The Work That Made Me: Fausto Becatti
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Director Fausto Becatti is a potent mix of Italian, Argentinian and South African. This electric, hot blooded background can be seen in Fausto’s work which often feels like a fever dream – passionate, vibrant and other worldly.
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Fausto always wanted to be a director. From very early on when watching Hook and standing up in the cinema seats (so recounts his mother) to watching Pulp Fiction, Universal Soldier, First Blood, and other more ‘naughty’ films at his friend’s house when he was 11 (so recounts his friend’s mother). From there, he started working in his first job as a video clerk at the arthouse DVD store near his house, eventually convincing his parents to buy him a shitty video camera, convincing his high school headmaster to make him a Prefect by starting the Film Society, and convincing his art teacher to let him do videos as his final project in school instead of oil painting.
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Years later, he moved on to study Film Theory and Production at the University of Cape Town. Eventually finding a job as a researcher at a production company in Johannesburg, Fausto began building treatments and learning from the roster of directors. In his spare time, he shot his own work and built up his reel, convincing the EP to give him a shot – shooting his first commercial for a pizza company. It’s been a lot of convincing others, but he’s always succeeded.
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Get to know Fausto better and discover the work that made him below…
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The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…
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I must’ve been nine years old and saw Aphex Twin’s ‘Come to Daddy’ on MTV2 in Brazil at my grandma’s house, and it hit me like a ton of bricks; I felt like I was watching something I really shouldn’t be. So dark. So twisted. I LOVED IT!
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The creative work that I keep revisiting…
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The music video for The Blaze’s single ‘Queens’. The creative process of creating the music, and then directing the video, knowing the beats and changes so intimately, it feels almost as though the song was made with visuals in mind. So intricately intertwined. It’s beautiful and powerful. I can’t listen to the song in isolation without seeing the music video playing in my mind’s eye.
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The piece of work that still makes me jealous…
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Lacoste’s ‘Crocodile Inside’. This film is a work of art to me. Craft beyond anything. The emotional beats, and story encased in this magical, tumultuous world, it’s the sort of advertising that transcends just a brand, and dips into another world. I wish I could have received this script.
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The creative project that changed my career…
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Indie Fin. Every director’s path is different, and there’s no real reason or rhyme to how these things unfold, but for me there was a definitive piece of work that changed my path, to lead me to the work I’m doing today. What started as a stills campaign for a new youth insurance brand, led to a full blown film and video campaign. A brave agency and client, giving full trust to a younger director to come up with the scenes, and do it with almost no interference, I finally managed to put my stamp on a film that captured my sensibilities and visual approach. A team of collaborators who gave so much of themselves to pull it together, this stood as a new watermark for me. And for an insurance brand no less. I even flew to New York, on my own time and money, to capture some scenes, hustling to find a DOP and Instagram-casting to find the characters to give it a more rounded edge.
