Private Project

Zero

LOGLINE
Places have suggested. Only the eyes have seen and the body has felt.

BRIEF SYNOPSIS
A cinematographic improvisation movie. Zero is a common history of physical and emotional migration and redemption, accomplished in a place of the soul and that is made possible by the crossing of pain. The language, the places and the screenplay are the result of a spontaneous search and fragments of stories built together by the director and the leading actor. Then, the director's rewriting gave life to Zero and its story.

SYNOPSIS
A cinematographic improvisation movie. Zero is a bourgeois man's story who is mocked and denied by his family and despite this, strongly linked to his birthplace and his origins. Only the visceral connection with his grandmother, his life coach, keeps him anchored to his country. His social and emotional redemption is accomplished in a place of the soul, where the ego is not subject to social prejudices and conditioning and where freedom means to undress uncomfortable clothes. The language, invented and instinctive, the places and the screenplay are the result of a search for spontaneous and immediate actions, in which the director and the leading actor have built together fragments of stories and emotions. The director's rewriting gave life to Zero, a common history of physical and emotional migration and redemption made possible by the crossing of pain.

  • Diego Maragno
    Director
  • Raffaele Epifania
    Key Cast
  • Giuseppe Calia
    Key Cast
  • Diego Maragno
    Story
  • Giovanni Calia
    Story
  • Diego Maragno
    Writer
  • Diego Maragno
    Producer
  • Stefania Clemente
    Script Analysts
  • Giovanni Calia
    Script Analysts
  • Raffaele Epifania
    Script Analysts
  • DiMMD.it
    Editing/VFX/Color Grading
  • Era Ralta
    Sound Design/Foley/Mixing
  • Lucrezia Stella
    Translator
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama
  • Runtime:
    18 minutes 46 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 22, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    8,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Italy
  • Country of Filming:
    Croatia, Greece, Italy, Poland
  • Shooting Format:
    Smartphone and DSLR
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.85:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Diego Maragno

Diego Maragno is an independent director and artist. He was born in Matera, he studied sociology, communication and mass media in Rome. He moved to Florence where he attended the course of Film Direction at the National School of Independent Cinema and where he began a long career as a trainer at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Florence and at the National School of Independent Cinema where he became responsible for scriptwriting courses, editing and audio-video technician. He collaborated with the florentine documentary filmmaker Daniele Tommaso, with whom he will start a close and lasting professional activity by creating video and multiprojection projects for the world of fashion and art, including: Pitti Immagine, Museo Ferragamo, Contemporanea Progetti. He participated in the group exhibition "Marzo, tempo, temporale, temporalismo" and in 2014 he was among the signers of the Temporalist Manifesto.
In recent years, he focuses on the relationship between director and actor, working on improvisation and connections, making life experience the cornerstone of his work as a director.

He writes and directs:
2002 The Alarm Clock
2005 Ceoce Mucra – Mechanical Heart (Festival Siracusano del Cortometraggio 2005, Round Film Festival 2006 Rimini, Festival del Corto E Mediamix 2009 – Third Prize
2008 PPP (Lucania Film Festival 2008, Racconti Di Cinema 2008, Festival Del Corto E Mediamix Contrasti 2008 – Second Prize).
2013 Tin Story, short film in stop motion animation
2016 Like Water
2019 Zero

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Director Statement

Zero is the answer to an unintended question, not sought. The synthesis of a spontaneous search.
Who is the shaman? A wounded healer who is able to guide and make sense of the confused existence. Terrible trials, which leave deep wounds, allow him to acquire a different, wider vision of the world. The fundamental question that led me to Zero was: are there shamanic places? Are there deeply injured places that suggest and allow you to feel and perceive questions and answers at the same time? And then we record reactions, videos, tangible evidences. Zero is the result of a cinematographic improvisation as it is possible to realize it in the contemporary world, where it is always possible to shoot a video or a sound without being invasive. Without being noticed. Zero was a journey made while travelling. A journey summarized and charmed by a story, which made it usable, giving meaning to the spontaneous language that constitutes the link between man and the environment that acts. The human dimension of the action was used to construct the central motif: the function of the environment, of places. The viewer's attention shifts from the human figure of the protagonist to everything around him. Zero fights for the right to difference and the liberation of the gaze. Perceive the hidden connection that animates our surroundings.

PRODUCTION NOTES
Zero was shot without a reference script. Filming began in August 2017 and ended about a year later, in August 2018. Zero was shot in about 17 cities and towns in Greece, Italy, Poland and Croatia, for a total of about 60 locations and as many improvisations between leading actor and surrounding environment. Post-production lasted about 10 months, which ended in February 2019. After about 3 weeks of preliminary editing, a long period of synthesis followed which produced a screenplay and a second version of the editing. Subsequently an invented language, based on the spontaneous phrases and words that Raffaele Epifania, the protagonist, said during the shooting, was encoded. This made it possible to carry out the final assembly.