Meet Giorgio Serafini

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Giorgio Serafini. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Giorgio, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

Since a very young age I knew I wanted to become a story-teller. At first I wanted to become a novelist, but the love for film-making kicked in. I do believe the turning point was when my father took me to the movie theater to watch a re-release of David Lean’s “The Bridge On The Rivier Kwai”. From that moment on I knew that was the art form I wanted to use to express myself. Easier said than done! When I was in college I wrote, directed, and produced my first short with money I saved from a job as a receptionist in a hotel. The reactions were good and that encouraged me to write my first feature-length. It was finally produced six years later.
My resilience finds its origins in my eagerness to express myself and tell stories. Only later I discovered how much I love the set. Making movies is like creating a new family. It is short and intense and we all work for the same goal, make the best film possible. My career had its share of ups and downs but I consider myself lucky: I’m a film-lover able to make movies.
Giving up was never an option, not even in the darkest hours.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I shot more than 140 hours of prime time TV dramas and feature-movies in Europe and in the US. I worked with actors such as Roy Scheider, Peter Bogdanovich, Jean Smart, William Shatner, Christopher LLoyd, Terrence Howard, Jena Malone, Dolph Lundgren, Billy Zane, Vinnie Jones… etc.
I was born in Brussels, Belgium from an Italian family and I moved to the US in 1994. I started working in the US as a screenwriter and then transitioned into directing and producing. It wasn’t an easy task because English is my third language, but it worked for me. The key element was always determination, resilience, knowing your limitations and work hard to overcome them.
It’s the collaboration of making a movie the aspect that I cherish the most. Actors and Crew have my highest respect. They bring the page to life. I love to write a movie and see how it develops thanks to their input. It never comes out exactly like on the page, sometimes much better, thanks to them.
My latest movie is a supernatural thriller titled “The Movers” with Terrence Howard, Jena Malone, Christopher Lloyd, and Tom Everett Scott. I’m very proud of this one. It doesn’t happen as much as I would like but this one is special. The film is in post-production and will be delivered at the end of the year.
I’m also preparing two period pieces. A feature set in New York in 1833 and a TV series set in Europe during the Renaissance.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Never give up is definitely the first one. It comes at a price, but it’s worth it. Imagination and knowledge are the other two. Knowledge of the business, of what can be done and what can’t. Knowledge of what I don’t know and study hard to overcome the ignorance. Study was always very enjoyable to me, that’s why I’m attracted to period pieces and true stories. English being my third language I had to do a considerable effort to learn the skills to be able to express myself. Still today, I try to read only classic novels in order to understand style and syntax.
My advice is to study as much as you can and never be satisfied with your level of knowledge. Today, thanks to the internet, most tools are available to everybody. You just have to find them.

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?

I have to credit a long list of people, starting with all the cast and crew I have worked with. Thanks to them I learned the skills of my trade. When I first started I thought that a director was some kind of a dictator on set and then I learned to trust my collaborators. I learned that, to be a director is like being a captain of a ship. I often say that my goal on set is to lay the tracks, to explain where we start and where we want to go. Inside of those tracks people are free to express themselves. I intervene only when we go off tracks. This cherished collaboration has brought a lot of good surprises.
I have to mention Hubert Galle, a Political Science professor I had in college. He was also a documentary film-maker and he nourished my interest and gave me countless advices. He was the first stone of a pyramid. Extremely important but not the only one.
I think that to have an open heart and an open mind are the essential skills. On a film set you also have to be able to make decisions very fast. Time is money.

Contact Info:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/giorgio.serafini.792/
• Other: https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm0784805?ref_=hm_prof_name

Image Credits

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