Third Assistant Directors

Third assistant directors on our Italy roster have come up through the aiuto regista hierarchy that Cinecittà and the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia have refined over decades on the Roma campus. Most have served on Rai Fiction series, Sky Italia originals, Mediaset shoots, and Cinecittà features. They then moved into global co-productions that arrive under the 40 percent Italian Cinema Plan tax credit.

Their core area is the background department. They book extras through Italian casting agencies such as DAP Agenzia, Quanta, Magicstars, and IMC, manage wardrobe and trucco flow in holding, and place background to camera under the 1st AD's blocking. At wrap they process vouchers and ENPALS time cards so the production office can file clean payroll records.

They know how to scale a holding operation from twenty extras on a Trastevere street scene to several hundred on a period crowd day. That can mean Cinecittà's Teatro 5, the Sassi of Matera, the cobbled lanes of Siena during Palio set-builds, or the lagoon backdrop of Venice on winter shoots. They move extras through Italian wardrobe departments cleanly across long shooting days.

Beyond background, our 3rd ADs handle on-set lock-ups with the unit publicist. They escort talent between basecamp and set across ZTL Centro Storico zones in Rome, Milan, Florence, and Bologna. They plan traffic control with Polizia Locale and Carabinieri officers on public-road shoots in central Rome, Milan, Florence, Naples, and Venice. They also chaperone child performers under Direzione Territoriale del Lavoro rules, set the related on-set tutor schedule, and keep radio communication with the wider AD department across English and Italian channels.

They hold credits across Cinecittà features, Sky Italia and Rai Fiction series, Netflix Italy originals, Amazon Italy shoots, and high-end commercial campaigns. That work spans Studi De Paolis, Cinecittà World, the Pratica di Mare site, and the Apulia Film Commission stages in Bari. Their bilingual skill lets them bridge English-speaking 1st and 2nd ADs with Italian-speaking extras, vendors, drivers, and local crew across the shoot. At wrap they handle voucher processing and ENPALS time-card running, pass background forms up to the 2nd AD for the production report, and step into talent-wrangling duty when the AD team needs more hands. We match 3rd ADs by background-work scale, the locations involved, and the AD team's language profile.