EXIT signs performance director Olivia Altavilla

EXIT has signed director Olivia Altavilla, a director who brings emotion, passion and honesty to commercials through characters that feel real and stories that feel genuine. An observer of life, she injects small moments others miss, drawing audiences into her stories, making them captivating and memorable because they are warm, inviting and honest. He unique perspective on things, she says, comes from her Italian-Venezuelan heritage and an unorthodox family life. It is the foundation of a powerful appeal that makes her work stand out.

Says Wilf Sweetland, managing parter, EXIT Films: “Oly’s work speaks from the heart. Full of beautifully authentic moments, her craft led direction creates narratives that leave the audience with a depth of understanding of human emotions, from the uplifting to the heart wrenching. When you first meet Oly you learn she is a person of genuine warmth, care and empathy who approaches her work with collaboration and connection. We are so excited she is now part of the EXIT family.”

Altavilla has a natural flair for people stories. “I love people, probably because I’ve been surrounded by so many my whole life. I cannot tell you how many times my Ring doorbell goes off on the weekend from another family member rocking up. But I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she says.

“Being constantly surrounded by so many personalities has always made me very curious. I’ve always been obsessed with understanding the psychology behind why people do the things they do, how they’ve become who they are. When a script comes in, I’m drawn to the people in it before anything else. They’re really what excites me, and what I use has a driver for all the craft that follows.”

The people in Altavilla’s work, characters or real, connect with people and this begins in her very personal way of casting. She explains, “I often assign characters in each script to different people I know, so I’m always making sure they’re imperfect, complex humans that I can relate to. When I get to casting, it doesn’t have to be that they perfectly reflect the person I initially had in mind, but it sets the bar for the level of nuance and ownership of a character that I’m hoping to find. Whether actors or real people, I’m always asking myself, ‘Do I believe them?’ Or how can I help them lose themselves in a scene, so I do.”

What matters most for her in the process of making a commercial is authenticity. This, she says, come from her “special sauce”: Life’s Wrinkles. “I work closely with production designers and costume designers who really get into the weeds with me about the specific details that make a space feel owned by the character, like my Nanna’s collection of elephant figurines and herbs in reused passata bottles on the windowsill,” she explains.

“Equally, I want my camera to mirror the feeling of the scene. I don’t like fancy moves for the sake of it; they have to serve the moment. If I have kids fanging it through a field, I want my camera running with them at their speed to immerse us in that moment. But if it’s quieter and more private, I’m drawn to a locked-off shot from an incidental, observed frame.”

Altavilla’s own story now includes the realisation of a long-held ambition. “I’ve been quietly obsessed with Exit since I was 15. I watched Glendyn Ivin’s Puberty Blues and was so taken by the filmmaking and how understood it made me feel, that I got my stalk on and quickly found Exit’s work. It’s kind of crazy to think 15 years later, I get to see my name on the roster surrounded by such incredibly talented humans that I’ve always looked up to. I had always heard stories about how much of a creative family EXIT is, and to be part of that now is kind of unbelievable,” she says.

VIEW OLIVIA’S REEL.

To work with Olivia contact Wilf Sweetland, Leah Churchill Brown or Luke Kneller.

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