamorphic flaring is spectacular, however harsh point light needs to be used as any slightly softer source, even a straight down the barrel Fresnel unit will only give you a wash more than a proper line. The rehoused lenses worked very well on both our Alexa Mini, one on a 360degrees dolly track around the built set operated by me, and the other on a Steadicam rig, operated by the relentless David Willert with focus puller Leo Kairat. Most of the time the 40mm was employed on the dolly whereas the 75mm on the Steadicam rig. We ened up filming four music videos in one day, within Studio 10 at Babelsberg Studio in Postdam, just outside Berlin. It was great to be given the chance to design the lighting from scratch, pick a colour scheme for each song and program the lighting movements from the ground up. On top of the two filming cameras, we had three video camera operators manning smaller prosumer cameras linked to a video mixer that was feeding their live feed as well as previously made graphics live onto the screens we had rigged within the set.

I am very proud of the results, Echo being probably the best of the four pieces we made that day. It was all possible thanks to the hard work of my entire camera crew (David Willert, Sebastian Katzer, Leo Kairat and Xaver Neumann our Tech Assistant), lighting crew (Felix Fisher and Jonathan Beck),  grip crew (Levent Suzen), the sound crew (Dirk Feistel was the sound recordist, Marta Bala our VJ and the video camera operators (Simone Pellegrini, Claus Kuhlmann and Brian Zajak), the production company and its people (our bro and sis Gunnar Weber and Julia Kempe and PA Konstantin Munzel), the studio, the band and of course the director, Giorgio Testi. A big thank you finally goes to editor Luca Previtali (who also filmed and edited the BTS video) and colourist Paul Diamond from My Brother Bob studio in London.”

BLOGOTHEQUE: MENGONI – HOLA MAKING OF

Filming long takes is always challenging. Filming long takes that in involve 360 turns and a walk through an entire building as well as outside with real street lighting is even more and even more so if you the building is a XVI century beauty that now serves as a museum, where it’s impossible to attach anything anywhere nor even raise the temperature more than 5 degrees Celsius lest the endangerment of its art collection. Plus there’s live sound being recorded and a boom operator walking by the camera at all times! But when a company cool as Blogotheque calls, giving you the chance to work on a project this satisfying you have got to deliver. Here’s a nice behind the scenes video of that experience. Edited by Luca Previtali.

Ps: I forgot to add we could not get in until 6.30PM and had to finish by 2AM…

 

SIMONE CRISTICCHI – ABBI CURA DI ME

Early last January I was called to film two music videos back to back from well known and beloved Italian artists. One was Argento vivo by Daniele Silvestri, the other Abbi Cura Di Me by Simone Cristicchi can be admired here. They both went on playing successfully at the most prestigious San Remo festival, sweeping all critics’ as well as people choice’s awards (but not the festival crown itself).

We filmed one long take from beginning to end, all lighting was cued up with the music thanks to a dimming board and a gang of uncompromising lighting technicians and dolly grips. I was on camera. We filmed at Lumina studios in Rome. Post production was carried on at InLusion VFX in Rome.

Shot on Red Helium s35 with Zeiss Ultra Primes.

Directed by Giorgio Testi

Art direction by Laura Latorre with the support of Flaminia Ciabatti

Costumes by Noemi Intino.

Colorist Andrea Gargano

GIORGIA – VANITA’ AN ITALIAN COMEBACK

2017 has begun with an unexpected job for me, a music video shoot from one of the most renowned and beloved Italian singers: Giorgia. It was my first Italian job in many many years and I welcomed the experience. Upon reconnecting with its director, the Italian music video director Cosimo Alema’, I was asked to join him into this journey. Commissioned by Sony and produced by the director’s companies Borotalco, Bmovie Italia and 99.9 Films through Andrea Biscaro and Fulvio Compagnucci, the video features three separate storylines loosely referring to the song’s lyric interwoven with the artist’s brilliant playback delivery. It was a fun two days shoot, enlightened by the wonderful company of the singer, who’s real persona is all you would hope her to be. A real pleasure.

Cosimo distinctive signature style called for hand held camera with 45º shutter, fast paced editing and use of natural lighting when available. I tried my best to keep it simple while at the same time give justice to Giorgia’s beautiful features.

Shot on Red Dragon with Zeiss Super Speed primes.

 

BRIDGET JONES’S BABY

I consider myself very lucky to have been involved on this production, fist as additional cinematographer for VFX and later as C camera operator. Working with Andrew Dunn, ASC, BSC is great and his tremendous experience seems endless, he is terribly generous with his knowledge and kind but always able to get the best out of you. Amazing.

I have to thank B camera operator/second unit cinematographer Gerry Vasbenter for the opportunity, whose qualities are too many to mention.

Uncredited by still very much part of it.

Shot on Arri Alexa XT Plus, Panavision C-, T-Series, ATZ, AWZ2 and Angenieux Optimo Lenses.

A Universal Films Production

Directed by Sharon Maguire

Cinematography by Andrew Dunn

 

Vote THE RUN, web series pilot competition.

theRun

Here’s The Run, a pilot for a web series created and directed by the brilliant Mario Sainz, produced by Kate Marsden, photography by me.

The pilot is now in competition for The Raindance Web Series Pilot competition (to see click on title).

Please share and vote for us!

Shot on Red Epic with Zeiss Super Speed prime lenses (once again Panavision & Panalux have taken care of me in the best possible way, thank you).

Also a big thank you to all the people involved who helped me shoot this, you’ve been great and your effort have been invaluable!!

IERI SERA A CENA – SHORT FILM

“IERI SERA A CENA” (Yesterday’s dinner) is a short film written and directed by the young Cristiano Pedrocco, a first time director at the time of the shoot, who has a background in photography and who, later on, attended a film school’s cinematography course in Rome. Cristiano is now working as a filmmaker in Rome.

I met Cristiano through relatives and when he proposed the film to me, upon reading the script I was instantly hooked. I like uplifting stories, maybe it’s because I’m a child of the Eighties (b. 1979) and I grew up with films such as E.T. and Back To The Future, that this story resonated with me from the start.

Cristiano spent months preparing for the shoot and albeit a minimal budget he flashed out of his own pocket, he managed to have everything in place for the shoot. And it was well worth it, the film has won many National and International festivals since it was released a couple of years ago. Now that its festival run is over I can finally post it here. I will get a subtitled version in English soon as well, meanwhile, unless you speak Italian, have a look at the pictures!

It was shot on a Canon 5D with Zeiss Compact Prime 2 Lenses.

Enjoy!

OTRIVINE – STOP MESSING ABOUT

I shot this advert for Shaven Ape, directed by Ben Fogg – with whom is a pleasure to work.

Shot on Red Epic with Zeiss Distagon Prime lenses.

EUROPCAR + ARSENAL FC CAMPAIGN

Less than a couple of weeks ago I was lucky to be involved in shooting the Europcar and Arsenal FC partnership campaign. Here’s the full edit. I shot the Trudy Mertesacker bit (the bakery) without the headshot interview of Trudy and Per.

Directed by the brilliant Ben Fogg

Produced by the lovely Jade Fitton for Shaven Ape

Shot on Red Scarlet with Canon EF zoom lenses.