Diego Ante

Diego Ante is a Colombian director who has been working for more than ten years in the advertising industry and answering the question of "how to tell stories excitingly?".

He is a self-taught director, so he is constantly searching for how to do things differently and efficiently. Diego's career began as a Creative, working for the BBDO network, allowing him to understand advertising from the inside out. This has built his vision as a Director on what is essential for brands from a business point of view. He's also a painter and illustrator; and has worked as a lead compositor in post-production projects, and the mixture of these areas allows him to create eye-catching projects.

This has allowed him to bring a lot of craft into his projects, thinking about lighting, color, and art direction and making him able to imagine every detail before shooting any scene. His love for music has allowed him to work with clients such as Warner Music Group, directing music videos with a strong narrative background.

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In 2022, his music video Poema, for the Latinoamerican duo Las Villa, won the honorable mention as the Best Latin American Music Video in the International Music Video Awards and was selected for the Silver Screenings in the Berlin Music Video Awards. And his music video Amor & Sal, for the Latinoamerican duo Las Villa, won the honorable mention as the Best Male Director in the International Music Video Awards.

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He always has in mind what is needed in the different production stages, anticipating solutions from pre-production to post-production, accelerating the dynamics of the team without losing sight of the quality of the final result.

Diego is a versatile director who understands that post-production is a process that adds, catalyzes, and enhances, not a process that corrects. Therefore, within this experience, he is also aware of when to use it and when not to use it without losing the focus on telling memorable stories that generate a strong and emotional connection with the audience.


Lean more about Diego
https://diegoante.com/
https://vimeo.com/diegoante/
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm14104454/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

INTERVIEW
// Music video Poem

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What is the story behind your music video?

In a faraway land, long ago, lived two beautiful nymphs. Many years had passed since they last saw anyone lurking around their forest when suddenly, they heard something. They tried to get closer to the noise when they found that two handsome men had lost their path and had appeared out of the mist. The nymphs, attracted by their beauty, decided to come out cautiously from their hideout and use their magic to lure them away. But, first, they determined if the men could be trusted when they brought them closer. Once they found they were, all the seduction games started. Our nymphs have decided they can love again, so they'll do everything to make our heroes fall in love with them.

You can learn more about this project at
https://diegoante.com/portfolio/poema-las-villa/

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What should people take away, gain, realize after watching your music video?

Poema is a love song for those who have decided to love after their heart has been broken. That's why we chose to use two nymphs as the perfect pretext of how they could come out from their hideout to trust two humans and make them fall in love with them.

Do you think that films can change people for the better or for the worse?
Absolutely! Films relate directly to our feelings. They give us the opportunity to see things through a new lens and to incarnate for a few minutes new characters, to understand and empathize with different situations that we could have lived, that we are willing to live or that we never imagined could happen around us. All of those sensations can allow the human being to become better or worse, and more importantly, they can help us to become more empathetic.

How was the creation of your project at the time of COVID-19?
It was awesome to be honest because it forced us to think things differently. We had to be more effective with fewer people, as we couldn't have the normal crew we used to shoot with or the same resources. All of these "limitations" brought new ideas and concepts to play with.

It made us think about what we could do to keep the cinematography, the narrative, and the storytelling with the resources we had.
 
What creation style did you use in the production of your project? What cameraman elements did you use?
This was a project that was very story-driven so we had to think about how we could keep a very appealing image without leaving out the narrative having a low budget and a very small amount of time to shoot (because of the covid limitations). That's when all the work in preproduction came into play, planning every move ahead so that we could be efficient and resourceful. Luckily we had Mr. Wolf Studios as a big ally in postproduction because so many things could be done in post, not to fix the production but rather to enhance it. This gave us options and the possibility to keep throwing ideas that seemed crazier and then being confident that they could be done as we had Mr. Wolf's team behind. This was what allowed us to have multiple clones of Las Villa during the ceremony scene or have a fairy flying around in the music video, which lead our heroes into our nymphs.
 
How did you select the actors for your project?
Both Laura and Lucía (Las Villa) are not only singers but also actresses, so this made us think of looking for two males that were actors as well, who could perform at the same level as our main characters. We started a casting process where we could have a lot of callbacks to see and decide which were the best options for the project. That's when Nicolás and Carlos came into play.

