Paolo Cellammare (born 21 October 1980) is an Italian artist, film producer, photographer and director, known around the world mostly because of his

cosplay Cosplay, a blend word of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and Fashion accessory, fashion accessories to represent a specific Character (arts), character. Cosplayers often i ...

photography, in particular for his work with Francesca Dani.

Biography

Cellammare was born in Ischia. In 2004 he made his first short movie ''Ultimo spettacolo'' (''Last Picture Show'') and his first documentary ''L'ultimo giorno del vittoria''. In 2005 he terminated his studies getting a degree as multimedia project manager at the Università di Ferrara and started working in

post-production Post-production, also known simply as post, is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording indivi ...

for advertising and television getting the chance to learn advanced editing,

compositing Compositing is the process or technique of combining visual elements from separate sources into single images, often to create the illusion that all those elements are parts of the same scene. Live action, Live-action shooting for compositing ...

and CGI. In 2006 he worked as researcher, supervising the audio-visual department at the Communication Strategies Laboratory of the

Università di Firenze The University of Florence (Italian language, Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'') (in acronym UNIFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolle ...

, creating new video communication concepts. From 2007 to 2017 he worked for

RAI (), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels a ...

, Italian national broadcasting network as editor and visual mixer. From 2002 to 2009 he was exclusive photographer of cosplayer and net-idol Francesca Dani. His style was influenced by Japanese pop culture with a gothic and

cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting said to focus on a combination of "low-life and high tech". It features futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberwa ...

mood. He traveled extensively to work with Dani, going to conventions and events, mostly in Latin America, as special guest or cosplay contest judge. In a few years he became a recognized and respected

photographer. In 2010 he produced and directed with journalists Jacopo Cecconi and Giammarco Sicuro the independent feature documentary ''Wishes on a falling star'', relating real-life stories in

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

and featuring a long interview with the blogger Yoani Sanchez. The movie was totally self-funded and shot without permission of the Cuban government. It was broadcast in Italy in May 2010 by channel RaiTre during the show ''Agenda del Mondo'' getting a 12% ratings, with a peak of 15%. During production Cellammare was arrested in Santa Clara (Cuba) while taking photos of a violent police action. In September 2010 he showcased his first photo exhibition titled ''Cosplay'' at the

Palazzo Medici Riccardi The Palazzo Medici, also called the Palazzo Medici Riccardi after the later family that acquired and expanded it, is a 15th-century Renaissance palace in Florence, Italy. It was built for the Medici family, who dominated the politics of the Repu ...

Florence (Italy) Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. During 2012 the exhibition got enlarged during two more events in

Milan (Italy) Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nearly 1.4 million, while i ...

and Udine (Italy) for the

Far East Film Festival Far East Film Festival (FEFF) is an annual film festival held in Udine, Italy. It is one of the most important events promoting Asian Cinema in Europe. It focuses mainly on the films from East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. ...

2012. In 2012 he wrote and directed his first music videoclip, ''Standin' Tall'' for the young Italian rock band Voodoo. After his collaboration in the United States with YouTube stars such as

Freddie Wong Freddie Wong (born September 13, 1985) is an American internet celebrity, filmmaker, VFX artist, podcaster, and competitive gamer. Wong has participated in at least three YouTube channels; with ''RocketJump'', his production company's main chan ...

and

Corridor Digital Corridor Digital LLC is an American independent production studio based in Los Angeles, known for creating pop-culture-related viral online short-form videos since 2010, as well as producing and directing the ''Battlefield''-inspired web series ...

, he decided to start a YouTube channel, Cotto & Frullato. The show is written and directed by him and produced with the show presenter and popular Italian voice actor Maurizio Merluzzo. In 2016, following the national success of the 2 seasons of Cotto & Frullato he launched a crowdfunding campaign to finance a film that would end the web series. The campaign succeeded raising €41,712 over a request of €39,000, a national record for film production fund raising in Italy at the time. In 2017 the movie Cotto & Frullato Z The Crystal Gear, written, produced and directed by Paolo Cellammare, had a limited, special event, release in 13 theatres in Italy. In 2019 he directed 3 music videos for comedy heavy metal band

Nanowar of Steel Nanowar of Steel (stylised as NanowaR of Steel by the band) is an Italian comedy heavy metal band. Their name is a pun on the metal bands Manowar and Rhapsody of Fire, and represents their tendency to satirize "true metal", the primary focus of ...

. The first is And then I noticed that she was a Gargoyle released on May the 20th 2019. The second is Norwegian Reggaeton, released on July the 2nd 2019, featuring Charly Glamour from Spanish band

Gigatron The Autobots are a fictional faction of sentient robots in the ''Transformers'' multimedia franchise. The Autobots are living robots from the planet Cybertron who, like most Transformers, are each imbued with a unique "life force" known as a "s ...

. After the breakout success of Norwegian Reggaeton, he directed a third video for the song Valhalleluja, released on December the 13th with

Napalm Records Napalm Records is an Austrian independent record label focused on heavy metal, hard rock and folk/folk rock/folk metal. Originally, Napalm focused on black metal bands, such as Abigor and Summoning, and folk metal bands, such as Falkenbach a ...

music label. He also wrote and directed the

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

experience VBI: Lost Connection, produced by AnotheReality in collaboration with

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

. In 2019 he also co-produced, with his own company The Best Blend, the short movie La Fiamma directed by Giacomo Talamini.

Filmography

Director

* Ultimo spettacolo (2004), short movie * L'ultimo giorno del vittoria (2004), documentary * DNA of angel, soul of devil (2008), documentary * Wishes on a falling star (2010), documentary * Standin' Tall (2012), music video * Cotto & Frullato (2013), web series * Cotto & Frullato Z - The Crystal Gear (2017), movie * VBI: Lost Connection (2019), Virtual Reality * And Then I Noticed That She Was A Gargoyle (2019), music video * Norwegian Reggaeton (2019), music video * Valhalleluja (2019), music video * Uranus (2020), music video

Awards

* 2005 Digifestival – Best Film for Ultimo spettacolo * 2010 Valdarno Cinema Fedic – Best Documentary for Wishes on a falling star * 2014 Los Angeles Web Festival - Best Series, Best Writing for Cotto & Frullato * 2017 Barcelona Planet Film Festival - Best Narrative Feature Film for Cotto & Frullato Z The Crystal Gear * 2017 International Independent Film Awards - Best Director, Best Title and Credit Design for Cotto & Frullato Z The Crystal Gear * 2018 Depth of Field International Film Festival - Outstanding Excellence in Comedy, Award of Excellence in Cinematography and Direction for Cotto & Frullato Z The Crystal Gear * 2018 European Cinematography Award - Best Comedy, Best Editing for Cotto & Frullato Z The Crystal Gear

References

External links

Official Website
Official Website of Paolo Cellammare
Official Facebook Page
Paolo Cellammare's Official Facebook Page
Official Blog

Flickr photo portfolio

Cotto & Frullato YouTube channel

Standin' Tall music videoclip

Standin' Tall videoclip backstage

Intervista a Paolo Cellammare sul sito Fandomania.com

And Then I Noticed That She Was A Gargoyle music videoclip

Norwegian Reggaeton music videoclip

Valhalleluja music videoclip
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cellammare, Paolo 1980 births Italian photographers Italian directors Living people