The Film of Three Bocconians Awarded in the US

LIGHTS OUT IS AN ANIMATED FILM PRODUCED WITH ZERO BUDGET AND WHICH HAS WON AN AWARD AT THE WORLDFEST HOUSTON. THREE BOCCONI GRADUATES ARE PART OF THE CREW: PIER VITTORIO, THE SCREENWRITER, GLEDIS, THE ACTRESS, AND MONIA, THE COSTUME DESIGNER

Pier Vittorio Mannucci is a screenwriter who has just earned a Ph.D. from HEC Paris, Gledis Cinque (on the left) is an actress and a social media manager and Monia Manuello (on the right) a seamstress who dreams of opening her own business. Three people who took three different paths. But they have two things in common: a Bocconi degree in Economics and Management for the Arts, Culture and Communication (CLEACC) (Pier Vittorio and Gledis also continued with the ACME Master of Science) and the realization of  “Lights Out”, an independent film that has recently won the Gold Remi Award for the animated film section of the WorldFest Houston, an international film festival.

"’Lights Out was born in 2012 as a theater play written by Pier Vittorio and staged by Passi Teatrali  (PaT), the company I founded" says Gledis, one of the protagonists. "It is a psychological thriller set in a nursing home, something unusual and difficult to realize in theater". They managed to achieve the desired effect thanks to Monia, who designed the costumes and scenes. “I tried to convey the gloomy and introspective tone of the story through visual and musical interludes", she says.  “I let all the possible elements interact with each other to fill the absence of the cinematographic tool. And it worked because many spectators told us that it was a creepy representation and that was just what we wanted”.

One evening Edoardo Lomazzi, a friend and an aspiring filmmaker, went to see the play and right after he proposed us to adapt it to the screen and make a movie. That’s how the adventure started, but something was missing: funds. Reason why the movie was shot with zero budget (with very few resources) in only 5 days with a very small crew. "We shot the film in makeshift locations, such as the Mombello abandoned asylum, in Limbiate", says Pier Vittorio. "The locations and situations were never as we imagined them, so we had to adapt. There is a lot of improvisation in the film", adds Gledis.

That is not all. “Lights Out” is an animated film and turning a movie into a cartoon requires a particular post-production technique. The crew therefore launched a crowdfunding campaign thanks to which they managed to raise enough money to complete this phase and to submit the film to festivals.  “In that moment we realized the importance of our studies at Bocconi", admits Monia. "Art is not self-sufficient, although many artists like to think so. Organizational and managerial skills are fundamental to realize and enhance a good artistic project".
 

by Benedetta Ciotto