Co-founded by eternal collaborators, Renee Kypriotis and Martino Passi, ALMANAC is a production company that specialises in direction and in-house production for music videos, film, branded content and more. Through their characteristically “D-I-Y” lens, the pair produce work in the visual sphere that is striking and character-driven. As multi-faceted creators, they are here to push the boundaries of visual media further and further into the future, a future they believe is inclusive and authentic. Almanac instills compassion, collaboration, and experimentation in all of their work. Almanac is the entity behind everything they do.
The two halves of Almanac have both pursued careers in different factions of creative direction. The first half of Almanac is Martino, is an Italian/Australian artist residing in Naarm, working primarily in music under the pseudonym ‘DoloRRes’. He also works in film, video and sculpture.
Martino: I guess music is all I know at this point and it’s what I love, so all the other elements that go along with music get love by proxy. So that extends to films. And I used to write scripts and stuff when I was a kid.
The second half is Renee, a filmmaker and actor currently based between Naarm and Eora, most interested in the areas of production design, writing and directing.
Renee: For me, I’ve always wanted to be an actor ever since I was young, and I still very much love acting, but like many actors I didn’t really like the idea of just waiting around for work, so I decided to study film and started to focus more on directing to generate my own work, then I realised that I enjoyed being behind the camera even more.
The two met at age 14 (and used to date in highschool) but stayed close friends afterwards up until now, and have always been big supporters of each other’s creative endeavours. Their relationship as collaborators grew from the time Renee came to Martino and told him she was going to make a music video for his song “Fluffy Dice”. From then, the pair had been consistently collaborating together on projects for a while, the idea of putting a name to the creative partnership started to conceptualise:
Renee: Martino had the name Almanac bubbling around in his vocab for a while, and years later when I was wanting to create a production company to give myself as a filmmaker a bit more legitimacy, I turned to Martino and asked if I could use the name. At this point Martino and I had already collaborated on 2 or 3 music videos together, and the more I thought about it, the more I thought that there is no one else I would trust more to share this with. Martino is family to me, and we obviously work really well together too. After countless more collaborations together and with many other artists, we thought it was about time that we put a name to our work and our creative partnership.
The vision for Almanac is simple: to push the boundaries creatively of what it means to be a production company, no matter the artistic medium they may be working in. While starting as a production company, they have plans for Almanac to morph it into a music label and a clothing brand – the possibilities really are endless. In regards to the name Almanac, it was originally a jeans company that Martino was trying to start back in 2019 when he was into airbrushing, and just liked the sound of the word Almanac. While the jeans were abandoned, the name stuck.
Martino: When Renee broached the idea of starting up a creative company, she was stumped for names and I suggested Almanac because it sort of fit the description thematically. Because an Almanac is basically an annual record of significant events and information on a range of different topics. So it kind of fits the bill because we are literally always doing the most.
With their shared love of storytelling, artistic direction and visual media, the opposing skills that Renee and Martino have gained from their different backgrounds (in film and music respectively) complement one another beautifully.
Renee: When I first met Martino, I remember reading some of his early scripts, so despite his priority being in music, it's nice that our paths can intersect here. And I think as Almanac grows so will both our skill sets and roles within it. I also feel very lucky that I get to be a part of the music scene whilst having absolutely no musical talents whatsoever – I’m so happy that I get to work with such incredible musicians, and get to collaborate with them doing something that I love.
Martino: I think Renee comes from acting and directing which requires a lot of discipline and drive, so she is kind of the backbone of the company, me being the musician stoner-type means I’m sort of more unorthodox. Essentially acting as the company wild card, handling aspects of the creative development. But obviously these roles are often interchanged. So it forms a whole.
