Omega Rising: Remembering Joe D'Amato Page #2

---

and he began laughing. It was

love at first sight.

I was very young, nineteen years old

and trying to find some work,

fascinated, as I was, by cinema.

At night, I would admire these spaceships that

would be shooting in the city, during the summer.

For me that was a dream, instead of

hanging out in bars smoking joints.

To be able to work in that world, at

night, was like a dream to me.

I was picked so I went to the

set with my bike.

It was a night shoot,

there was me and other teens and we

were supposed to taunt an old drunkard

on this minuscule set, made

out of 8 people.

I would see this little man, Aristide, climbing

on vans and shooting all over the place.

In six hours we had an

infinite number of shots.

I was paid immediately, which is

something very rare.

Usually you get paid weeks later but

instead his partner, Donatella Donati

came up to me smiling and handed me

my 50 thousand lira.

For the bit parts or as

an assistant.

Then Michele was an AD on a film I

directed, as always, produced by Aristide.

Seeing Michele as kept insisting, Aristide

decided to give him a chance in directing a film

and he asked me to write the script.

Actually, he asked me

to write two...

...one for Michele and one for me.

The first film I wrote was... the one he called

Acquarius... Stagefright and I was supposed to direct it,

but I was having trouble with a restaurant I had

just opened in Rome and had to take care of it,

so I told Aristide Michele can direct the

first and I will do the following one.

So Michele directed Stagefright...

which is another film I wrote with a

small budget in mind.

There wasn't much money, so I set the story

in one location, this big abandoned theatre.

The film is nice, it works very

well, especially thanks to Michele

who did a better job than what I

would have ever done.

I was more talented with actors but he had a

great visual sense and a good taste in music.

The film even won a prize at Avoriaz Film

Festival and its mostly thanks to Michele.

One day he asked me if I wanted to

work on a film as a script supervisor.

That was the time of Caligula:

The Untold Story,

where I met many people that became

important in my career.

For example David Brandon, a

wonderful Irish actor with whom

I became friends and later cast as

the protagonist in Stagefright.

Stagefright arrived just like that.

I had already become as assistant to Dario Argento

and I had done other things with Aristide as an AD.

I had also already directed a

couple of music videos

which I immediately brought to

Aristide for his opinion.

One useless cloudy morning Aristide

calls me and asks me

if I want to direct a horror film.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes