Arcadia Italy

ILARIA PICCOLO -  STUDENT OF ROMA TRE - ARCADIA IN ROME, FALL 2019

When Arcadia asked me which course I wanted to follow I had no doubt: Framing Italy!

I was so excited to finally learn something about italian cinema and Arcadia gave me the opportunity to do it in a new way. 

Our excursion took place in Naples, in the ex NATO headquarters which is now one of the most important cinema studios here. Our teacher, Professor Zagarrio, was shooting his own movie there called “Le seduzioni”, based on the novel “Le seduzioni dell’inverno” written by Lidia Ravera, and he gave us the opportunity to go on set and see how shooting a film looks like. 

So after a short train trip we arrived at the NATO headquarters and we met professor Zagarrio staff who welcomed us with lunch while actors were shooting the final scene before a break. Then our teacher came to meet us and explained some important behavior rules before bringing us on set. The most important rule is to be super quiet because the microphone captures every single sound, not only the voices of the actors, so before starting shooting each scene the staff had the responsibility to tell everybody to be quiet.

 Then “motore” and “azione!”.

We watched all the shooting process in a different room, where the rest of the staff could stay and watch the scene through a live screen that showed us exactly what the camera was shooting. Here, professor Paola Cascinelli and the first-assistant director Loredana Conte told us some curiosities about the movie and the shooting process.

The most interesting part was having the chance to actually go on set! So, in groups of two, we entered in the actual shooting room. We stayed behind the camera, a huge professional camera that I saw there for the first time, with the rest of the staff and the director (our professor). We watched the backstage of the set, the actors, the camera movements, so we actually saw with our own eyes what our teacher explained to us in class. 

What really surprised me was the sound engineer. She had to stand all the time with a huge and heavy microphone trying to follow the actors and listening in her headphones if there were other sounds disturbing the actors. They had to shoot the same scene 3 times! That is a lot of hard work!

Our experience on the set was fantastic and we were all amazed by the amount of work and people that a movie needs to be shot.

 But our trip to Naples was not finished yet and what is the best way to spend your last hour in Naples? Eating a Sfogliatella of course!

 So we went to the seaside and enjoyed the stunning view.

We finally took our train to Rome. I was so happy about this experience, I can’t wait to learn more and to tell you about others Framing Italy’s adventures!