It was a chilly evening in April. The large lecture room in “Leoni” was crowded. Suddenly a collective gasp arose from the female population of the audience: he had arrived. Luscious curly hair, warm dark eyes and a single rebellious, silver earring. He is Giacomo Giorgio, the suave Italian actor of the Rai/Netflix hit-series “Mare Fuori”, in which he plays a hot-blooded gangster in the outskirts of the city of Naples.
This was one, hormonal, highlight of the event “Behind the Scenes: The secrets of the Success of Italian TV Series Productions” organised by Bocconi TV and SmartMovie Association with the Università Bocconi funds. Sitting at the panel of illustrious guests, apart from the aforementioned heart-throb, there was Marco Garavaglia, film editor and head of an Italian post-production company; Matteo Buzzanca, soundtrack composer for many Italian TV Series; and Carolina Beria, Giacomo’s agent and head of her own Talent Management company. The ever-loved, CLEACC professor Paola Dubini moderated the event.
The event analysed the key aspects of the production chain for Film and TV Series. First, Marco Garavaglia briefly explained the life of a movie. “It starts with a concept, not even a story” he says. From the conception, a production company picks up the idea and starts to appoint screenwriters who will develop the story and its structure. From that point onward, the production company shares much of the “entrepreneurial risk” with the distributor, either a TV Company (e.g. Rai) or a Streaming Company. The role of the distributor is very important, as it greatly influences the choice of a key figure of the project, the movie director. Once chosen, things mostly go smoothly: costumes, sets, actors and action!
At this point, Giacomo Giorgio takes the stage to offer his take on the process of acting, a process of “empathy and understanding”. At this time, a large number of spectators take their iphones to film the actor. Zooming in, zooming in.
However, the film is not over. The work of post-production editors, such as Garavaglia, starts. All the tape is edited and organised in a careful and continuous dialogue between the editors and the movie director. And once the work is done it is time for marketing and soundtrack!
It is the turn of Matteo Buzzanca to speak. Quite concisely, he gives the audience the definition of what is never “just background music”. “The soundtrack is the second director of the movie, it is the ingredient that orients and moves the perceptions and emotions of the public”, he says. To help the audience understand, he makes an experiment: on the opening of Kubrick’s masterpiece “The Shining” he overlays classical, tribal and minimal music. The experiment is successful in showing how the choice of Stanley Kubrick (a sinister classical piece) immediately creates tension with the calm aerial views of mountain roads which lead toward that well-known, bloody hotel.
Then, finally Carolina Beria takes the mic. To all Bocconi students, she is quite a success story! A CLEACC alumni at heart, right after finishing university she started a Talent Management Company which now focusses on the rising TikTok stars. She gives a brief and yet exhaustive overview of the new generation marketing techniques. Engagement is key. The role of fans in gratuitously advertising a project and influencing the story can never be underestimated by all the players in the Film Industry.
We end this report on the “Behind the scenes” event with a quote from Garavaglia which makes everyone reflect, movie lovers or not:
“To be aware and knowledgeable of the techniques of our “Culture of Images”, means to comprehend 90% of modern-day communication”
Happy watching!
Media: Courtesy of BocconiTV and Youtube
By Federico Erminio Spadaro