David Cancellario d' Alena

Education

Equipment

My Equipment/Kit:

I can use:

About me

"Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life" Confucio

I started this job when I was eight years old, after I watched the "Aliens" movie on my couch completely immersed in the movie, when the Alien queen appeared my family and friends where frozen with fear while I’m thinking 'I will make that!', but I knew nothing about how it was made and how it worked. I started to build monsters with boxes, paper board, sticks, glue and a lot of fantasy! I continued to watch and observe movies and started watching backstage videos to "breathe the air of the set" and learned to make monsters. When I became a teenager I chose the artistic career against my parent's choices. I think of making better creatures with drawings and sculptures.

"Study... WORK HARD, WORK HARD, AND WORK HARD!" Steve Wang

Studying and working I started making props for a private client in an independent workshop, and then I moved myself in a Cosplay/ L.A.R.P.G. store because the boss noticed my skills and hired me. I pushed myself to my passion and he advice from my fiancé I met David Bracci (special effect maker) and I became his assistant and made many of short movies application prosthetics make-up with David after that I followed him into another 4 independent productions and learn the basics of his work. I continued to follow him in the Sergio Stivaletti workshop (the great special effects artists of Dario Argento's movies) and learned to work as a team with my colleagues for four years. I became a free lance special make-up artist. In this time I worked for many Independent Italian movies but I felt the need to improve my skills so I moved into the Vittorio Sodano (nominated two times for the Oscar awards for "Apocalyptico" and "Il Divo") workshop and specialised myself in sculpture, prosthetics application and special make-up for many years; after that I worked alone to challenge myself but I felt the necessity to work in a team to improve my skills and find new objective. I started to follow the works of great international artists to be inspired; I enrolled myself to Stan Winston School of Character Arts and joined many web courses to learn from the best. In the community of the school I found friends and colleagues and I met Andrea Leanza (Master sculptor, he realized: “World War Z”, “Dracula untold”, “Resident evil 6”) in March 2014. With him I improved my sculpture skills and I worked with him in a different international productions, he introduced me to Leonardo Cruciano (Director of “Leonardo Cruciano workshop” and “Makinarium”, he realized “Tale of Tales”, “Ben Hur”, “Zoolander 2”) who enjoyed my capabilities and hired me to work in many occasions until this days.
Today I believe to learn from the great masters and from my experience because improving me is the only way I know to make "celluloid dreams". I am excited for all the jobs that I do and for the next one, because my life is for the cinema and its creatures and always will be.
Referees:
Leonardo Cruciano: Former boss at Makinarium Workshop removed +39 removed
Andrea Leanza: Teacher and collegue removed +39 removed / +447425787543
Sean Genders: Collegue and mentor removed +61 removed
David London: Supervisor and Collegue at Propshop Ltd (Pinewood Studios) https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-london-34892b9
Additional information:
My personal interests and hobbies rotate around my work: Watching movies, Studying mythological creatures, Anatomy, drawing techniques, sculpting... etc. When I don't work I stay at home in my work shop and work for myself. When I am with my friends I play video games, read comics, and play RPG. I love going to Zoos or animal reserves to watch and study animals, I learn new cultures by tasting their foods. I read a lot to improve myself and language and for that reason I also love writing.

Skills

Secondary Job Title	Scenic Sculptor
Job Titles	Special Effects (SFX) Artist, Concept Artist, Make-up Artist, Make-up Artist (Assistant), Costumer Maker, Props Master, Prop Maker, Set Artist / Designer, Carpenter
Years in industry	6+ years