The pair find inspiration from all around them, but mostly just by sitting down and watching good films - and they both share a love of director Wong Kar-Wai (Happy Together, Fallen Angels etc.) While mostly consumed with new cinema at this point in time, Martino still references a range of inspirations - such as the amazingly creative French Nouvelle Vague movement, Italian director Federico Fellini and contemporary Scottish film director Lynne Ramsay. For Renee, she loves the work of Celine Sciamma, Andrea Arnold, and the Safdie brothers. However, in saying this, her most recent video project (B&W stills pictured below) is a strange mix of German expressionist films - mixing aesthetics from ‘The Cabinet of Dr Caligari’ and Shaun Tan’s children’s books.
Almanac has just finished shooting a short film 'CONCRETE', which is the beginning of their first dive into creating and producing more narrative-based works. It follows third-generation Greek-Australian Aggelos, who fronts questions of his identity as he is torn between Greek Easter and a rave. Running from bridge underpasses to Greek churches and warehouse parties, Aggelos encounters a series of surreal interactions that test him, begging the question, what does it mean to be Greek three generations away from the source?
Renee: The production of the film involved a tonne of local designers, stylists and musicians to create a collaborative, community-driven experience and on set it was an absolute whirlwind! We were so blessed with the most incredible cast and crew, many of whom really connected to the storyline which made it even more special. The story was also so personal to myself and my co-director Ari, as we have both grown up feeling quite disconnected from our Greek heritage. Throughout the process of making this film however, we found a connection that we never could have imagined, and I feel so lucky to have shared that with everyone on set.
While many events have shaped their growth as individual creators, Martino and Renee both cite Martino’s debut live show, in which Renee did the stage design for, as one of the most important events for their collaborative self-development.
Renee: That show was so emotional for me, seeing Martino up on stage I just felt so proud and so happy because that's where he is meant to be, and he had worked so hard to put every detail together. He is a true superstar and if you were there that night you could really see it. But as for me, I definitely think one of the most important events in my self development would be my initial move to Melbourne from Sydney when I was quite young. It was a huge change for me and it shaped me as a person, and Martino was there from the very beginning.
In regards to extending their work into the fashion world, Almanac has an upcoming archival film for Hermann Studios in the works. The idea to collaborate sparked three years ago, but the film is set to be released before the end of the year.
Renee: The idea sparked to collaborate probably three years ago, and at that point it was just an idea. The project itself has been simmering for a while, we definitely didn’t rush this one, and we were super excited to delve more into the fashion world. Working with Hermann studios was so fun, probably one of the most fun sets I’ve been on. I’m very keen to share and very very keen to collaborate with more people in the fashion sphere.
I asked the pair what would be their dream collaboration for the production company, to which they responded:
Martino: Would be dope to do a video for Babytron or Earth Eater. But as for a dream collaboration I don’t really have one. We got our team and they’re tapped in so we kind of just stick to our guns. When opportunities come along we shall take them, but otherwise we just do our own thing.
Renee: An Almanac / A24 film would be crazy. I definitely agree though that when you have a good team you should never let them go, and we are so lucky to have the same group of incredibly talented people continually working with us.
In its early days, it is clear that Almanac has already achieved a lot - and has even been interviewed by Vice! Martino and Renee talk about their plans for the future, both short and long term.
Martino: Short term, we have our next club night at Miscellania on the 9th of December, which will be our last event for a little while so we can focus on releasing our projects over the next year, so expect a very Almanac 2023. We are also thinking of doing another night at the drive in and making it an annual event because the first one was just so insane.
Renee: We want to keep working on music videos (of course), moving into fashion work and ultimately narrative and commercial work. We want to keep working with an amazing crew and meeting new people, we want to travel and tell stories – and we have some things in the works that are set to be released very soon!
CREDITS:
[photographer] Tom Lewis @garconhorror
[gaffer] Jaydan DeOliveira @jaydandeoliveira
[stylist] Alexander Sneddon @dumbgucci
[styling assist] Sarah Mary @srah.mry.m
[makeup artist] Alana Jones @alana.jones.makeup
[bts] Gabriel LCR @gabriel.lcr