Exclusive Interview with Daniela Lucato – Filmmaker
NY Glam: What projects are you currently working on?
I’m working now on two main projects: the script of my first feature film and a creative documentary I want to start writing. They both deal with women themes in different ways.
For my feature film I’ve found an interested German production but I’m still looking for an Italian production (the film will be shot mainly in Italy).
For my second project, I’m waiting answers from some important German TV.
They are quite big projects and I can’t realise them without the right partner: I will probably need to be patient. In the meantime I will work on some short projects that could be realised earlier and without big resources.
NY Glam: What makes a film great for you? Are there certain qualities that make a film better for you?
There are different things that make a film great but first of all a great film is a film that I continue to think about the next days or (in the best case) months after I have watched it even if I don’t want to. A film that impressed me or disturbed me or let me with an open question about its possible messages or make me particularly curious about a specific character. This means I found the film somehow connected with my life or with my experience: the film needs to move something, emotionally or mentally. In case the story has nothing to do with me or my background but I feel an internal tension while I watch it, it means its specific message succeeds to build a secret link with me and to make it universal or at least accessible to others. This is what makes great a film: when a specific story becomes universal because the audience is able to relate to it even without living the same story. This is something that can be obtained just with images, without words. The script needs to have a strong structure with well developed characters, then of course good dialogues can just improve it. Well written dialogues can just add colour and intensity to strong characters but they are never enough if the character is not well drawn before. A great film is not just made from a good story but from a good story made with strong characters.
NY Glam: As a screenwriter, what is the most important aspect of building a character?
When I build a character, I pay attention to his honesty, his truth, his clearness of desires and aims, his charisma and his being specific, irreplaceable for the story. These aspects need to justify his presence in the plot.
The screenwriter needs to know his character very well. This doesn’t mean he has to reveal the character completely and clearly to the audience. Personally I like lights and shadows also in normal people and when I write I’m more for “not said things” than for “everything has to be explained”. It is important to draw the character’s shape with a clear sign but this doesn’t imply that there is just one perspective for the audience to watch it or that the eye of the audience will see the same sign the author sees. You have to give the audience the elements to make the character “readable” but you don’t need to give them precise rules to read him.
As a screenwriter you are like a friend or an enemy of the character: you know or you try to have clear your character as much as you can. Sometimes it is possible to see him clearly from the beginning but other times you discover more of him while you’re writing. This is the kind of character I find more interesting: the one who reveals himself to the author day by day. I find this kind of character very complex and full of richness.
NY Glam: Top 3 favorite projects that you have been involved in?
Since I started directing I work mostly on my projects: films that I thought and produced from the beginning to the end. The projects I loved more among my works are my first short film, The Birthday, my documentary When I dance and my short experimental film Vieni.
My first short, The Birthday: with this project I discovered I want to direct more than to play. It opened a new world to me where I feel the huge freedom of creating and following my own ideas/ instinct. If I believe in a project, I just try to realise it, whatever the effort is.
When I dance was my first approach to documentary: a genre so special and full of possibilities that fascinates me a lot. Even if now I’m more connected with narrative writing, I find the documentary genre a mesmerizing “place” where there is a lot to explore in terms of creativity.
The third one, Vieni, is a project I realised with very limited resources and in an extremely short time. I am happy I decided to make it because it gave me more energy to start working on other projects. Short projects allows you to stay connected with your work and sometimes re-connect you with a part of your art that you forgot. It is just a three minutes work but it was well received from festivals of experimental film/video art and travelled a lot (especially in South America).
NY Glam: Do you express yourself creatively in any other ways?
I also work with theatre and dance for independent productions as a director and sometimes as a performer. They both give me so much inspiration for my film work. The only problem is they are even more difficult to be produced/financed and it takes much more time to bring a production to the end. Anyway theatre is the place where I come, from where I started to work and I feel I can’t forget that…Until I will have the energy I would love to continue to work also on these two fields.
NY Glam: What advice would you give to someone who wants to have a career in filmmaking?
Watch as many films as you can every day, go to a good filmmaking school that can give you a good network in this field (I didn’t go to a school and even if I’m happy of what I did without it, I’m always wondering how much easier my career would have been with a good network and a film school on my background), attend film festivals and build your own connections: being in contact with your colleagues and confronting yourself with different works is healthy for your creativity and makes your mind more active.
NY Glam: What can we expect from you in 2020?
Every new year I expect to realise new works and find always new passion for what I do. I hope I can meet new people to work with and develop the projects I have on the table.
NY Glam: Where can everyone keep up with you to learn more? …social media…website
You can find/follow me here and see the festivals where my films will screen!
Hope to meet you there!
www.the-dots.com/users/daniela-lucato-485137
www. vimeo.com/user9786757
www. www.facebook.com/daniela.lucato.3
www. www.instagram.com/daniela.lucato
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