We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Luca Cioci a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Luca , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

I often take on projects that allow for a small team as well as direct communication to the client. One of the advantages to this kind of work is creative freedom and flexibility. I prefer to join a project from the origin to absorb its motivations and goals, and to better design a production method.

While my ongoing experience in the industry contributes to refine and expand my technical skills, commissioned projects asks for a more personal approach, allowing me to push visual stylization with hands-on, nonstandard, techniques.

Luca , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My background in fine art and my interest in moving images led me to animation. I specialized in stop motion animation which differs from other animation techniques for its tangibility and practical shooting style. While both 2D and 3D animation render an image digitally and/or simulate real lighting, stop motion shooting requires a real stage with real camera and lighting gear.

While my interest in the cinematic aspect of stop motion motivated me to become a motion control operator, my desire to shape images through lighting and composition allowed my first experiences as a director of photography.
Gaining working experience on a variety of productions, from commercials to narratives to animated sequences, introduced me to different shooting styles and specialty gears, which allows for the versatility to keep taking on projects of different nature and scale.

As a DP, I specialized in practical, in-camera effects.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I am always pleased when a visual of personal interest naturally finds its way into the project,

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

“Word of mouth” has provided the best client so far

Contact Info:

• Website: https://luca-cioci.com/work/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_lucacioci/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucacioci/

Image Credits
luca cioci