FELLINI FORWARD

Short List
TitleFELLINI FORWARD
BrandCAMPARI GROUP
Product/ServiceCAMPARI RED DIARIES
Category A08. Achievement in Production
Entrant WUNDERMAN THOMPSON Milan, ITALY
Idea Creation WUNDERMAN THOMPSON Milan, ITALY
PR HILL+KNOWLTON London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production UNIT9 London, UNITED KINGDOM
Post Production UNIT9 London, UNITED KINGDOM
Credits
Name Company Position
Sergio Rodriguez WPP Global Creative Director Campari WPP
Lorenzo Crespi Wunderman Thompson Italy Chief Creative Officer
Dario Marongiu Wunderman Thompson Italy Creative Director
Lorenzo Branchi Wunderman Thompson Italy Creative Director
Virginie Alexandre Wunderman Thompson Italy Senior TV Producer
Marco Papale Wunderman Thompson Italy Head of Innovation
Alessandro Fusco Wunderman Thompson Italy Head of Digital Strategy
Arianna Nitri Wunderman Thompson Italy Art Director
Maximilian Niemann Unit9 Creative Director
Marc D’Souza  Unit9 Project Director
Martino Butti Unit9 Executive Producer
Yi Nong Dong Unit9 Producer
Maciej Zasada  Unit9 Technical Director
Harry Starkey-Midha  Unit9 Producer Short Movie
Drea Cooper Unit9 Directors Documentary
Zackary Canepari   Unit9 Directors Documentary
Gary Kout Unit9 Producers Documentary
Adam Dolman Unit9 Executive Producers Documentary
Andrea Betti Wunderman Thompson Italy Strategic Planner
Ruth Arban WPP Global Client Leader
Marco Croci Wunderman Thompson Italy Client Service Director
Lorenzo Salemme Wunderman Thompson Italy Client Service Director
Eliza Guarienti Wunderman Thompson Italy Account Director
Federica Carpanzano Wunderman Thompson Italy Account Supervisor
Marco Celletti Wunderman Thompson Italy Account Executive
Jacopo Galimberti Wunderman Thompson Italy Junior Account

Write a short summary of what happens in the film

What is the future of creative genius? Is it meant to be forgotten with time? What if technology can expand an artist legacy and make it alive again? Campari accepted the challenge and dared to answer these questions with an incredible experiment never done before, in which human and AI collaborate to try the impossible: to bring back to life the creative genius of one of the greatest directors of all times, Federico Fellini. Directed by the award winning duo ZCDC, the documentary is a breathtaking journey into the unknown, involving cutting edge developers, professors and AI and film experts and members of Fellini’s original crew. An intrepid endeavour, which pushes us into a new world where research, experimentation, suspense and unexpected events explore what makes us truly human, leaving us a new piece of art to inspire future generation to always look forward.

Cultural / Context information for the jury

This documentary was supposed to be officially launched in 2020, year of the 160th anniversary of the invention of Campari, and the 100th anniversary of Fellini. Due to Covid, the launch has been postponed in 2021. Since its creation in 1860, Campari has always pushed artists from every field to go beyond the norm. In fact, in 1984, Fellini accepted to shoot for Campari the first of his very few commercial works. This project wants to be an ode to one of the most iconic directors of all time, aknowledged as the Master of such directors as Scorsese and Linch.

Tell the jury about the innovation and advancements used during production. You may wish to comment on the inventive use of new or existing technology to enhance the final execution.

Using AI, we analysed Fellini’s past work to extract data and patterns in his creative style, looking at shot type, camera movement, dialogue, facial emotion. A new AI-driven script-writing tool was created and trained on Fellini transcripts to predict dialogue, characters, actions and to make Felliniesque contributions to the new script. A pre-visualisation tool was created to bring the vision of the short film to life: the AI Fellini shot prediction model, developed as a plug-in for real-time 3D creation platform, Unreal Engine, meaning the AI-generated ideas could be assessed pre-shoot as real-time renders. Throughout the process, original members of Fellini’s crew, were consulted to validate the AI suggestions were truly ‘Felliniesque’. Using AI in the filmmaking process sped up the scriptwriting and pre-visualisation process and offered alternative solutions that the human mind would never have thought up on its own.