What happens when one of the world’s most famous film studios opens its doors to a group of European skaters?
The answer: one of the most intriguing skate films since Search for Animal Chin. Cinecitta, the Fellini’s favourite film studio, is located in Rome, and was the workplace of Inti Carboni, an Italian director who has been looking at the extravagant sets quite differently from his colleagues.
We spoke to Carboni about how that glint in his eye became Cinecitta on Wheels…
It’s a pleasure to talk with you, I recently watched Cinecitta On Wheels and was blown away by the concept. Can you give our readers a rundown of the film and how the idea came about?
Gulio Repetto of Murder Skateboarding and I, have been friends for over 25 years. We met as young skate punks in the 1980s, hung out at Hardcore shows, met at various skate spots and contests all over Europe. Two years ago we started talking about doing a skateboarding video. I had just directed a music video for Born From Pain where I filmed lots of the four elements and my first idea was a special effects filled video: flames, guns, explosions! He came down to Rome to see what was available at the Corridori SF/X workshop, and while we where being shown the original guns from the Sergio Leone spaghetti western movies, he asked me if he could visit Cinecittà.
WINNER: BEST DIGITAL FILM AT SAN FRANCISCO FROZEN FILM FESTIVAL 2016
I walked him around the film studios, and we decided it could have been an interesting backdrop for a skateboarding film.
Rome is a beautiful, diverse city. Within a 30-minute long subway ride, between big residential buildings and the ancient roman ruins of the Appian Way, you can enter the Factory of Dreams, as Fellini used to call it. At the Cinecittà Studios, some of the most old and active film studios of the world, people work to create magic. I have seen them creating from scratch XIX century New York City, submerged submarines, snow covered squares, underwater landscapes. Its beautiful 1930s rationalist architecture, the huge standing film sets, their fantastic film museum, became the best backdrop for the project.
Skateboarders are curious, creative types. Every surface, every architecture they encounter inspires new tricks and lines. I wanted to portray them discovering the magic of filmmaking, and the opportunity within these bizarre locations.
It took quite a long prep time to develop the project, all done while I was in between film jobs. Once we got a solid outline, through the gracious help of the Roma Lazio Film Commission, we met with the Head of the studios who really liked our approach, and gave us full support for the project.
So it just came from a fun idea one day outside Cinecitta, who are and how did you find the skaters to join the project?
I worked at the Cinecittà studios so many times. As a former skater, I always looked at those sets, bumps, handrails with a skater’s eye. I guess that never stops even when you don’t skate anymore. I wanted to fuse my love for filmmaking and film history with the feeling that comes when you pull a nice trick. That sweet noise of a smith grind…
OFFICIAL SELECTION: ADVENTURE OUTDOOR FEST – MOVIE AWARDS
The skaters where all riders of the Murder Skateboarding team. Originally we wanted to include the whole team, about 10 people, but the logistics of getting those skaters down to Rome from the four corners of Europe within the time frame of the availability of the location was real intricate. We ended up having with us Jacopo Picozza from Latina, Nicolò Bromo from near Milan, Filippo “Baro” Baronello from Tuscany (but really living in Austria), Paolo Maneglia from Sardinia (also the main filmer/DP of the project), Asia Lanzi, Maria Lima from Copenhagen and Juan Issa AKA Poppa who is a real tall argentinian that lives in Denmark.
Wow, so quite a crew with a range of backgrounds. What did they have to say about the project?
For the skaters Cinecittà was a mythological name. They had no idea on what was behind the studio gate, only the legends they have heard and the stuff they saw in the old movies.
They also loved the idea of skating all these surreal locations. Travelling around time and space.
One thing that was new for them was the filmmaking process. We shoot the whole thing in 5 days, and we had limited availability of all the different locations within those dates. We also tried to take advantage of natural light conditions as much as possible, so there where a lot of early wake up calls, dawn shots, and switching the schedule around because of changing weather conditions.
OFFICIAL SELECTION: INDEPENDENT SKATEBOARDING FILM FESTIVAL, L.A.
For the skaters, the militaristic approach our film crew had was quite shocking at first.
