One of our Featured Artist of February 2015 is is the brainchild of Diego Cervo and Roberto Fumagalli – Dualstock.
Before coming together to create Dualstock, Roberto was a photojournalist and travel photographer while Diego was already a stock photographer.
Roberto even published a book on Cuba in 2006 and another book about his travels in Cuba, North Korea and Iran in 2013. Only Diego had experience with stock photography before they met entirely by chance in 2008.
The duo hit it off right away. Finding out that they share the same birthday date further sealed the deal and thus, Dualstock was born.
We had a chat with both of them to know more about their partnership.
MotionElements: How did you start working together?
Roberto: Diego had the idea of starting to work in the video market because he felt that it was beginning to grow and it was worth a try. He could not have been more right.
Diego: Our first real shoot was in an office basement with very unprofessional cameras and equipment ????
I wish we had a behind-the-scenes camera for our first shoots, to show you where and how we started. That would have been worth more than a thousand words.
ME: What are you currently working on?
Diego: I’m continuing to shoot more stock footage to add to our library. I also continue to do both stock and commercial photography and corporate videos.
Roberto: I’m working on a few short stories about my recent three-month stay in Cambodia (links below) and will soon begin working on a documentary on African Refugess in Italy. I am also on commercial and advertising shoots as a cameraman.
ME: What’s the most enjoyable thing about what you do?
Roberto: Being able to manage our time and projects as we please.
ME: Why work as a pair?
Diego: We are best friends and we always enjoy working together. The chemistry we have is incredible. We unfortunately have to work separately sometimes, like now. (Diego is in Central America while Roberto is in Italy) But the great thing is that it shows our partnership is not limited by distance. We still work as a team, across borders, as if we’re still neighbours.
ME: Your stock footage is mostly people-themed. Where do you find your models and can you share some experience with working with your actors?
Diego: We work with professional and amateur models. We find them through modelling agencies or the internet. Sometimes friends and relatives chip in. Sometimes even ourselves!
Sometimes we find the actual professionals of the subject, like our Biotechnology Lab shoot and the Logistics Facility shoot. But most of the time the models just they pretend to know what they are doing.
Roberto: We always ask the real professional or the owner of the shop/factory/lab to be there with us though, to show the model what he has to do to make it seem real and avoid major mistakes. An example would be the Dentist shoot of the Guitar shop shoot.
Diego: The best way we convince someone to help us is to promise lots and lots of fun. It always works!
ME: What is your favourite camera?
Roberto: I am currently using the Canon EOS C100 Mark II and the Sony X70. I really like them both.
Diego: I’m working with the Sony DSLRs for video and stills (A7R and A7S). The Sony AX100 is my run-and-gun 4K video camera
ME: Where do you see Dualstock in a year?
The growth of Dualstock has always been steady and really impressive. We expect to keep moving along this same path in the years to come. We’ve also recently started producing 4K videos so that is the future for us.
Find more of Dualstock’s work on their MotionElements Artist page.
Both Roberto Fumagalli and Diego Cervo are based in Milan, Italy.
While adding to their film stock footage, Roberto still continues photojournalism and travel photography and Diego still produces stock photos.
You can find more about Roberto Fumagalli on his website, rfphoto.it and more about his video projects on http://vimeo.com/112047361 and http://vimeo.com/113002902.