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Global filmmaker starts local company
Proves it’s possible to pave your own way in the film biz
by Carly Mayberry
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Joe Coppoletta directing German actors in his first film. |
From the forests of Germany to the beaches of Florida, Joe Coppoletta has traveled the world for his film projects. Now the director/producer chooses Redondo Beach to not only call home but as the location of his very own production company.
"It’s called Bella Luna Pictures," Coppoletta said about the name he has given it. "It means ‘beautiful moon’ in Italian. "
When most director/producers would choose to live in Hollywood closer to the "action," Coppoletta has deliberately chosen the South Bay as home for his American roots. Maybe that’s because he has experienced his share of action through the films he’s produced. He considers the beach city as a good place to continue his career without sacrificing lifestyle.
"It’s the quality of life," said Coppoletta, a director on three successful network television series, and international movies and TV shows. "It’s a good place for my kids and it’s by the beach which I have always loved because I grew up by the sea."
With his ancestry from Calabria and Naples, Italy, Coppoletta said he’s always had a fascination with other lands and exotic locales.
"I didn’t like the phoniness and the way Hollywood was going in terms of film. There was very little ownership and even less creative control for most television directors," Coppoletta explained. "I saw a lot of potential in the European market."
Along with his company in Redondo Beach, he will eventually open an additional office in Rome.
"Eventually I hope to spend summers and falls in Europe and winter here in Redondo Beach," he said.
Although his first love was history, Coppoletta’s film career ironically evolved from a career in journalism.
"I had wanted to study history but wound up with a degree in broadcasting and as a cameraman for TV news in Jacksonville, Fla.," he said.
As a cameraman and producer of the news show "P.M. Magazine," Coppoletta won two Emmys. He was also the producer, director and vice president of production for the United Way of America.
"Journalism gave me the grasp of reality that prepared me for the fictional world of film," he explained. "What people don’t realize is that filmmaking really is practical. Just like a story, you start with a foundation and build upon it."
As a lover of action-adventure films, most of Coppoletta’s film projects fall under this genre.
"I always liked James Bond type films," Coppoletta said. "But I would describe the movies and shows I’ve produced and directed as fast paced but emotional."
His American projects have included directing the CBS series Walker, Texas Ranger, Knots Landing and Falcon Crest.
But it’s both his American projects and international ones that have taken Coppoletta all over the world and have resulted in some plot lines as interesting as those in the shows he’s directed.
The year was 1990 when once directing the children’s action-adventure series My Secret Summer, Coppoletta found himself traveling from Germany and Portugal to Russia and the former Yugoslavia in a matter of 25 hours.
"The series was being filmed in four different countries. I was in Portugal when they decided they needed me in Yalta to pick out locations," Coppoletta explained. "A plane flew me from Lisbon to Russia but because Russia was still Communist back then, you had to enter the country through the capital. We had to take a 20 hour flight to Moscow and then take a long train ride to Yalta. It was November and when I got off the plane I was laughed at because I didn’t even have a coat on."
Then there was the time that Coppoletta had to do some maneuvering just to stay overseas.
It was during his direction of Warner Brothers international series The New Adventures of Robin Hood when Coppoletta found that he needed Italian citizenship to continue filming. His Italian heritage, along with an actor friend with a flair for the dramatic, kept him in the country.
"The mayor of the town of Catanzaro told us that it would take me two years to get a work permit. After a friend and I bargained for hours I was so frustrated I took a walk down to the ocean that night and splashed some water on myself just to cool down," Coppoletta recounted.
The scene of Coppoletta by the sea was enough for the storytelling ability of his accompanying friend Vincenzo.
"Last night he baptized himself in the waters of his ancestors," he told the Italian police chief, bringing him to tears.
"Que Bella!" he exclaimed, translated to ‘That’s beautiful!’ in English.
Just one of Coppoletta’s many stories about an American filmmaker whose inspiration has come from living and working abroad. And with a docket of awards, including his two Emmys, two international Cine Golden Eagles, a San Francisco International Film Festival Award and seven New York International Film Festival Awards, Coppoletta is a filmmaker who still recalls his first project directing in Germany when he understood little to no German.
"It caused me to focus more on the pictures and the emotion," Coppoletta explained. "I wasn’t listening to the words. It made me a stronger director for that reason.
"By going to Europe, I’ve molded myself more in to an international director. I still do films here but I prefer them to be international in scope," he said.
Still, Coppoletta said his success comes from a practical view of the art.
"It’s about finishing the job that you started," Coppoletta said. "It is art, but you have to take a practical view of it."
Whether his commute is on the paved Hollywood freeway or on a transatlantic flight, Coppoletta proves that in one of the toughest businesses, you can pave your own way to success. ER