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Why do you think your film should appeal to distributors?
I think it has a very Cinematic-European style but without losing its Latino quality, with very vibrant colors, beautiful sceneries, a very strong song, and two beautiful main talents. All of the elements of this project have made this a bigger idea than we thought on paper. And the mixture of this cinematic style with something more Latino could appeal to a lot of distributors to see the possibilities of shooting in places like Colombia and showing a different perspective of the Latino culture.
 
At which festival has your project been screened?
At the moment it has been screened in the Euro Music Video Song Awards, where we won Best Music Video and Best South American Music video, and in the Berlin Music Video Awards, where we were selected as a Silver Screening for the 2022 edition. Also in the International Music Video Awards, where we won the honorable mention for Best Latin America Video.
 
How did your acquaintances react when they first saw the music video?
They were surprised and very happy to see the result. It was a very emotional response. They were thrilled to see the story and the VFX that were in the project. They've seen it many times, so I hope many of the reproductions of the youtube count are from my acquaintances haha. This music video has got a lot of attention and an amazing response also from the fans, which is the most important part, knowing that we're working for the artists and for their fans, so if they both are happy, then we are happy as well because we've done our job as it was meant to be.
 
If you could change something in your music video, what would it be?
At this point, nothing. I think that when you're in the middle of the shoot and with all the limitations from Covid, you're always thinking that you'd like to have something different or do something in a different way. But then when we got to the end result I realized that many of those things that seemed as something to be "fixed" or "changed" were what actually gave the project its essence, and I love this project so much that I wouldn't want to change its essence in any way.
 
Which movies are your favorites and why?
I love movies with a strong narrative background, where everything that happens has a reason, where you can actually relate to the characters even if they're living in a fictional place, I think that you can do the craziest project, but when you talk through emotion, you'll be able to always relate to the people you're seeing in screen. When I'm able to do that, I know I've found a movie that will become one of my favorites.

So any movie that is story-driven would be very appealing to me. To name a few: About time, Pulp fiction, The Dark Knight, Interstellar, Forrest Gump, Life is beautiful, Greenbook, The Pianist, Parasite, and The Intouchables.

I could keep going with the list, but even if the movies I picked are set up in a fictional world, they all keep real with the emotions of their characters. All of them are very relatable, and I think that is what allows the audience to be in awe.
 
What topics do you like to address in your stories?
Emotions clearly, I think I've talked so much about them that it is my main focus. So while I can find new ways to talk about love, loss, happiness, joy, nostalgia... I try to keep very real with the emotion that the people could relate to. It doesn't matter if I want to depict a family of aliens, somehow people have to be able to relate to them and feel as if they could know them, even as if they could be them, or at least understand their motivations.
 
What is your motivation in making films/music videos?
To be able to tell stories in different ways, I think both films and music videos allow us to connect with people through stories. Many of my favorite songs are telling a story, where you have something to relate to. I think our only real legacy is the stories we tell, so I found this is my way of telling what I think, believe, and am.
 
Which contemporary filmmakers motivate you the most?
Damien Chazelle, Salomon Ligthelm, Diego Contreras, Cristopher Nolan to name a few.
 
What projects do you plan to shoot in the future?
I want to keep pushing the boundaries both in film and music videos, with new narrative styles and a more dynamic approach. So any projects that challenge me to think differently or to create in new ways, are the ones that I'm looking for.

// Music video Love & Salt

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What is the story behind your music video?

"Amor y Sal" is a song that basically talks about love stories in general, seeing how these are formed and eventually disappear, suddenly they emerge, and then they are shipwrecked. The song talks about the frustration of realizing from the beginning that it wasn't going to work out and that it always ends up falling apart halfway.

The Music Video takes place mostly inside a train, narrating from an imaginary world the different stops which symbolize the stages that life presents us with and the people we meet during those stages.

The video tells the story of this every day that is happening in parallel and happens to many people where we live in a constant movement and meet many people and learn differently from many people, where we fall in love and fall out of love.

You can learn more about this project at https://diegoante.com/portfolio/amor-y-sal/

What should people take away, gain, realize after watching your music video?
How love feels in different stages of our lives, how we think we fall in love for a second, and then we realize we have grown in so many ways that now we want new or different things. That's what the train represents, the different stages of live, where we keep moving and defining who we are so that we're able to define who and what we want in our lives.
 
Do you think that films can change people for the better or for the worse?
Absolutely! Films relate directly to our feelings. They give us the opportunity to see things through a new lens and to incarnate for a few minutes new characters, to understand and empathize with different situations that we could have lived, that we are willing to live or that we never imagined could happen around us. All of those sensations can allow the human being to become better or worse, and more importantly, they can help us to become more empathetic.
 

