We here at DN have long been fans of the ambitious visual worlds of London based filmmaking duo NONO + Rodrigo. The pair, whose creative output we’ve covered together and separately, always embrace scope and vision to create art that is truly expansive and cinematic. This is very much the case with Silverlines their music video for the debut single from Damiano David, of Måneskin fame. The video is an exploration of the singer’s evolution and what it means for David to artistically transform ahead of a new chapter in his career. It also dips into strange, surreal territory at times, which is where the video really soars. DN caught up with NONO + Rodrigo to talk over their continued collaboration, the motivation they have to stay ambitious in their creativity, and the wide-angled, 90s inflected cinematography they wanted to embrace with Silverlines.
What was the start of your creative journey together as filmmaking partners?
As a filmmaking team, our creative journey started with a shared sense of connection and mutual respect for each other’s work. After noticing our parallel paths as immigrants and non-native English speakers trying to break into the UK film and advertising industry, we met for coffee in London. We had both received Vimeo Staff Picks, Nono for The Heartbeats of Memory and Rodrigo for IARA, which led to a deeper curiosity about each other’s work.
What truly bonded us was our shared hunger to find our voices as filmmakers, particularly as people who came into this industry without pre-established connections or resources. Through our shared experiences and resilience as newcomers in a foreign country, we not only forged a deep friendship but also realized the potential for a meaningful collaboration. Our personal journeys naturally fed into our professional partnership. Our first project, the music video for Cuenta Lo by Biig Piig, allowed us to bring both of our creative strengths, bold, visual storytelling and narrative depth, into one cohesive project.
What was the starting point for this collaboration with Damiano David?
This project was something really special for us. Damiano and his team initially had a three-act structure in mind for the music video, but we wanted to push it further. We created three distinct chapters following the song’s emotional journey that mirrored Damiano’s personal transformation. Each chapter symbolized a phase of his evolution: first, the pivotal moment when he decides to step into a new life; next, the deep dive into his past, filled with fears and anxieties about what could go wrong; and finally, his emergence from that darkness, finding the light at the end of the tunnel, and being reborn in a new way. This video wasn’t just a visual piece, it marked the launch of Damiano’s solo career. We wanted to craft a world that was unique to him, one that truly represented this monumental shift from frontman of Måneskin to a solo artist carving out a new path.
We created three distinct chapters following the song’s emotional journey that mirrored Damiano’s personal transformation.
How did you want that shift to symbolically manifest within the video?
One of the most powerful moments was the changing room scene, inspired by Paul Schrader’s American Gigolo. We developed this idea where Damiano tries on different outfits, symbolizing his shift from his Måneskin days to his solo journey. We then took it a step further by intercutting this with a long take of him arriving on stage, only for him and his crew to faint, a symbolic death of his old self. Watching himself figuratively die and be reborn in the next chapter became a core theme of transformation in the video. This video wasn’t just another project for us, it was a journey through transformation, the fear and beauty of change, and the excitement of reimagining oneself.
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There are many visually ambitious moments in the video, like the corridor scene for example, how challenging were they to execute?
The corridor and room scenes were some of our favorite moments to create. We built the sets in a studio, drawing heavy inspiration from the 90s. While shooting these scenes was a joy, the final room did present some technical challenges, forcing us to improvise, something we’ve learned is par for the course in music videos. Our initial vision was to capture everything in-camera with no VFX, but given the time and resource constraints, we had to adapt in post-production, which was a great reminder that flexibility is everything in this medium.
Music videos often have quick turnarounds, how long were you in production and post for?
We shot the video over two intense summer days in Prague. Working with the Czech crew was incredible, they were skilled, creative, and totally instrumental in bringing this world to life, despite the pressure of our tight schedule. One of the best parts was collaborating with our DP Albert Salas. He was a key player on set, experimenting with us and allowing for a natural flow where ideas often evolved during shooting.
Post-production was a smooth and intuitive process, thanks to our collaborator Aaron Saiki at Church Edit. He captured the narrative’s emotional highs and lows perfectly. In the end, we decided to print the final cut on 16mm film to give the video that rich, textured, cinematic look that suited the story so well.
What did you shoot on to render that wide, 90s style look?
We shot it on digital cameras with vintage anamorphic lenses, then transferred the digital footage to 16 mm film. We quite like this process because it gives us the flexibility and speed to shoot digitally but also allows us to create a more organic texture and feeling in the film.
We decided to print the final cut on 16mm film to give the video that rich, textured, cinematic look that suited the story so well.
We’ve spoken about your collaboration as a pair before, did anything shift or change in your working process together on this video?
We both split ourselves into two units so we could shoot more in the little time we had to tell the story, which, often in music videos, we find ourselves without time to do. We had just a couple of hours with blue hour, so we had to split it into two days, and we were both shooting simultaneously in different units with a double. We also divided the setup in the corridor, allowing us to prepare and shoot separately. Being a team of two, we like to take advantage of that ‘superpower’ to maximize efficiency.
In what ways did the song impact the flow of the edit?
We tried to create a build-up to the story with the music, and every chorus was a moment of epiphany in the character, the pace, and the universe that we were in the video.
Your work is always ambitious in scope and vision. What drives you to create art on such a large canvas?
We love to create in different mediums, but film is so rewarding to create because there are so many steps, and gives us the opportunity to collaborate with so many amazing people. Often though, working in this industry and creating on such a large canvas can make things slow and complicated, and requires so many resources to just put an idea together. However, we feel that at the end of the day, it pays off. And it’s not just about the final result, the whole process of making something is extremely rewarding for us. We feel very lucky to be able to create on such a large canvas.
What are you both working on now?
We are working on some other personal projects and a short film will come soon! In the meantime, we are finishing some commercial work we have shot and pitching new music video projects.
