Gabriele Mainetti is a director and producer from Rome, owner of GOON Films.
"Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot" his first feature movie, is out now as I write (february 25th), so he needed a logo animation for his own production company.

He called me to take care of it and so this little piece of animation was born.

The topic, "GOON", was somehow very weird.

1.

Informal. a hired hoodlum or thug.

2.Slang.

a stupid, foolish, or awkward person.
a roughneck.

Goon is a negative term, no doubt about it.
Driven by an idea of violence, stupidity.
Goons are outcasts, violent people.
Movies, however, tell us people's stories, their lives and the reasons behind their personalities.
A story that shows us what brought a man to a blatantly wrong choice rather than a right one It's more interesting for sure, because we firmly think we would never act like him in the first place.
Good movies allow us to see people's soul, they take us away from places where we feel at home, confident.

Good movies show us that people who initially look weird to us are often beautiful, unique people.
Weird people can be dreamers that went too far for our idea of being "good".

I tried, as I have been requested to do, to exalt, or to contradict by contrast, metaphorize, coddle this apparently two-dimensional word.

Behind a weird guy or a "bad" choice doesn't necessarily hide bad story.

As an extra: I didn't go straight for the final version.
I usually start with three different takes on the same thread when a client asks me to develop a corporate ID.
I love to give them the widest spectrum of choice, with VERY different takes.

I developed a STRAIGHT, a HUMOROUS and a OXYMORONIC proposals.

So, I started with a self explanatory, straight version.
A bad on bad take.
The knuckle duster proposal.

Then I went for a more funny, cute one.
The "ugly hero" take.

Then the final one, where GOON word is juxtaposed in the sequence after a young boy spotting us in the dark:
Is he an outcast?
Is he a survivor?
Is he protecting his people or is he all alone?
Is he a scavenger or is he out for a great adventure?
Is it the future or is it the past?
What's the story behind this young boy looking at us?

CREDITS:
The GOON: Stefano Calcaterra
Music: Gabriele Mainetti
Photography: Andrea Camandona
Studio: Talent's
Sound FX: Mirko Perri
Mixing and delivery: In House post Roma