Tucci in Italy is swarming with handsome images: a mouthwatering dollop of spaghetti and clams inspired by a Neapolitan chef’s 94-year-old mother, majestic Renaissance-era palaces and quaint villages where the show’s host, Stanley Tucci, enlists locals to expound on Italian culture. But director of photography Matt Ball isn’t always looking for polish — he wants candor.
“It’s not necessarily a show about how beautiful everything looks,” Ball says. “The primary goal is to get authenticity. And then we shoot around it and try to make it look as nice as we can.”
Ball’s cinematography led to one of the three Emmy nominations that Tucci in Italy received this year, alongside a sound mixing citation and outstanding hosted nonfiction series or special. He met Tucci as a camera operator on Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, which ran for two seasons on CNN. When National Geographic picked up the retitled version, Ball was brought on as DP. They’re currently in production on another spinoff, this time set in Great Britain.
Before shooting, Tucci, producer Lottie Birmingham and their research team map out a roughly seven- to 10-day stint in each city being featured that season. They find cooks, farmers, food producers and culinary experts to show off the region’s cuisine and landscapes. Ball, who collaborated with two camera operators and two assistants on Tucci in Italy, then designed shots as unobtrusive as possible so the contributors could feel comfortable.
