Alessandro Vaccarino

while I was studying in uni I participated in creating a lot of short films in various roles

some were good, some were bad, every one of them was fun to make and I love them with all my heart so here’s all of them.

Il Ponte (2019)

directed by Barbara Ruvolo

at the beginning of my second year in uni, we were divided into teams and tasked to tackle a different genre in a short movie. we got sci-fi, which in hindsight was probably the most difficult one.

so we brainstormed and created The Bridge, a world where everyone knows when they will die.

shooting this short was probably the most difficult thing but also the one where I learned the most.

I was tasked to be part of the post-production team, but since day one I helped with the organization of every single day of production, collaborated for script reviews, and worked on bettering my skills in color correction and vfx.

on set I worked as a runner and electrician.

during post, I edited half of the scenes and did the color correction and color grading for the movie.

I also designed the vfx look.

Epiphany (2022)

directed by me! :)

during my first year in master’s one of the exams was to make a short movie in smaller groups but with a bigger scope.

we bit more than we could chew with a sci-fi story about being groundhog day-ed to save your best friend.

even if the story is a bit convoluted, I still can see lots of small choices that I remember fondly.

this was my first time as a director and maybe the most stressful one. we juggled through green screens and child actors whilst shooting in the middle of december with very few hours of daylight available.

while I didn’t edit this, I followed closely on every step of the work and then covered the vfx and color side of things.

L’unica via (2022)

directed by Filippo Mauro

as a way to challenge myself, I decided, with a group of friends, to enter a competition called “100 ore Torino”, where the teams have to write, produce, shoot, and edit a movie in 100 hours, with a specific theme and a set of rules you have to follow and elements you have to include. after 100 grueling hours, we managed to finish the project, winning first place in the competition.

given the time-crunch circumstances we were in, there wasn’t a specific line on roles during production.

I wrote the screenplay after we decided on a good subject, then on set I worked on the production side of things, managing continuity and role calls.

during the last few hours I edited half of the scenes and helped with color correction and grading.

some context:

what did i do?

this short film was developed for an admission exam for a famous film school in Italy by its director, Enrico, who had the crazy idea to shoot lots of scenes in the beautiful Liguria beaches, which are 4 hours away from Turin, mainly during sunsets.

the result is a deeply passional project by all those involved, where every shot is a winning moment against time, weather, and tiredness.

we also won a festival in London!

at first, I was called in as a humble camera operator, but my role evolved through the days thanks to my passion for the project and my framing ideas, which were well accepted by the director.

in the end, I served as an assistant director for most of the shooting days, working with a Sony A7IV and a gimble to try to record the best of the actors’ expressions while waving in the sea.

Donne!(2023)

directed by Filippo Mauro

after winning the 100 hours contest, we got prized with a coupon for a film equipment lease so we decided to go high budget for our next short film.

this project was born out of the need to experiment and try out new things, mixing genres, medias, and techniques.

the result is one of the works I’m most proud of

this short film is deeply personal to me because it's the epitome of creative freedom.

I wrote the subject and the script, coordinated the production team, checked the continuity on set.

I also covered the post-production process, editing half of the scenes, managing the different cameras, and working on the color correction.

Faithless (2024)

directed by me! :)

back in winter of 2023 one of my friends decided to jump-start his music career by making a bunch of singles to be published and tasked me to cover the visuals for the project.

the first idea was to realize a simple visualizer for spotify for each song, but then we decided to shoot for the moon. this video is part of an ongoing project to make a music video for each song Fil makes.

since this is a pretty low-budget project, the team behind it is pretty small.

I covered the art direction and decided on each and every choice regarding the music video and the album’s aesthetics.

I wrote, storyboarded, directed, and post-produced the music video, with some help for the photography and for the shoots.

this is a mixed section with lots of stuff that I did during my internship, but also some social media managing work that I did for student teams and non profit organizations

some context:

back in 2020, before graduating with my bachelor’s, I started an internship at Robin Studio, where my work mainly focused on color correction, grading, and editing.

Robin Studio specializes in museum installations and theater spectacles, and this project was one of the concerts organized by Alex Negro and the Sunshine Gospel Choir, along with lots of international guests.

what did i do?

while this concert is not yet out and published, this project is still to this day probably the biggest one I’ve ever worked in.

I had to edit down 3 hours of concert, managing 5 different cameras around the scene to get the best framing possible for every moment.

after this, I also did the color for the whole spectacle, giving it the look you can see now in the stills.

Sunshine Gospel

Choir Concert

Produced by Robin Studio

some context:

back in 2020, before graduating with my bachelor’s, I started an internship at Robin Studio, where my work mainly focused on color correction, grading, and editing.

during quarantine, people could not access museums, so Robin Studio created a series of videos showcasing the halls of the Egyptian Museum in Turin, with a performance by a trio of strings.

what did i do?

this project was a challenge posed by my tutor for the internship, I had to complete the editing in the fastest time possible.

so I sat down and let the flow of the music dictate my actions, and I can say I’m proud of what came out of it, after a full afternoon of editing.

Passeggiate Musicali

Museo Egizio

some context:

in 2022 I was asked by a friend of mine to help with managing the socials for a student team, Icarus Flying Team.

fastforward one year and I’m the only member of the everworking communication team in Icarus.

this experience was the basis for my commitment to the GenZ Votes project, a social campaign to push young people to vote by creating content around Europe centered on the theme of why EU matters.

Social Media Managing

for Team Icarus and GenZ Votes

what did i do?

while I was in Icarus I managed Instagram and LinkedIn, creating reels and taking pictures of every important step in the development of the three projects of the team.

for GenZ Votes, I helped create a bunch of short-form content centered around the theme of young people's actions and misinformation.

cinema engineering focuses a lot on 3D modeling, animation, and shading, so here’s some of the stuff I did and also my master’s thesis.

vfx & cgi

Reproduction of the main room in Knives Out (2021)

what did i do?

after all these years using Blender I wouldn’t say I’m at Guru’s level but I can surely say that I like what I do.

during my vfx course, I also learned how to mix 3D elements into a real set, doing compositing and color correction, and most of all how to track a camera to use it on blender.

i feel like building and modeling stuff on blender at some point became my relaxing part of the evening, as you can see by the number of daggers I made.

Cyberpunk pub, compositing and color correction

(2023)

some context:

after completing all of my exams, for my thesis, I wanted a challenge in a field I had never experienced before, so when Robin Studio proposed a thesis on stop motion I decided to take the chance.

the project started when I first arrived in the office, so it’s still ongoing today, waiting for the arrival of all the funding needed.

but still, I did lots of stuff to prepare for it.

Gateau

Produced by Robin Studio

what did i do?

when I arrived, the only thing certain was the script.

I developed the character design and the storyboard, with the fundamental help of my office tutor, and then I organized the production and the funding requests.

I also created the prototypes for the puppets and a bunch of animation tests to get as experienced as possible.

ok, if you arrived down here you’ve exhausted all of the serious and polished stuff I did.

from now on it’s just fun stuff and memes I worked really hard on.

and also my street photography ig

some context:

boys don’t dry is a collective of creative people who want to talk about art, films, and music in a chill and relaxed way.

the project was born out of the will to experiment and try to create a night-show-type series with a really limited budget.

it then became a youtube video series, with a touch of Instagram posts.

as of today, we organize live events, movie nights, and interviews.

Boys

don’t

dry

what did i do?

this is a purely passion-motored project, where everyone involved tries new stuff and no roles are defined.

nonetheless, I edited most of the videos we made, I’m one of the three main hosts and one of the writers.