What problems did you face? It must have been quite funny trying to work out tricks on some of those crazy sets.
The main issue was the terrain. Cinecittà is an industrial area, so the asphalt is not that refined, the landings are not that easy and safe, and there’s very little run up distance. On top of that, most of the “pittoresque” locations had a very rough terrain close to the historical truth: not so much smooth concrete in Ancient Rome or Medieval Assisi! Every trick was the product of sweat and blood!
Also the time constraints where difficult. Cinecittà is a working film studio, so we had limited access to the main locations, we had to adjust to other films’s schedules and set construction’s needs.
You must have been given some pretty funny looks from the crew. Which was the most interesting terrain to skate?
We teamed up with ZeroSix Productions who helped us out with the line producing of the film, and we got together a small but dedicated crew of Camera, ADs, Art Department, Production, Costume, Make Up & Hair professionals that I worked with many times. A lot of the crew members had roots in the Punk/Hardcore and Alternative culture, so they knew about skateboarding and what is around it. The biggest culture shock was actually from the skaters, who where not used to the technicalities of narrative filmmaking.
OFFICIAL SELECTION:
MADRID SURF FILM FESTIVAL
MADRID SURF FILM FESTIVAL
The most interesting location for skateboarding was definitely the Ancient Rome set. The terrain had a real rough pattern, but given the background, that’s where the skaters pulled out their best tricks. Poppa had a trail of blood coming from an injury, his trick was dubbed by the crew “The Passion of Poppa”, like the gory Mel Gibson film, The Passion of the Christ.
Visually, I loved filming the Cinecittà entrance and courtyard. The Rationalist 1930s architecture, the roman Pine trees, and early morning light. That feeling of getting inside the Factory of Dreams for the first time.
Any unforeseen trip ups in your master plan?
We scheduled the film in a very precise way, so that we could have some room for improvisation. The only day it rained we where able to film inside a soundstage with a few ramps we built. In the edit we decided for a different ending which we shot a couple of months later. Editing was a interesting debate between my cinematic approach and the ethics of skateboarding videos.
How so? What would you have done differently, that you had to sacrifice for the ethics of skateboarding videos?
The ethics of a skateboarding video are pretty strict. You can’t do many cuts within a sequence, can’t do jump cuts and need to show start and landing of a trick. That is because you have to prove that the trick was done wthout “cheating”. I had to twist that structure a bit, because I wanted more dynamic and use more points of view in the sequences, while keeping the proof of the trick being landed. It was an interesting journey and I have learned a lot. I am ready for the next one!
That final ramp, what’s the story behind that?
I wanted to show not only the exterior parts of the studios, but also how sometimes you can enter in a sound stage and find a fantastic world inside. Originally we where going to build a huge structure inside the Teatro 5, the soundstage favored by Federico Fellini, but a few weeks before we where going to start construction, Cinecittà landed a contract for a Chanel fashion show: they built a full size Paris neighborhood, with a subway train running inside of it!
We had to scale down to another soundstage and worked more with the color, look, lights and smoke.
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Wow, it’s crazy what they’re able to produce over there, and even crazier that you managed to get your own film shot in one of the most famous film studios in the world. How are you going to top that, what’s next on the cards for you Inti?
Cinecitta On Wheels, like many films, was a collective effort. I have to thanks Murder Skateboarding, Kinethica, ZeroSix Productions, Cinecittà Studios, the costume and wig/make up rental houses that gave us materials, Panalight Rome for cameras and lights and our fantastic film crew.
I have been juggling with different projects in the last couple of years. S Is For Stanley, a documentary I produced, won the David di Donatello (the highest italian film award) and it’s starting his international journey, some of the music videos I directed are traveling the world in the festival circuit; with Kinethica and ZerosSix we are developing a few other projects and I am writing a new skateboarding short film for Murder Skateboarding. I really hope to do more skateboarding work, I loved it.
What can you tell us about that short film you’re writing for Murder?
Actually I cannot. It’s a secret project! Sorry…
Understood. Well we really look forward to seeing what you’ll come out with next. Well done, Inti. I hope Cinecitta On Wheels has great success in its journey from here on out!
Thanks.
Keep pushing…
