Micro Salon Italia 2018 back at Cinecittà Studios.
By Jacques Lipkau Goyard
Rome, March 2018 – Surrounded by quiet suburbs, not far away from the famous Appian Way, lies Cinecittà Studios, founded by Benito Mussolini in 1937, covering an area of 1000 acres. The Studio in those years was used primarily for propaganda films promoting Fascism. But later at Cinecittà, in January 1945, Roberto Rossellini filmed his classic anti-war movie “Roma Città Aperta” (Rome open city) starring Anna Magnani. It has been described as a classic piece of Italian Neorealism, in which Hollywood standards were rejected, amateur actors were used where possible, and authentic locations used for outdoor scenes. Rossellini won the Grand Prize at the first Cannes Film Festival in 1946. (A total of 11 films were tied for first placet that year.) Today, Cinecittà is still the largest film and television studio in Europe.
A.I.C. (Associazione Italiana Autori della Cinematografia — the Italian Society of Cinematographers) brought Micro Salon Italia back to Cinecittà Studios, after a 3-year absence, to where it first started in 2013. The first edition had only twelve booths, but this year, thanks to the larger space of Stage 10 – right across Federico Fellini’s famed Stage 5 – it hosted fifty six booths in 2,000 sq mt (1,300 in 2017), seventeen more than last year, with 83 major brand names and an extraordinary attendance of over 4,500 visitors.
Daniele Nannuzzi, president of AIC, Simone Marra, AIC, General secretary and Maurizio Gennaro, AIC vice-president received excellent feedback from everyone, both exhibitors and visitors, for their hard work, fine organization and content of the conferences held March 16th & 17th.
The lecture panel included senior AIC DPs Roberto Girometti and Angelo D’Alessio AIC, Rod Marley (Technical support at RED), Luca Orlandi AIC, Daniele Paglia AIC, the presentation of Daniele Mancori’s book “Tre mani di Cinema” followed by Stefano Delli Colli AIC, with “Tonino Delli Colli, my father” and Luciano Tovoli AIC, and IMAGO founder, latest written work “Suspiria and surroundings”.
Several prestigious Italian Cinematographers came to the Studios, such the three-time Academy winner Vittorio Storaro ASC, AIC, Giuseppe Pinori AIC, Davide Manca AIC, Gianfilippo Corticelli AIC, Marcello Montarsi AIC, just to name a few.
FDTimes interviewed a newcomer exhibitor: Giuseppe Valentini, founder of Rome based HMedia, with offices one mile from Cinecittà. Valentini defines his 25 year old company as a dealer, integrator and services provider. HMedia presented the new Cintel Film Scanner, with Daniele Paglia’s (AIC-AM) expertise as colorist and in DaVinci Resolve to demo color grading with 35mm film provided by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (State film school) from acquisition to color correction using the new Blackmagic Mini Panel. HMedia also presented the new Panasonic EVA1 camera supported by the versatile lightweight Cartoni Lambda 10 on an SDS tripod. Being his first Micro Salon he was impressed by the result.
A very pleasant surprise was Joe Dunton BSC visiting the Roman venue; Joe is among the legendary figures in the filmmaking industry. In 1976 he opened “Joe Dunton Cameras,” now active with his son Lester at Wilmington Camera Services in North Carolina. Many of his versatile innovations include the video assist, heated camera eyepiece to prevent misting, the Ladderpod, Moy Bazooka tripods, Crystal Xpress anamorphic lenses, and the Mitchell geared head. Joe rarely saw a company he didn’t want to buy. He purchase the Mitchell Camera Company and was rumored to have his sights on Kokak. Joe was taken around the show by Daniele Nannuzzi and spent time at the Panalight booth discussing his Panavision background with Massimo Proietti, Technical Manager Film/Digital Camera & Optical to look at the new Panavision DXL2 and the Red Weapon Monstro 8K. Vittorio Storaro and Luciano Tovoli discussed with Massimo and Francesco Scopelliti (Panavision London film digital camera and optical technician) the features of the DXL2.
Among the many new products, some stood out: the ARRI LF camera and Signature Prime series, Panasonic’s EVA1, the Sony VENICE, the Cooke Spherical family S7i, S4 Uncoated, and TLS Panchros. At Cartoni, veteran Steadicam operators Alex Brambilla and Giovanni Gebbia were praising the new Steadicam Volt M1.
ARRI, Sony, Canon, RED, D-Vision, Cartoni, Fujifilm, EasyRig, Leica, Panasonic, Transvideo, Zeiss, K 5600, Angénieux, Tiffen were some of the 83 international brands at the show.
As per tradition, at the closure of Micro Salon Italia, “Maestro” Vittorio Storaro held a master class “Who’s afraid of Green, Red and Blue?” at the Cinecittà Fellini auditorium.
See you next year at Cinecittà.
JLG 03/27/18
