We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mariano De Luca. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mariano below.
Mariano, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
I recently had the chance to shoot a project for “Goodwill” that was made with support of “Google”, where the main Idea was to show how the Goodwill career center works. I started the project as I approach every other project, having some conversations about it, learn what is the main idea, thinking how we will approach it, etc. The shoot took place in Nashville, Tennessee, and I’ve never been there before, so I was excited to go there and enjoy the city too. It was till the first day of shoot, were we setup a kind of “round table” for our three main characters where I got a sense of how meaningful this project was. This is a documentary piece, where we were going to interview there persons that were able to use the Goodwill career center, but in my books this was just the story of someone who uses the service of getting guided and helped thru the process of applying to new jobs, and that was it! But in the very first day, our idea of putting these 3 women in the same table, right before any other interview, to just open themselves and talk with each other about their experiences was the starting point to create one of the most meaningful projects I’ve work in the last months. They opened themselves about how bad their lives were before finding their own opportunities and they empathize with each other so quickly, that even all of us behind the camera were getting tears in our eyes. It was one of the most inspiring shoots I’ve ever did, and a beautiful example of how to fight thru bad times and overcome them.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After high school, I was really into music, but somehow I got this ad about Film School, and then I thought maybe Film Scoring is my thing! It was not… During my first week in College, I started taking classes and probably after 3 of them, I took “Cinematography 1” class. That day everything changed in me, we had a long cinematography class, but half of it was inside a darkroom and we learn how Film Developing works, and that basically blew my mind! The magic from the process of making an image, changed everything. After that, it was it… it was all about cinematography, cameras, lenses, lights, etc. After Film School, I started working in the industry in commercials mostly, and then started doing Feature Films, all of those while going up in the ladder, till I got to be a Director of Photography. After a couple years in the Industry, I got the opportunity to move to Los Angeles, and here I am! Still speaking Spanish and English 24/7 and in contact with my Latino roots, but now closer to the beach and with the beautiful SoCal weather. My work goes from Documentaries and branded content, to Narrative short and Long form, I recently shot an Action Feature Film, starring: Byron Mann (The Big Short, The Recruit, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D) and Robert Patrick (Terminator 2, Peacemaker, Reacher) and also a couple of short form documentaries funded by Google. I also received five awards in cinematography for two narrative short projects called: “Amantes” and “Alchemy” (which you can watch on Amazon Prime). Ím always project driven, I always put the story first and love to work within a friendly environment. I’m a huge fan of having fun while working, it makes me feel great and creates a beautiful environment to work.
For me, every project has its own path and journey, and every story deserves my best.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
I strongly think our society fuels on culture, and supporting artist and creatives should be not even questioned. I know that when the budget is tight, probably the first thing to cut is spending money on going out, movies, etc. But there are always a way to keep supporting artists. In my case, with movies, there are small theaters that we should keep supporting and going to watch movies like the “Los Feliz Theater” or the “Aero Theater”. But also supporting small Theater Plays, and the underground comedy clubs or the Bob Baker Marionette Theater. It takes a little bit more work to find these spaces, but there are so many new galleries that have presentations for free, where you can go see paintings or sculptures. And if the audience is out there, even if the event is free, then brands will want to be part of that, and that will bring funding for more artists and creatives to keep making art. Everyone can understand art, and the art is not finish till it has it audience, so let’s keep spreading the love for art and supporting it!
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I don’t know exactly what is the most rewarding aspect of being an Artist, but I do know that the joy inside me and the gratitude I feel when working in my projects is immense. I always say that I don’t think I have a job… because I absolutely enjoy doing what I do, so I can’t considered it as a Job. Like Pierre Omidyar’s quote: “It is not really work if you are having fun.” But I also think that probably the most rewarding aspect of me being an Artist is to be part of a project or create a piece that would contribute and leave something to the Audience. I always believed in the power of Art to transmit emotions, feelings and change somehow the world we live in, so when you have the opportunity to work on a project or piece that can help transmit ideas, emotions, or feelings by making the audience empathize with some part or the whole of your story, then there is nothing more rewarding than that. 
Contact Info:
- Website: www.marianodelucadp.com
- Instagram: @marianodelucadp
Image Credits
Ryan Schultz