MARKETING, COMMUNICATIONS, AUDIENCE DESIGN
With the end of the year approaching fast, I figured this was the right time to follow up on the 2022 projects roundup started in my previous post. I left you when I was planning my staying at the Cannes Film Festival, so let’s pick up from there. Cannes 2022 was a whirlwind of conferences and…
Sometimes – more often than not, actually – I get asked what I do exactly for a living and how a year in the industry I work in looks like. Although the answer changes according to the industry I am involved at the time of the question – sometimes it’s the film business, sometimes other cultural and…
Freshly launched online, Superzoom – The Other Side of Fashion is the platform designed by Nuova Libra Editrice and the new digital hub of the Zoom on Fashion Trends editorial staff. But it is much more than an extension of the well-known fashion trend analysis magazine. As well as being the operational centre for the Bologna-based publisher’s…
The year 2020 ended with an assignment in the field of writing for the web (in Italian) that I am doubly fond of. On the one hand, it is because I was involved as a copywriter/editor in a digital project for the martial arts and holistic disciplines sector, which has been a passion of mine…
The year that is now drawing to a close has undoubtedly been one of the most difficult for the film industry. However, in the face of closed cinemas, cancelled festivals, postponed new film releases and sets on pause, it is with great pleasure that Roberto Braga and I returned to collaborate with Filmmaker, the documentary…
August has just begun and the first session of the 2020 edition of the Script 2 Film Workshops, the Mediterranean Film Institute’s (MFI) development program for films, documentaries and TV series, has just ended. Given the difficulties caused by Covid-19 in organizing international travels for participants from all over Europe and abroad, and in making them work…
The Thesis It’s been seven years since I defended my Ph.D. thesis at the University of Bologna’s Department of the Arts. Framing Death – La morte in diretta, tra cinema e media digitali was a multidisciplinary work aimed at accounting how death was portrayed in some audiovisual products and disseminated by what, at the time,…
Months ago, I had the chance to interview Tom Herck regarding his latest performance at Burning Man and I was left with the impression that his art stroke a chord with the public primarily because of his ability to connect his creative universe with major issues felt in society, whether on a macro or micro level. It…
Developing social media campaigns for films is always exciting for me, and my involvement with Giancarlo Soldi’s documentary Cercando Valentina – Il mondo di Guido Crepax, which I recently wrote about, was far from being a rare event in my collaboration with Roberto Braga within an industry we both deeply care about. In this post I wanted…
As I mentioned in my previous post, the isolation imposed for the COVID-19 pandemic is deeply affecting the film and entertainment industry. At the beginning of the lockdown in Italy, many agencies and consultants in the marketing and communication sector wondered what they could do to help their community go through this difficult time and make…
People are already saying now that there is a world before and one after the lockdown enforced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is not only true for our personal lives but also for our jobs. Being involved in many projects for the film industry, I initially witnessed this transition while working on…
I have been a practitioner of Yang-style Taiji Quan and Qi Gong for many years, so I was more than happy to lend my “writing hand” when asked to contribute to the launch of heartmind Lab, a brand new project that brings together a team of scientists and academics to combine the most recent breakthroughs in…
It’s a good day to be a fan of TV series in Milan, as Stardust by QMI is kicking off the first edition of Series Con this weekend. Packed with talks, guests and talents, special screenings and awards, it’s a two-day event (11-12 May) devoted to television and serialised entertainment hosted at Tenoha Milano. While Skam Italia will…
Spring has arrived (finally!) and it brought back (old) new collaborations. After completing a few exciting digital PR projects for the Milan-based entertainment marketing agency QMI Interactive over the past five months, I have resumed some of my favourite teaching duties. In March I again joined the team of the Buyer 2.0: Professional Manager in Fashion Activities…
2018 is almost done and I am writing from Belgium right now, where I am spending what remains of the year with my wife’s family. Around this time one usually goes for the best nine Instagram posts but I chose to sum up my recent trip to L.A. with a personal list of what I…
