Evolving productions: interview with Zoe Giudice

Source: giornale Lungarno Firenze

Last fall with Tuscany in the red zone, a girl whizzes through the night on her bicycle returning from a publicity set. She is Zoe Giudice: 30 years old, a naturalized Florentine from Milan, who for the past six years has been working at Bottegacinema, the production company founded by Paolo and Tommaso Pratesi in 2002 in the center of Florence.

From Milan to Florence but passing through Rome

“I was born in Milan so advertising is in my DNA. I attended the production course at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. From there began the work in cinema, in the production sector; the most beautiful experience was the set of La Grande Bellezza. An intense job of which I remember the long preparation for the scenes shot at night in incredible places and with many extras. We were shooting from 6 in the afternoon to 6 in the morning. For those who do production it is the most precious of occasions. Then I changed my path and chose Florence and Bottegacinema where I have been employed as an Inside Producer for about 6 years”.

What do you deal with specifically?

“Bottegacinema is a production company that mainly designs and produces commercials and corporate films. Its strength is to follow each work in all its phases: from the creative part to the planning to the production, that is, the set or CGI realization and post production and editing”.

What happened last fall, and how did your approach change?

“In late November, while we were in the red zone, everything was ready to shoot a commercial for Kinder Ferrero intended for the foreign market. Two days of outdoor shooting, for which we implemented all security measures, resulted in the first Kinder TV commercial shot in Italy with live action and totally remote-controlled actors. Both the agency and the client, were not physically present but had to be constantly connected controlling the shoot in real time. So we had a main camera for the action and one for backstage, through which they could observe our work. Now a lot of people are doing that, and one of the first problems is the need to do two location scouting: one for filming and one to assess the quality of the internet connection signal, which has become vital. At the same time we were working on animation and computer graphics videos for a large virtual convention, developing everything under tight deadlines and with many smartworking collaborators. It often happened that we finished very late and I found myself coming home from downtown, where the Bottegacinema office is located, to a very spooky Florence”.

A very positive sign for the entire industry related to audio and video content production.

“I consider it a great fortune to have been able to work under these circumstances. The world of video and entertainment will go on despite everything and in whatever form it takes precisely because of the attraction to images and sounds that belongs to us human beings. Technologies are constantly evolving. We have had a significant increase in requests for video and computer graphics and a sharp decrease in traditional shooting. This phenomenon was already happening before Covid and has now increased. Companies are looking for lower-budget solutions, and the risk is that we are relying on micro-productions consisting of one person with cheaper prices. Instead, in order to ensure the success of a project, it is important that there is a plurality of specialists, also in view of the regulations that must be observed. There is another type of security protocol that must be guaranteed to the client, namely digital security: we make continuous backups with special facilities. That’s what production houses are for”.