Elisa Pascarel
“My parents are both doctors, and adventurers. They travelled and worked in a couple of different countries before settling down in Réunion. From there they used to go to Madagascar at least once a year as humanitarian doctors, and my mum worked in almost every French overseas territory. They’ve always been travelling, even today. My brother and I have always been inspired by them: they have transmitted to us their passion for traveling and a certain curiosity for people: to try to always better understand the other.”
“My parents have always been very supportive. Going into the creative industry was ok with them but I guess they would have prefer me to be an architect instead of working in the film industry… It just sounded to be a safer job. So it created a few tensions when I stopped architecture school to start film school, but ever since they’ve always been very supportive. Even when I said that I wanted to try my chance in New Zealand, leaving behind a well paid job in Paris to go in a country where I had no contacts whatsoever. Thanks Mom and Dad!”
“I first studied Architecture in Bordeaux doing a bachelor degree and then I went to a film School in Paris. Architecture was an amazing background training for the Art world. We studied history of art, the vision of space, light… It was the best introduction ever for studying Cinema. But it’s by working on group projects that I realized my love for working with other people, solving problems and managing projects together. I discovered the Assistant Director’s position in film school, and that was the perfect match for me: to make art while teaming up with others on a human and logistic level.”
“Getting into the film industry was complicated! I have been based in 3 different countries so far, so I had to break into the industry 3 times. First in Paris, then New Zealand and I still feel very new in Australia. I started to work through internships in France. My film school was encouraging us to do a lot of internships, so during my studies I’ve been an ‘intern’ Production Manager for a small production company, then a 3rd AD on a TV series for 3 months and then I did some location scouting for a french feature film. Those 3 internships gave me enough contacts to start working in Paris. I kept working as an AD but couldn't make enough money out of it so I started to work mostly as a Production Manager (On Air Broadcast design, TVC, TV content) and doing a bit of AD’ing on the side. I did that for 5 years until I start feeling that I wanted to try something else somewhere else. I used my savings to leave Paris to travel for a few months, and I discovered New Zealand.”
“I had a couple of location scouting/ small AD’s jobs before being given the opportunity to be production manager and 1st AD on a project. GEDEON COMMUNICATIONS is a Paris based communication agency & production company. At the time they were producing the new design one of the french national channel and they had to shoot some images in Reunion Island, New Caledonia and French Guayana. Emmanuelle Lacaze, producer of the project, trusted me to follow and organised the 2 weeks shoot on locations. Quite an epic first job as production manager and 1st AD!”
“I moved to Wellington in NZ and I had the opportunity to work on a locally produced feature film with a tiny budget ‘THE GREAT MAIDEN’S BLUSH’. Jeremy Macey, producer, was looking for an AD and luckily I was available at that time. It was an exciting experience and an amazing opportunity to meet people from the local industry. The DOPs, Alun Bollinger and Waka Attewell, and the directors, Andrea Bosshard and Shane Loader taught me a lot. Their direction was totally performance-driven, and after working so many years on TV content, it was amazing to work on a feature drama where so much work was done with the actors. The film had a beautiful life in festival before being released in NZ theatres last year. I am so proud to have been part of this crew, and that film gave me the opportunity to break into the kiwi industry.”
“By working as an Assistant Director and a production manager, I am surrounded by creative, talented and passionate people and my job is to organise everything so that their vision can finally take form. So I guess all those amazing people I have been working with are the ones who had the biggest influence on my career. Passion is motivating my work, and there is nothing better than the passion of a director or a DoP to push you forward in your projects. You never know what will be the next project, and every encounters with a new artist can give new directions to you career. You have to embrace those influences.”
“I am now based in Melbourne where I live with my partner Giovanni C. Lorusso, and I am mainly working as 1st AD on drama and commercials. The films I have worked on since I left France are now getting into festivals or getting released, and I am very proud of each of them. Each crew and each film shoot were very special. It’s such an amazing thing to be able to see the results on a big screen. Giovanni is a cinematographer and we have been working on a numerous projects together in the last couple of years (3 features and a couple of shorter projects), all of them in different countries.”
“Both of us are developing our own careers of course but we are both passionate by our work, and we’ve found a great balance between work and travels together. The plan for the future is to keep working on some more exciting projects, hopefully also around Europe. Having the possibility to work in Europe, New Zealand and Australia would be amazing. And in Reunion as well maybe…”