How was the creation of your project at the time of COVID-19?
For this video, it was a little bit easier as we didn't have as many limitations with Covid as we had when we shoot "Poema", yet still, after the pandemic have even lower budgets, so we had to be very resourceful when we had the ambitious idea of creating a train wagon, that's when we talked with the art team, to be able to create everything scenographically so that we could have a variable set, that would help us to shoot easily.
 
What creation style did you use in the production of your project? What cameraman elements did you use?
This project was completely handheld for the train scene, as we had to feel the wagon's movement when there wasn't any movement. We used mirrors on the outside of the wagon, which were constantly turning to give that feel of movement at the inside of the train as if we were actually speeding up, and sometimes playing with the lights to simulate getting in a tunnel or under a bridge. This gave a lot of options and rhythm to the edit. And it was awesome to keep that hot feeling inside the train, even though we were shooting in Bogotá in a very rainy season.

I think this allowed us to be faithful to the Latino essence without compromising the cinematography.

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How did you select the actors for your project?
Laura and Lucía (Las Villa) are also dancers, and this was a music video that was driven by its choreography. We started to cast dancers to decide who was the perfect fit for them, to play with the idea of Las Villa being playful and flirtatious with the guys, where the other females could express their jealousy. So they had to have the ability to act and convey the emotion of the scene.

Why do you think your film should appeal to distributors?
I think the Latino essence shows a very different world in cinematography, how hot the train feels, and the use of practical effects such as when we're pulling Las Villa, at the beginning of the video, into the sofa. There are many practical ideas that helped to sell the idea of the movement of the train, which could show distributors the resourcefulness of this kind of projects.
 
At which festival has your project been screened?
At the moment it has been screened in the Euro Music Video Song Awards, where we won Best Director Music Video and Best Male Director Music video. It has also been screened in the International Music Video Awards, where we won the honorable mention for Best Male Director Music Video, and we've been selected for the Los Angeles International Music Video Festival. Waiting for the event to take place and see if we get any awards or recognition.
 
How did your acquaintances react when they first saw the music video?
I think the first image surprises you when you see Las Villa being pulled into the sofa. So watching people's reactions to this has been amazing. Then when they've seen the train, they normally ask where did we shoot, as it is not easy to film inside Bogotá's train, because it is all filled up with chairs and is not normally working. When they realize the train is actually set up by the art department, they are amused.

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If you could change something in your music video, what would it be?

To be honest, nothing. The essence of the video is its own constraints which then defined a path to have this music video, so every step of the process has been awesome and allowed us to ask ourselves constantly how we can become better problem solvers so that the audience can be surprised when they see the video?
 
Which movies are your favorites and why?
I love movies with a strong narrative background, where everything that happens has a reason, where you can actually relate to the characters even if they're living in a fictional place, I think that you can do the craziest project, but when you talk through emotion, you'll be able to always relate to the people you're seeing in screen. When I'm able to do that, I know I've found a movie that will become one of my favorites.

So any movie that is story-driven would be very appealing to me.To name a few: About time, Pulp fiction, The Dark Knight, Interstellar, Forrest Gump, Life is beautiful, Greenbook, The Pianist, Parasite, and The Intouchables.

I could keep going with the list, but even if the movies I picked are set up in a fictional world, they all keep real with the emotions of their characters. All of them are very relatable, and I think that is what allows the audience to be in awe.
 
What topics do you like to address in your stories?
Emotions clearly, I think I've talked so much about them that it is my main focus. So while I can find new ways to talk about love, loss, happiness, joy, nostalgia... I try to keep very real with the emotion that the people could relate to. It doesn't matter if I want to depict a family of aliens, somehow people have to be able to relate to them and feel as if they could know them, even as if they could be them, or at least understand their motivations.
 
What is your motivation in making films/music videos?
To be able to tell stories in different ways, I think both films and music videos allow us to connect with people through stories. Many of my favorite songs are telling a story, where you have something to relate to. I think our only real legacy is the stories we tell, so I found this is my way of telling what I think, believe, and am.
 
Which contemporary filmmakers motivate you the most?
Damien Chazelle, Salomon Ligthelm, Diego Contreras, Cristopher Nolan to name a few.
 
What projects do you plan to shoot in the future?
I want to keep pushing the boundaries both in film and music videos, with new narrative styles and a more dynamic approach. So any projects that challenge me to think differently or to create in new ways, are the ones that I'm looking for.