*How did you get into making films?
I was inspired by Maccio Capatonda and his parodistic trailers of unexisting films. During the university period, in 2009-2012, I began to emulate his comedy works with some friends, just for having fun.
*What inspired you to make your movie?
The idea for my movie was inspired by a simple picture of a friend of mine, taken in 2012 while he was hiding behind some plants. He afterwards commented the photo on Facebook, saying that it was for some kind of spying film of ours. I was triggered by the idea, so we started shooting, even without a script and with him as the main character, what was supposed to become a grotesque spying short film. But then, working on the script, we generated a whole feature film, whose production finally ended only a few years later.
*How has your style evolved?
As said before, I started with a simple compact camera and with Windows Movie Maker editing, with no technical studies, making mock trailers. As time passed by, these trailers actually became short films until the production of this very feature film, which also helled me and my staff to improve a lot on filming and taking into account a lot of technical aspects (audio, cinematography, lightning, ...) which we didn't considered a lot in the early productions. After this film I switched to a more film-festivals-oriented productions, at least preparing some scripts and storyboards before shooting.
*Tell us any strange or funny stories while making the film?
Well, since nobody among the crew is fully (or even partially) employed in film industry, I had to organize shooting days considering the all-days activities of the crew, and some scenes were often shot during other events where the necessary crew members happened to be part of. Just as an example, the multiple scenes where the spy is celebrating were shot during real hangouts with friends. This happened only thanks to the fact that in the film-making process I involved people that were all friends of mine. This could be seen also as a problem in the process though, since working in a friends' environment led to shootings only last for almost two years. However, the most strange shooting was probably the first day of shooting, when we take advantage of one of our friends' graduation (he obviously participated too in the movie) to film inside the beautiful bulding seen in the flashback where the spy and the counter-spy meet for the first time.
*The Misrule Film Movement & Pink8 manifesto bring what to mind?
It actually makes me think about this very feature-film and my productions beforehand! It's a pity I didn't respect all the points presented in the manifesto but only three quarters of them, while making this feature film.
*What can we expect from your next film?
In this period I'm more involved in making music videos, where the improvisation part takes the lead on the basic ideas prepared in advance. Covid-19 canceled the shootings of a new short-film instead, which we'll have to recover when it will be possible. It will have our typical grotesque style plus some special effects not aiming at making impact visually but of importance for the story itself.
