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Michael Picarella

  • Location Management
  • Additional Crew
  • Camera and Electrical Department
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Michael Picarella's fascination with movies began when he got a super 8 camera on his 10th birthday. He shot everything from sights at Disneyland to commercials that advertised an amusement park called Fun Mountain that he and his brother imagined.

In his first year of high school, Picarella made animated cartoons using school equipment. He eventually convinced his parents to buy him a video camera of his own so he could make more cartoons outside of school.

In between cartoons, Picarella made live action skits on video. His audience grew after each piece and, eventually, making live action movies became more important than making animated cartoons.

In 1995, Picarella began his first semester at the Academy of Art in San Francisco with a goal to be a motion picture director. It was there that he met filmmaker Steven Napolitan.

In 1998, Picarella was making a short movie and asked Napolitan if he was interested in operating camera. That was the first serious collaboration between the two filmmakers. The next year, Picarella wrote and directed a short movie that Napolitan produced and edited. The collaboration was more successful than the first and it lead to the making of the feature-length movie "1 2 3." Picarella wrote and directed the movie and Napolitan produced and edited.

In 1999, Picarella graduated from the Academy of Art and moved to Southern California to work in the motion picture industry. Almost every weekend during that time, Picarella drove up to Northern California to work with Napolitan to finish "1 2 3."

Following the completion of "1 2 3," Picarella and Napolitan began work on a second feature-length movie called "Punchcard Player."

Picarella continues to work in the film industry, he writes a family humor column for various publications and he writes screenplays. He lives with his wife and son.
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Known for

Charlize Theron, Mark Wahlberg, Seth Green, Edward Norton, Jason Statham, Yasiin Bey, and Franky G in The Italian Job (2003)
The Italian Job
7.0
  • Camera and Electrical Department
  • 2003
Vin Diesel, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, and Paul Walker in Fast & Furious (2009)
Fast & Furious
6.5
  • Location Management
  • 2009
Russell Brand and Jonah Hill in Get Him to the Greek (2010)
Get Him to the Greek
6.3
  • Location Management
  • 2010
Punchcard Player (2006)
Punchcard Player
6.5
  • Mike
  • 2006

Credits

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IMDbPro

Location Management

  • Tupac Shakur, James J. Zito III, Marcc Rose, and Wavyy Jonez in Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. (2018)
    Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.
  • William H. Macy, Steve Howey, Cameron Monaghan, Shanola Hampton, Jeremy Allen White, Ethan Cutkosky, and Emma Kenney in Shameless (2011)
    Shameless
  • Russell Brand and Jonah Hill in Get Him to the Greek (2010)
    Get Him to the Greek
  • Vin Diesel, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, and Paul Walker in Fast & Furious (2009)
    Fast & Furious
  • Drake Bell and Josh Peck in Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh (2008)
    Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh
  • Jeff Bridges, Noah Wyle, Morris Chestnut, and Jon Abrahams in Scenes of the Crime (2001)
    Scenes of the Crime

Additional Crew

  • Valerie Harper, John Ratzenberger, Brooke Burns, and Dylan Bruno in Fixing Pete (2011)
    Fixing Pete
  • Rock the House (2011)
    Rock the House
  • Love's Everlasting Courage (2011)
    Love's Everlasting Courage
  • Class (2010)
    Class
  • David Sutcliffe, Mark Deklin, and Jennifer Esposito in The Wish List (2010)
    The Wish List
  • Lacey Chabert and Ryan Merriman in Elevator Girl (2010)
    Elevator Girl
  • Love Begins (2010)
    Love Begins
  • Hell Hath Blue Skies
  • Danny Trejo, Kari Wuhrer, Louie Anderson, Adam Baratta, Shane Edelman, and George Wyner in Do It for Uncle Manny (2002)
    Do It for Uncle Manny
  • Mrs. Santa Claus (1996)
    Mrs. Santa Claus
    • (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department

  • Mystery Girl (2011)
    Mystery Girl
  • Luke Perry, Teri Polo, and James Van Der Beek in The Storm (2009)
    The Storm
    • (2009)
  • Hell Hath Blue Skies
  • Charlize Theron, Mark Wahlberg, Seth Green, Edward Norton, Jason Statham, Yasiin Bey, and Franky G in The Italian Job (2003)
    The Italian Job

Personal details

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  • Official sites
    • Monster & Halloween Humor Network
    • Official Blog
  • Wrote a family humor column called "The Picarella Family Report" for The Signal newspaper in Santa Clarita, CA, and continues to write a similar family humor column called "Family Men Don't Wear Name Brands" for The Acorn newspaper group in the Los Angeles and Ventura counties of Southern California.

Did you know

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  • Trivia
    Worked as a journalist for various Southern California newspapers, and he has worked with Napolitan Productions and Nappic Communications in many capacities since 1998. He wrote and directed a viral ad campaign that was inducted into MarketingSherpa's Viral Hall of Fame. His commercial work includes writing a national spot for Cuts Fitness for Men. His corporate video experience includes writing for the Boys and Girls Club, SecuriMetrics and United Religions Initiative. As a reporter, he covered U.S. President George W. Bush, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, actor/director/producer Rob Reiner, comedian/actor Jamie Kennedy, actor Danny Glover, blues performer B.B. King and many more notable figures.

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