It’s been quite a hectic couple of months for me. I have been involved in many projects within the audiovisual industry as a digital PR in addition to my usual activity as a consultant for cinema and television. But I wanted to briefly tell you about a training activity I took part in this week…
If you were following me on social media in the past few days, you might have noticed that I was on another assignment for the online magazine Bobos.it – a trendy one, actually. While Milan was going crazy for Fashion Week, I skipped some of the glamour to sit in the dark of the screening…
Let’s face it: we all have some wrongs to right. Sometimes, though, you need a pair of extra hands in order to get a revenge while getting your a** out of a complicated situation. And who’s better than a professional to help you out? Since former CIA agent Robert McCall is one of the best…
Among the many film festivals in the world, there is one I hold particularly dear. It’s the Verona Film Festival – Schermi d’Amore, born in the city of Romeo and Juliet and entirely devoted to sentimental cinema and mélo. This is where I started to work in the film industry a decade ago, when I…
The premise of this post goes back in time over ten years ago, when I was studying for my MA in Cinema, Television and Multimedia Production at the University of Bologna. One of my pals over there was Markus Duffner, who was into Monty Python and unconventional audiovisual narratives. Fast forward a decade, he has…
As I am writing these few lines, I have just come back from the first residency of the Script 2 Film Workshops 2018. With my luggage still half unpacked, having arrived home last night straight from the island of Nisyros, I am glad of having joined the Mediterranean Film Institute for the third time in a…
I have admittedly been silent over the past few months on this platform. Yet it was for a good reason, as I have been busy dividing my time across film marketing, copywriting and, most of all, contributing to a brand new exciting project across fashion, communications and media, which I am going to tell you…
Because of my activity as a researcher and film marketing consultant, I regularly meet many professionals operating across all of the areas of the industry. A good portion of them are worried about the future, but just don’t know how to face what’s changing in the film business. One of the key theme everyone is…
Gli amanti di film e serie televisive in Italia sanno che il martedì hanno un appuntamento fisso con il proprio edicolante di fiducia (o la cassetta della posta, o lo schermo del proprio pc/tablet/smartphone). È il giorno in cui il nuovo numero di Film Tv, settimanale di cinema, televisione, musica e spettacolo, raggiunge i suoi…
This week I ran a crash course in media, audiences and communication at ifs internationale filmschule köln gmbh. I was invited to ifs to host a two-day workshop with the students of the MA Digital Narratives, a full-time study program combining theory and practice while enabling the development of projects with digitization at the core.…
I guess by now summer vacations are pretty much over for everyone, and we all are already mourning our holiday routines and longing to go back to our favourite stress-free spots as soon as possible. So no heavy topics here: I just wanted to share my personal list of “loves at first sight” from the…
Imagine you’re surrounded by one of the bluest seas, fed delicious seafood while watching breath-taking sunsets, and discuss story arcs and characters’ motivations over a few glasses of ouzo, Greece’s traditional anise-flavoured drink. It may sound like paradise, but it’s actually hard work too if you’re a scriptwriter, filmmaker or producer attending a full immersion…
It took Jan Fabre over 40 years to conceive what I was about to see in April at the Abbey of San Gregorio in Venice. The Belgian artist’s fascination for the themes of metamorphosis, life and death is well documented, and on this specific occasion, a collateral event of the 57th International Art Exhibition –…
November brought a bunch of great news for TorinoFilmLab-supported films (which month did not, anyway?). For my ongoing series of posts focused on TFL releases and work in progress projects, especially related to the 2012 Script&Pitch and Audience Design Programmes, I’m glad to share three updates from Chile, France and Italy. Principal photography for La…
The reason why I like follow-up posts is that, at least in my case, they add good news to good news. This one in particular is an update of an ongoing series focused on the release of TorinoFilmLab-supported films. I read the first draft for Kevin Meul’s debut feature film My First Highway in 2012,…
