Angelo Cerisara

Director, UNIT9

Hailing from the tiny Italian town of Schio, UNIT9 director Angelo Cerisara has developed his early, on-the-fly efforts documenting street sports into a dynamic aesthetic, full of movement and flair. A fast learner with big brand projects for the likes of Uber, Hardee’s, and F.C. Internazionale already under his belt, the NFTS graduate continues to go all in with a combination of technical ability and pioneering spirit.

Have you always been creatively minded?

Aged 12, I started watching every kind of horror film I could find on eMule. It was true garbage, but I guess something clicked. Luckily, I discovered directors like Sergio Leone and Stanley Kubrick, and they really changed the way I thought about movies. At the same time, I’ve always been interested in science and I have a degree in Engineering.

How did you get into directing?

I started doing parkour in the DSLR era, which turned me into a camera nerd rather than a pro athlete. I loved shooting and editing everything myself, but it made me realise I didn’t know anything about the process of filmmaking, so I applied to the National Film and Television School.

How do you approach production now?

I plan shot-for-shot. I used to be 100 per cent instinctive but found it was self-destructive: I started to enjoy the prep days more than the shooting days. Visualising everything before going on set is key. Recently, I worked with a concept artist and it was like discovering a pot of gold.

Your hallmark is dynamic films full of technical flair, such as F.C. Internazionale Not For Everyone – how did that come together?

Director Anton Tammi was my reference for that video, and it’s hard to say where the line between influence and imitation ends. I think what’s special about the film though, is how the edit works hypnotically with the music, which was a collaboration with electronic artist Not Waving. It was a continuous ping-pong between editing and composing.

What’s the most challenging project you’ve worked on so far?

Probably Hardee’s Go All In. We shot in Beirut, four months after the blast and during a lockdown. There were no shops for the stylist, no materials for the art department, and the cherry on top was a 5pm curfew. What everyone in the team pulled off is a miracle. It was also my first time working with VFX and it feels like I’ve opened Pandora’s box. I’ve just written a treatment where everything happens in a green screen studio – something I could never have imagined a few months ago.

Having worked with major brands like Uber and Hardee’s, are you keen to do more commercials?

I’m still figuring things out, but I want to keep doing commercials for the next few years. I’ve spent half of my life filming freestyle sports, but never worked on a big sports commercial, so I’m keen for that to happen.

What are you hoping to achieve once the world opens up again?

I feel I’ve only just started, so I’m not sure where I’ll be two years from now. I do have a thing for short sci-fi stories though – there’s a whole bunch of cheap literature from the 1980s that’s just waiting to be translated visually.

Interview by: Selena Schleh

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