Adrian Picardi (born April 1987) is an American filmmaker originally from ''South Pasadena,'' California. For all his works thus far, he has been credited as director, writer,
cinematographer
The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...
, and Film editor. He got his start in the industry by creating the television series The Resistance for the STARZ / SyFy Network produced by
Sam Raimi
Samuel M. Raimi ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the Spider-Man (2002 film series), ''Spider-Man'' trilogy (2002–2007) and the ''Evil Dead'' franchise (1981–present). He also directed the 1 ...
's
Ghost House Pictures
Ghost House Pictures is an American film production company that was founded in 2002 by Robert Tapert and Sam Raimi, which usually co-produces films with Joe Drake and Nathan Kahane. The company produces horror films such as ''Don't Breathe'', ...
. Picardi graduated from South Pasadena High School in 2005, and then graduated from the Los Angeles Film School in 2006. Currently, Picardi runs a production company named Aureus Grex, based out of Glendale, CA and is represented under Brawler. Picardi has helmed commercial spots for PlayStation, Microsoft, Xbox, and Tom Clancy's The Division.
Biography
Career
Picardi graduated from the
Los Angeles Film School
The Los Angeles Film School (informally LA Film School) is a for-profit college in Los Angeles, California offering associate and bachelor's degrees in majors relating to the entertainment industry. The school encompasses the Los Angeles Recordin ...
in 2006 at the age of 19 and jumped into the industry as an editor for Television. Picardi continued to pursue his directing career by independently producing his own projects. In 2007, Picardi created a short film called "His Day to Remember," which was the Grand Prize Winner in the Cinematic Film2Music online competition. Using the raw, percussive chant-driven track "Steel & Sky," he created a visually compelling drama about a young man who is apparently a suicide bomber.
The film was also screened at the
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
2007 and got him featured on MTVu.com as "Best Filmmaker on Campus" in December 2007. Additionally, In 2007, he won the "Audience Award" for Myspace's
John Woo
John Woo Yu-Sen SBS (; born September 22, 1946) is a Hong Kong filmmaker, known as a highly-influential figure in the action film genre. He was a pioneer of heroic bloodshed films (a crime action film genre involving Chinese triads) and the gun fu ...
Film Tribute contest for the
Chow Yun-fat
Chow Yun-fat (born 18 May 1955), previously known as Donald Chow, is a Hong Kong actor. He is perhaps best known for his collaborations with filmmaker John Woo in the five Hong Kong action heroic bloodshed films: ''A Better Tomorrow'', ''A Be ...
videogame "Stranglehold". For his second short, "His Final Hit", it placed into the top ten finalists of the IFC Film "Assassin's Creed" Film Contest.
Soon after, Picardi and his team created a low budget web series called "The Resistance" which started off as 4 short online teasers featured on YouTube. Before filming the actual web show, the series was picked up by
Sam Raimi
Samuel M. Raimi ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the Spider-Man (2002 film series), ''Spider-Man'' trilogy (2002–2007) and the ''Evil Dead'' franchise (1981–present). He also directed the 1 ...
’s Ghost House Pictures and
Starz Media
Starz Distribution (formerly IDT Entertainment and Starz Media) is the motion picture, animation, television, and home video operating unit of Starz Inc., a subsidiary of Lionsgate. Starz Distribution develops, produces, and acquires original ...
, after executives at
Starz
Starz (stylized as STARZ since 2016; pronounced "stars") is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by Lions Gate Entertainment, and is the flagship property of parent subsidiary Starz Inc. Programming on Starz consist ...
and Ghost House viewed "The Resistance" teasers online. The web show aired on October 4, 2010, on the
SyFy
Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Lau ...
channel as a one-hour television pilot along with being released in its original 8 episodic form on
iTunes
iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...
,
Xbox Live
The Xbox network, formerly and still sometimes branded as Xbox Live, is an Internet, online multiplayer video game, multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox ...
, and the
PlayStation Network
PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...
. "The Resistance" is executive produced by
Ben Ketai
Ben Ketai is an American film director, writer, and producer. He directed and wrote the following Ghost House Pictures productions: '' 30 Days of Night: Dark Days'' and the webseries '' 30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust''.
Career
In 2010, the S ...
, Scott Bayless, Scott Rogers, with producers Aaron Lam, and Associate Producer
Don Le
Don Pham Le (born September 20, 1983) is an American television and music video producer.
Career
In 2008, he co-founded the production company Northern Five Entertainment and produced the original pilot episodes for the action web series ''Th ...
. The pilot will reportedly make history, as it's the first time a series created originally for the web will first premiere on television.
Picardi won the
Universal Music
Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, Dutch law. UMG's cor ...
/
Decca Records
Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ...
online music video contest hosted by Talenthouse, for the band ERA, . He also took home the Grand Prize award for
the New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
best-selling author
Scott Sigler
Scott Carl Sigler is an American author of science fiction and horror and a podcaster. Scott is the New York Times #1 bestselling author of sixteen novels, six novellas, and dozens of short stories. He is the co-founder of Empty Set Entertainme ...
’s "Ancestor" film contest. He also wrapped two more music videos, one for the band Automatic Love Letter and
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...
/
Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America
Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, also known as SCA), is the American arm of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group ...
, and another for the band Evans Blue.
2012–present
In 2012, Picardi and Airsoft GI created a fan film based on the videogame series
Left 4 Dead
''Left 4 Dead'' is a 2008 first-person shooter game developed by Valve South and published by Valve. It was originally released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 in November 2008 and for Mac OS X in October 2010, and is the first title in the ...
. Within 4 days of releasing the initial teaser, the clip amassed over 2.5 million views and massive buzz online, including outlets such as PC Gamer, Complex, Game Informer, and Valve (creators of the game itself).
In early 2013, Picardi had created a production company Aureus Grex alongside his long time best friend, Sunny Jain.
In 2016, Aureus Grex and
Corridor Digital
Corridor Digital is an American production studio based in Los Angeles, known for creating pop-culture-related viral online short-form videos since 2010, as well as producing and directing the ''Battlefield''-inspired web series ''Rush'' and the ...
teamed up to release a series of live-action spots for
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', '' ...
and
Tom Clancy's The Division
''Tom Clancy's The Division'' is an online-only action role-playing video game developed by Massive Entertainment and published in 2016 by Ubisoft, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It is set in a near future New York City in ...
entitled ''
Agent Origins
Agent may refer to:
Espionage, investigation, and law
*, spies or intelligence officers
* Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another
** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...
''. Picardi directed, shot, and edited three of the four episodes titled ''Escape'', ''Ashes'', and ''Conspiracies''.
Currently Picardi is developing two feature films, as well as a project with Warner Brother's digital arm, Blue Ribbon Content.
Filmography
References
*https://web.archive.org/web/20100510083333/http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/show-patrol/2010/04/somebody-to-watch-katrina-laws-ready-for-more-spartacus.html
*http://news.tubefilter.tv/2010/09/17/the-resistance-debuts-on-syfy-first-internet-second/
*https://web.archive.org/web/20110708154225/http://www.cinematiccd.com/films/trackindex8.html
*https://web.archive.org/web/20091016093814/http://blog.memelabs.com/memelabs-is-famous/
*https://web.archive.org/web/20110723223307/http://www.mtvu.com/video/?id=1575024&vid=191296
*https://www.myspace.com/strangleholdgame
*https://web.archive.org/web/20110726102445/http://www.gigslist.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=85
*https://www.youtube.com/swifferbreakup
External links
*
Official "The Resistance" Series WebsiteCompany SiteTwitterYoutube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Picardi, Adrian
Living people
1987 births
American filmmakers