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Production Notes
At this point, Guido had a lot of visual material that he could show to actors to visualize the world he was attempting to create. After a thorough casting session in early 2005, he decided on the rest of the lead cast. Ali Allie was cast as the lead character Leo Ghianti. Next, Larissa Kasian was cast as Gia, Glen Caspillo was cast as Luka the Gondolier, and Matteo Troncone was cast as Santo Essenzo. The crew expanded, with friends from the industry helping out on the shoots through the end of 2005. Along with the continuing production work, 2006 was also a time for the elaborate post-production process, with editing, animation, and visual effects. The principal vfx crew consisted of Kent Matheson and Ben Von Zastrow. Kent is a master matte painter with extensive experience on top films in the industry. Ben is a 3D matte painter and Technical Director at Tippett Studio who worked closely with Kent to achieve the paintings that flesh out the visual world of the film. In 2007, Guido, Robert, and Scott filmed an elaborate miniature shoot that revealed the island city of Floracha. In late 2007 and 2008 Guido put the film on hold to work as an animator on the Tim Burton production "9" in Toronto, Canada. Upon his return to the Bay Area, Guido had worked on the 36-minute cut created with the film editor Penelope Krueger and sound designer Jen Covens to streamline the film down to a tight 20 minutes. The score was completed with Mark Growden. With the last bits of visual effects and color correction, the film was officially completed in July 2009. Currently Guido is developing three film projects.
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"Island of the Gondoliers" is the cinematic culmination of a story that Guido has developed for many years. Originating as a children's tale steeped in a timeless fantasy realm, "Island of the Gondoliers" at one point was meant to be a
book. Over 60 scenes were illustrated by Guido, with a variety of bizarre lands and characters that existed in a parallel world with a city best described as what would happen if Dr. Seuss designed Venice. Eventually Guido decided to set
the story in the "real world" of 1921 Venice, but keeping the sense of magical realism and dark whimsy seen in films by Federico Fellini, Terry Gilliam, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The first phase of production began in early 2004. Guido
formed the core production team of Robert Donald as the Director of Photography and Scott Nordlund as Art Director. For two weekends they bunkered down in Scott's SOMA studio in San Francisco to create the gondolier puppet
miniature sequence seen towards the end of the film. These scenes were filmed in 35mm on Scott's Mitchell camera. The next stage was casting and rehearsal for the main characters of the film. Stephan Smith Collins was cast first,
in the role of the villainous Mime King Bruno Brunelli. Many scenes were filmed in January 2005 on the stage of Tippett Studio, a visual effects studio located in Berkeley where Guido was working as an animator.
