#8 | Alessandro Pavone | Filming in War Zones

Italian cinematographer Alessandro Pavone on trading corporate jobs in Brussels for a week's notice to fly to Afghanistan, and years filming in war zones, often as a one-man crew. Alessandro Pavone is an Italian director of photography focused on documentary and feature news stories. In this episode I talk to him about what it is like to be a filmmaker in a war zone. He often works as a one man crew, and his work has taken him to places such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, South Sudan and Somalia. Chapters 0:00 Welcome to 2021 8:20 Introducing Alessandro Pavone 10:40 Meet Alessandro 12:05 First time abroad 15:21 Communication studies in Rome 24:34 Trying to break into cinema 27:37 Learning on reality shows 33:49 Learning the craft 39:57 Filming every week in London 52:13 Storytelling 55:16 The slump after a production 58:45 Documentaries in Europe and Sudan 1:01:23 From Brussels to Afghanistan 1:04:25 Kandahar 1:07:25 Three and a half years in Kabul 1:10:28 Afghanistan and the West 1:13:35 Nine years in conflict areas 1:16:40 A self-taught storyteller 1:25:50 Character-driven work ahead 1:28:08 Wrapping up The Ryan Pyle Podcast is ad-free by choice. If you enjoy these conversations, you can buy me a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/ryanpyle Ryan's TV series are streaming around the world. Follow the Podcast X: https://x.com/RyanPylePodcast Facebook: https://facebook.com/ryanpylepodcast Follow Ryan Pyle YouTube: https://youtube.com/@ryanjpyle Instagram: https://instagram.com/ryanpyle X: https://x.com/RyanPyle Facebook: https://facebook.com/ryanpyle https://www.ryanpyle.com