The Idea

On June 2007, Empty Spaces’ author Massimiliano Cecchi proposed Stefano Corso to realize a black and white short movie, using only pictures, without dialogues and with cinematographic techniques.

The idea was to tell a story with pictures, without dialogues, trying to develop a cinematographic language different from the one used in the cine-tales or in the still images of Cris Marker’s "La Jetè". The goal was to convey emotions to the spectators through photographic moments caught with a visual dynamism.

Between the end of August and October 2007, Massimiliano Cecchi and Stefano Corso began organizing the work and drafting the outline, the scenes' plan and the storyboard. They also began contacting other photographers who, for sensitivity and technical skills, could have vitally contributed to the project.

The work group is mainly formed of photographers gathered through the web photographic community Flickr. In addition to the author and the director, the cast is composed of Luciano Usai, the only professional photographer who is the short movie’s photography director, Silvio de Pecher, Antonio Deruda, Rina Ciampolillo, Giuseppe Astuto and Claudia Tonini.

The preliminary work lasted two months.

The Realization

The project is entirely self-financed.
The choice of locations, the work plan and the casting lasted around one month.

The cast includes four professional actors: Francesca Cutolo, Simone Tuttobene, Chiara Condrò and Eva Martucci. The other actors have been chosen among friends and contacts.

The shooting started in Rome at the end of October 2007 in eight external locations and four internal. It was carried out during two week-ends and two further days to integrate some scenes. The total shooting period was six days.

Once finished, a database of 15,000 shots was created. In November 2007 the director selected the pictures and edited a draft 12' short movie using 1,500 pictures. In the same period the production chose the song "I love you" by Giorgio Li Calzi as theme music.

The Editing

The author and director’s idea was to realize a short movie with precise features, a new language and artistic expression, keeping in every single shot the traditional photography’s mark of synthesis.

The short movie should have been given an accurate rhythm, without altering the selected shots. The story and the locations, emphasized by the black and white, shaped the music’s choice. In order to avoid a didactic outcome, the editing has been assigned to an electronic music’s composer.

In December 2007, Paolo Bruno Margoni started the editing work on a digital platform. In three months he harmonized his music to the images, linking any single shot to the melodies and also creating some ambient audio. His work finished in February 2008.

Empty Spaces is currently taking part in international movie contests.

The crew*