Establishing Shot by Roberto De Angelis, SOC
On set of 13 HOURS (left to right) James Badge Dale (‘Rone’), John Buckley (Gaffer), Roberto De Angelis, SOC, Michael Bay, Alan ‘Moose’ Shultz (Dolly Grip). Photo by Christian Black
The world of cinema entered my life by surprise in the summer of 1987 when, as every year, I was on vacation with my parents at the beach. I was 17 years old and it was very common for most kids my age or even younger, to look for a summer job, but I never did. I just wanted to enjoy my summer and relax at the beach. This was until one evening my Uncle Paolo, who was working in the business at that time, offered me an internship on a movie that was about to start in Genoa. Not wanting to disappoint my demanding father, I begrudgingly accepted. I will never forget the first day, the first night actually, since the movie was all shot at night. The atmosphere; the lighting, the wet-down streets, the smoke, all the crew members working frantically as if in a circus–it was all incredibly fascinating. My uncle introduced me to the director of photography and camera crew, and I started helping with camera cases, and doing what the camera assistants asked. As the days went by, I enjoyed being on set more and more, and soon graduated to carrying the accessories. I even tried loading a magazine, which seemed to me at the time to be a very delicate endeavor. The smell of the rawstock on the truck is still my most lasting memory. My first exposure to the camera was thanks to the operator on the movie, Maurizio Calvesi, who went out of his way to include me—
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explaining how he would construct a shot, and asking me which lens I would have chosen if I had been the operator. I was fascinated by how he moved the camera with the geared head. Thanks to him, I discovered my passion for film and prolonged my stay on set until the end of the movie, past my original agreement with my uncle. After that summer my life was changed. I was changed. I had started my journey in cinema. When I returned to Rome, I decided to change my course in school, and enrolled in the Institute of Cinematography and TV Roberto Rossellini. Once my studies were completed, I started working as a loader before my career was momentarily interrupted. There was a pause for the Italian mandatory military service (during which I was a fire fighter), and after that, a brief enrollment in law school. But the experience on set years before had left a deep impression on me. I knew I had to return to filmmaking, so I started once more as a loader and then a focus puller. In 1995, I was lucky to work with John Seale on the movie The English Patient. John set the example of how to tell a story with images. What struck me about John was how he used the camera in a simple, yet efficient way. Three years later, John and I collaberated on The Talented
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