Alessandro Brucini
videoartist from Italy
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Interview: 10 questions
1. Tell me something about your life and the educational background
As an independent director and producer, I have just established a little production house, which will work not only in a purely commercial sphere, but it will also advance my personal ride, and in the future I don’t exclude to take into consideration other people’s projects. I’m well disposed towards new collaborations, if there are some minimal conditions for the production of a really necessary work.
Unlike many young authors, I don’t come from a real cinema academy: indeed in 2004, I achieved a Degree in Cinema at the University of Pisa, and then a professional Diploma as Entertainment Operator. Unfortunately, at the university, I never found any encouragement to start up a real production. Thanks to invitations to festivals in order to present my last work, I travelled all over Europe and I could make a comparison with other people and realize how “disadvantaged†I was compared to a German one or a Spanish, for example… In Italy, the situation of the Arts and of the culture in general is difficult, particularly for the new generations of creatives, but there’s no need for me to say that…
2. When, how and why started you filming?
As I didn’t get any kind of support from my teachers in Pisa, I begun to do something myself… Around the end of 2003, I gathered some students, mainly course mates, and so I realized my first works, all zero-budget, all by impromptu technical means, apart the professional equipment which I bought myself [it looks like unbelievable, but the department of the University course didn’t want to lend me a video camera even for the shooting of the short film I had to present for the graduation…].
I’ve begun to realize little works myself, because I did want to do it. I love cinema!
3. What kind of subjects have your films?
Up to now I have realized three fictional films: two shorts and one medium-length, besides some other experimental works and documentaries. As regard my fictional films, all three subjects were based upon literally works, directly or indirectly. I can say that the relation with literature and theatre is absolute to me.
4. How do you develop your films, do you follow certain principles, styles etc?
I always try to do things in the most essential way. From a stylistic point of view, I’m very interested in electronic experimentation, and I work a lot on the color usage.
5. Tell me something about the technical equipment you use.
So far I have shot with prosumer camcorders. Now I’m going to switch to HD. Even in this case, I had to make a virtue of necessity, working with essential technical means, I could never afford elaborate camera movements and I’m looking forward to using a dolly… Unfortunately I must often set a limit to my expressiveness.
6. What are the chances of new media for the genre film/video in general and you personally?
As my style is very close to video-art and experimentation, I obviously see in the new media possibilities of language enrichment and integration. Personally I wish to draw inspiration from the web’s language and for my last film I begun to work in this sense, but with extreme caution.
7. How do you finance your films?
I’m an auto-producer. My non-commercial productions are all zero-budget, as I already said. I paid all the expenses myself, both the technical équipe and the actors collaborated voluntarily, I could not give them either a reimbursement of the expenses or the catering… Even though I expected a high level of concentration and total involvement from them.
From now on I’d like to obtain financings, no matter how low, from public institutions.
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?
The original idea, the writing, the direction and the production of my works issue from me only. But film-making necessarily needs teamwork. As soon as I’ve developed an idea, I write it down and, when I feel it’s “readyâ€, I start to arrange the film production and to involve other people.
9. Who or what has a lasting influence on your film/video making?
The editing, no less than the writing, is the milder phase to me [not the shooting, therefore…]. And it’s exactly in the post-production, when sound and music acquire a foundational value for my personal way of working.
10. What are your future plans or dreams as a film/video maker?
I want to realize a new work based on a female figure from the Greek myth. After Electra, which inspired elektraZenSuite, I’d like to work on Medea.
Can works of yours viewed online besides on VideoChannel? Where?
Some links & resources
audiovisual.live.enterprise website [under construction] : http://www.alenet.eu
elektraZenSuite official movie website : http://www.alenet.eu/e
elektraZenSuite – medium edition [30’] :
http://video.tiscali.it/inshort/Icfilms/video/15789.html
elektraZenSuite – short edition [20’] :
http://www.neche.it/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1045&Itemid=261
eZS : sequenza 1 :
http://www.digichannel.net/index_artist.php?cat=2&subc=10&art=188&video=0
eZS : sequenza 7 :
http://www.digichannel.net/index_artist.php?cat=2&subc=10&art=188&video=381
review on elektraZenSuite by AnnaMaria Monteverdi on digimag [English] :
http://www.digicult.it/digimag/article.asp?id=1202
review on elektraZenSuite by AnnaMaria Monteverdi on digimag [Italian] :
http://www.digicult.it/digimag/article.asp?id=1168