I’ve been invited to be join Niccolò Montanari’s project, Curation Hour, a platform that highlights great video content from around the world. This gives me the opportunity to make visible work from talented directors such as Marco Santi. Santi’s music video for Nother feat. Moon Leap, wasn’t the first one I came across and watched this month, but it was the one I watched three times. Then I looked him up. Santi’s work has impressed others.
His film, Clara, won six prizes at the international festival, 48filmproject, in 2015, including Best Short Film and Best Director. In 2017, he wrote and directed Professor D.’s Gravitational Attraction, a short film which was presented as a world premiere at the 74th Venice International Film Festival in the Young Italian Authors section. And in 2019, his video clip, Missed, for MAKAI, was one of the Young Director Awards selections in Cannes. [:ed]
Curation Hour interviewed Santi about this very different, very watchable work and the director who made it:
Curation Hour: How did you start collaborating with Nother?
Marco Santi: Nother texted me on Vimeo ten years ago or so. It was just Stefano Milella at that time. He had seen some of my work and wanted to do something together. And here we are, ten years later still collaborating. The curious thing is that we have only met in person once in ten years, but we really talked for many hours (perhaps too many) on the phone.
CH: Can you take us through the creation process, specifically how you interpreted the track? What kind of ideas were you playing with and what made you decide which idea to explore? How involved was Nother?
MS: Nother and I agreed that dance should have been the protagonist of this music video from the very beginning. I listened to the song a couple of times and started thinking about a clumsy dance. At first I thought to shoot in a really dirty environment like a claustrophobic butcher shop, full of splatters of red blood and bits of living flesh that could smear the sweet musicality of the track… maybe it was a little too much hehe (but I really want to do shoot in a butcher shop in the next future).
However, I come up with the idea of a dirty kitchen and this was the right environment for Us. I presented the idea of the location and the two main characters to Nother. He immediately fell in love with these and he let me proceed with the idea. So I created a very compressed story, with few characters and just one location to deal with. Few and precise dialogues and not much more. I knew from the start that this was a a very tiny-super-low-budget project and I wanted to maximize the effort in a few scenes.
CH: The music video relies on the sensual and beautiful performance of the cast you selected. How did you find them? And how did you direct them? Was there choreography in place or was it mostly improvised?
MS: Dino Porzio, the youngest chef, was the first actor that came to my mind for this story. I had worked with him before and this was the right project to collaborate again. He’s a really smart guy, very talented and always enthusiastic. Then I first confronted Maria Clara Taglienti, a young producer who is also passionate about casting, and Cecilia Vecchio, casting director. It was the latter who suggested the great Antonino Porzio, ”the senior chef”, and Angela Di Domenico to me. For both of them we were looking for specific aesthetic characteristics and dance skills. Cecilia did a really great job.
As for the staging, we went step by step: I gave the actors some actions and some positions that they had to reach. I let them improvise the dance steps a little and then correct them slightly by choosing the moves and speed that I liked.
CH: Recently there has been an increase in content focusing on dance. Why do you think that might be and are there any other trends we should be on the lookout for?
MS: I personally love any kind of spontaneous, intimate and clumsy dance for years. I always expressed my admiration for this type of dance through my works, even if I don’t know how to dance… I’m really bad at it. Anyway, I think dance it’s a great form of expression and communication, it can tell you a lot without the use of words.
I think that a lot of trends nowadays this has to be connected to social media (what banality!). Now with TikTok and similar we can see millions of people showing their good or awful dance skills 24/7. I’m not a big fan of these trends, I try every time to be myself and not to be influenced by trends, even if it’s hard and a little bit snobby maybe.
CH: You are leading a very successful career as a director. What would you say have been the key milestones in your career? And what would you advise a young director starting out?
MS: Thanks. but I don’t feel like a successful director. I’ve had some good reaches so far, but that’s not enough, I haven’t done anything yet. I have so many stories that I would like to tell and I feel the huge need to express myself much more than I have done so far. Milestones are yet to come. So I don’t feel like giving great advice. I can only say that as a director I’m very demanding with myself and my works. The key is never to be satisfied.
CH: How would you define your style?
MS: Outlandish maybe. But it’s you that have to tell me.
What are you working on next?
MS: These days I’m at the last steps of Jocu’s post production, my new short film. Then write, write and write. I have something in mind…
Santi has also directed:
Credits, Nother feat. Moon Leap:
Directed by Marco Santi
Starring: Dino Porzio, Antonino Porzio, Angela Di Domenico
Produced: by ILLMATIC FILM GROUP
Executive Producer: Jacopo Pica
DOP: Stefano Usberghi
Sound: Rossella Abbattista
Set Designer: Francesco Falanga
Costume Designer: Saveriana Bubani
Make-up Artist: Valentina Rosano
Producer: Chiara Vallo
1st AD: Anna Coccoli
Editor: Francesco Tasselli
Colour Correction: Lorenzo Ameri
VFX: Giorgio Poloni
Production Assistants: Gianmarco Berti, Lorenzo Perna
Casting: Cecilia Vecchio
1st AC: Tommaso Matteocci
2nd AC: Matteo Bolzan
Video Assist: Giulia Reggio
Head Gaffer: Roberta Rossi Scala
Gaffer: Pietro Pappa
Key Grip: Marco Cuccio
Set Designer Assistant: Elena Zuccardi Merli
Service: Camera Service
