Assistant Directors

The aiuto regista — the Italian first AD — is a role built on an old apprenticeship, the kind that runs through the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and decades of feature credits at Cinecittà. Our ADs come from that tradition. Many have crewed on today's Italian auteur sets for Sorrentino, Garrone, Guadagnino, Bellocchio, Rohrwacher, and Moretti. They have also worked on the global features and prestige streaming series for HBO, Netflix, and Apple TV+ that route through Cinecittà's growing stages, which are on track for twenty-five sound stages by 2026.

During pre-production at Cinecittà and the regional production offices, they prepare day-out-of-days breakdowns, strip boards, and shooting orders. They then drive the set across Rome's centro storico, Milan's commercial stages, Puglia's masserie, the Tuscan crete senesi, the Amalfi Coast cliff towns, and the Sicilian baroque towns of Noto, Modica, and Ragusa.

Italian production runs on a layered authority map — MiC, the regional Soprintendenze, the Roma Lazio Film Commission, Apulia, Lombardia, Toscana, Sicilia, Sardegna, Veneto, Campania, and Friuli Venezia Giulia. Our 1st ADs build the call sheet around those windows rather than against them. The schedule then holds across heritage, urban, and remote location days, without losing the director's prep or breaking the bond.

On the floor, the AD department is bilingual by default. Our 1st ADs run set control, work with the director, keep walkie discipline, and oversee safety in Italian and English. At the same time, the 2nd AD desk handles call sheets, talent movement, background running, and SAG-AFTRA versus CCNL forms. Each shooting day ties back to CCNL Cinema Audiovisivo working-time rules, ENPALS social-security reporting, and INAIL workplace-insurance sign-ups.

Heritage work gets ADs who already know the lead times and the tight shooting hours. That work covers the Colosseum and Foro Romano under MiC authorisation with big fees, Venice under city and Soprintendenza dual permits with acqua alta windows marked by week, Pompeii's named filming zones, Florentine palazzi, Amalfi Coast access along the SS163, and Apulian trulli around Alberobello. They also match the daily plan to the 40% Italian Cinema Plan tax credit needs that the line producer tracks alongside.

For multi-unit features, we field full AD departments — 1st, 2nd, 2nd 2nd, key set PAs, crowd marshals, and base-camp coordinators — across main, splinter, second, and aerial units. The production then keeps one steady rhythm from Rome to Apulia, Milan, Venice, and back, without losing turnover.