Ago Panini Is A Dude

Dude Film is a fairly new endeavour. What can you tell us about the company?

Dude Film is a brand new director-based company. Its purpose is to work on foreign projects being shot in Italy, using an Italian director with extensive experience abroad so as to portray our beautiful country in a way that feels international.

Ago, you're the director and Claudio acts as producer. What is it about the relationship that works? Is the teamwork important to the quality of the output?

The relationship between director and producer is quite delicate and fragile. I have been working with Claudio for ten years: trust, passion, a problem solving attitude, friendship and (why not) "Joie de vivre" are crucial ingredients, and I found all those elements in Claudio.



You're well established in commercial filmmaking and in the automotive field in particular. What is it about your style that makes you such a popular choice?

I think my 20 years experience in the field is something that matters. Clients and agencies know my work and so they book me to "take my risks", knowing that I know the rules of engagement very well. For example, for the brand new Fiat 500Cult campaign I decided to shoot all the interiors of the car with natural light, hand held camera and with the car on the move, while being driven by the talent. So, quite the opposite of what the "car director's manual" says to do. And it worked. I feel that if I hadn't been a car director for twenty years I wouldn't have been given the freedom to do all of that and I would have been forced to not break the rules...

Is there a specific skill to shooting automotive adverts?

A car belongs to the environment. A car is like a beautiful painting that has to be hung to the proper wall, with the proper framing. I think what a car director should do is to try to find the personality for each car because they are not all the same. I've had the chance to work with super cars like Lamborghini, to small one like the fiat 500. Each car reflects a thought, a project, and has to be respected.



How did you get involved on the Fiat project?

Through Claudio I was contacted by Giacomo Pozzetto's Alto Verbano, a quite well-established Italian production company. As soon as I had the script (by Leo Burnett, Turin) in my hands I started imagining solutions and suggestions. It was already almost perfect on paper in terms of creativity, as the agency did a really amazing job. It just needed a vision, simple and delicate. The tricky thing was that the film should be read in two ways (the "easy" one and the "billionaire" one). Casting was the most difficult thing, and the styling was too, because we had to find someone able to be "working class" as well as "long time wealthy", if you know what I mean...

How much prep work did you have to do? It must have been tiring checking out the gorgeous locations ;-)

Funny thing is that the scouting happened all under an impressive three day storm, but we were all ready for a wonderful three sunny day scouting between Nizza and Monaco. So instead we ended up wet like frogs, and all the pictures I took where really depressing...



The film is beautifully shot. What notes did you give the DOP? Is he a frequent collaborator?

I have been working with Paolo Caimi since the beginning of my career, so there is a sort of endless back-and-forth between us. That makes the thing a lot easier, because we think and react to situations, locations, framing etc. in a very similar way. I wanted a film where camera and photography was a moving element of the story which would little by little become more intimately focussed on the two characters. I wanted the photography to be elegant and simple at the same time.

How was the shoot itself? Did you encounter any issues?

Any backup question...? Unfortunately "easy shoots" days are gone. So you have to fight for every shot like it's a matter of life and death... Seriously: it was a tough one, due to time restrictions for driving shots, locations and so on. We had a schedule where we cannot be more than 10' late in order not to loose the next location. But we did it, as you can see.



The film ends with a nice comedic twist. How important was that final edit?

The final twist is the key of the film. The idea was to share "common sense" thoughts, that everybody cannot agree with... and then slap you in the face. Because everything the voice over says, works perfectly either way.

You've worked in both feature films and photography alongside the commercial projects. Is there a form you prefer? Do they feed into each other?

I love photography. That is my original passion. I feel photography is the purest and simplest visually expressive art form. There is a sort of inner river that streams inside you with some "projects" you are working on, that keeps your mind awake and so every time I step into a situation, a place, an attitude, an event, that "fits" one of the different photographic projects I am working on, I quickly pick up my Leica, and... Click. Just me, my imagination, and that click. Features are like the real deal, so if you are a director there is a sort of oath that pushes you to do (or at least try to do) movies. That is the most complicated thing in the world... As per continuity I am working on two projects: a thriller, to be shot in Ireland and a "food punk comedy" to be shot in France...

What's up next for you?

Several interesting advertising projects around the world, a photographic exhibition in Milan in September, and a short animated film, about a god, simply called Carlo.