Giulio Boato
Italian videomaker
biography
Interview: 10 questions
1. Tell me something about your life and the educational background
I was born in Venice in 1988, I studied film and theatre in Venice (IUAV), Rome (CSC – editing seminary), Bordeaux, Bologna, now I’m PhD student in theatre in Paris 3 university.
In 2013 I founded my company DOYOUDaDA | video&performing Arts, based between Venice and Bordeaux (www.doyoudada.org).
I’m now working in theatre and film-making (video-art and documentaries) for international companies such Troubleyn/Jan Fabre (Antwerp) and La Compagnie des Indes (Paris).
2. When, how and why started you filming?
I was 18, at the end of High School, and a group of young university students created a short-film-school for free. I joined the group, and I enjoyed so much using videos to tell stories that I decided to go on. All alone first, with colleagues afterwards.
3. What kinds of topics have your films?
It depends. It can shift from social matters (such as the 1minute film for Cologne OFF 9th) to music videos, to poem-videos, to short stories with or without spoken language. Mostly without, for video-art films.
4. How do you develop your films, do you follow certain principles, styles etc?
There are no principles: the film has to “workâ€, it must be readable, direct, impacting. Style can change; I guess I didn’t find mine yet. I try to steal as much as I can from other artists, to find my own view on reality.
5. Tell me something about the technical equipment you use.
For shooting: from Canon 60D to iPhone 4, to old MiniDV cameras. For the editing: Final Cut Pro and After Effects. The suite Adobe is always very useful for post production.
6. These days digital technology is dominating also video as a medium. In which way the digital aspect is entering the creation of your videos, technologically and/or conceptually?
I cannot avoid it, it’s completely part of the working process. When I imagine a film, I already see it through the “lenses†of the technology I will use. Technical equipment influences the direction, the style and so the content and the message. In a way, “how you make a film†is the film.
7. How do you finance your films?
My own money first, then sells, if it happens! For films longer than shorts I work for production houses.
8. Do you work individually as a video artist/film maker or do you work in a team? if you have experience in both, what is the difference, what do you prefer?
I founded the company DOYOUDaDA to put together a filmmaker (me), a composer-musician-sound designer (Lorenzo Danesin) and an actress-cellist (Juliette Fabre). We usually work together for video productions and performances. The works are the result of our different thinking on art and life. All of us have different skills, no one can do what the others do, and all together we can make something really worthy.
9. Who or what has a lasting influence on your film/video making?
Some great photographers: from Walker Evans to Diane Arbus, to Gabriele Basilico, to Guido Guidi. Some great directors: form Stanley Kubrick to Mchael Haneke, from Luchino Visconti to MIchelangelo Antonioni. Some great stage directors: from Jan Fabre to Robert Lepage.
10. What are your future plans or dreams as a film/video maker?
Plans: transforming my PhD research in a documentary about theatre direction. Dreams: making a full-length fiction film!
Can works of yours viewed online besides on the CologneOFF platform? Where?
List some links & resources
My Vimeo page: http://vimeo.com/user20666369