Autumn will be a very busy season for TorinoFilmLab, which is introducing major changes in its training activities for the audiovisual industry. The Torino-based laboratory supporting international talents has just unveiled what prospect participants and Alumni can expect to be fully introduced to between this fall and the beginning of 2017. First of all, as…
On 3 September some of the Financial Times Weekend’s best-known writers and columnists joined guest speakers and leading figures from fashion, the art world, food and wine for the inaugural edition of the FT Weekend Live Festival. No less than seven stages were devoted to discuss ideas and trends across businesses, markets and creative industries,…
It’s no secret that film is a tough industry and it usually takes a while to enjoy the fruit of one’s hard work. But if you don’t give up and keep on pushing your project, that time will come. If you read my blog it is also no secret that I have had the privilege…
[Scroll down for the Italian version] It is very easy to get used to beauty. Being awakened by the sound of the sea; seeing freshly caught octopuses hanging in the wind in front of the restaurants on the waterfront; walking in the bottom of a volcano… All these things become normal after a few days.…
While fans of Penny Dreadful are still mourning the recently announced ending of Showtime’s horror drama TV series after the Season 3 finale, I thought it was a good idea to catch-up with someone who worked on the show. You may remember Davide Melini from my previous interview on his homage to the “Giallo” film…
[Scroll down for the Italian version] At the UK premiere of Tale of Tales at Curzon Mayfair on 1 June I was expecting that the audience would be fascinated by the locations of this sumptuous re-telling of Giambattista Basile‘s fairy tale collection Pentamerone. Very soon into the presentation director Matteo Garrone said jokingly that with…
[Scroll down for the Italian version] As soon as you think you have spread the word on the latest marketing stunt implemented to promote Deadpool, a new one takes its place in a never-ending process. For over a year now we have been used to the release of news related to the cinematic universe of…
[Scroll down for the Italian version] Last week I kicked off my complementary membership at Curzon Cinemas with a gleefully blasphemous film, which made me laugh a lot, but understandably won’t appeal to some viewers with little sense of humour when it comes to religion. Between satire and dystopian fantasy disguised as a black comedy,…
[Scroll down for the Italian version] I have always respected László Nemes‘ integrity as a filmmaker. On 12 April, at a special event for the launch of his first feature film at Curzon Soho, the Hungarian director once more showed his uncompromising approach to the screening of his debut. As per his request, no one would…
[Scroll down for the Italian version] In a sense, this post comes full circle, as almost two years ago on this blog I wrote a comment on the promotional campaign for X-Men: Days of Future Past. I used Bryan Singer’s film as a case study for lectures and masterclasses, and after a while, when Professor…
After Al-Qaeda’s propaganda videos, but before ISIS’, I was researching the space occupied by death within cinema and digital media. It was just a matter of time before I delved into the urban legend of the snuff movie. So, for a while, some British colleagues I was working with jokingly nicknamed me “Mr. Snuff”. My…
There is a peculiar contradiction at the heart of Belgian artist Jan Fabre‘s latest project, ‘The Man Who Bears the Cross’. As a reflection on the relationship between heaven and earth, it is first of all an intimate dialogue within the self and an unspeakable dimension. But being an installation hosted in the Cathedral of…
I suppose that, after three times attending the same event, one can be considered a ‘regular’, if not a ‘veteran’. Then this is the case for me at Cine-Excess, the conference and festival on global cult film traditions: I attended and presented a talk last year, and in 2011 this was my very first truly…
I really like film markets. They give you the feeling of a parallel world. They are so full of events and yet totally unknown to the majority of the people who just attend the regular activities of a film festival such as screenings, talks and meet and greets with actors and directors. The market is…
There is a very peculiar school in Turin, Italy, named after J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye’s protagonist Holden Caulfield. Created in 1994 by a group of friends in their thirties, including writer Alessandro Baricco, Scuola Holden is now one of the places to be if you want to learn the art of…
Here I am, waiting to board another plane to go back to London after three days in Poland. This time I’m writing a quick post from Gdańsk airport, on my way back from the 40th Gdynia Film Festival where I joined the TorinoFilmLab team and ran a masterclass in Audience Design with my colleague and…