Pietro Biz Biasia: Shooting from scratch

Rooted in rap music, 90s nostalgia and a DIY mindset, Pietro Biz Biasia’s street-culture-infused films drip with a distinctive edge that has quickly set him apart.

His work doesn’t shout for attention, but it has firmly earned it, drawing in brands from Soho House to Hypebeast and GQ x Hugo Boss, and artists from Quavo to K-Trap. His ascent was cemented last year with signing to London Alley, followed by being announced as New Director of the Year at the shots Awards The Americas 2025.

Yet behind the effortlessly cool exterior lie years of hard graft and self-teaching, honing every part of the craft, from camera work to the editing suite.

Above: Photographs of Pietro shooting on location. 

Born and raised in Milan, Italy, by his father and grandmother, Biasia never planned on becoming a filmmaker, but his love of music sparked an early curiosity for shooting promos. “Some of my friends had started making music, and one of them shot a video,” he explains as we catch up almost a year on from his win. “That got me interested, and I thought, ‘I want to try that’.”

He took a six-month video-making course in Milan, which covered the basics. He didn’t feel ready to call himself a director yet, but it was enough to start. He bought a camera and began shooting rap music videos, teaching himself everything along the way. “I didn’t start as an assistant on someone else’s set. I just learned everything myself: shooting, editing, lighting, directing. That’s really how my filmmaking journey began.”

You experiment, see what happens, and occasionally it clicks almost like magic.

After moving to London, he edited commercial projects for other directors to pay the bills, while quietly building a catalogue of creative, low-budget music videos on the side. Then, one promo for A$AP Twelvyy’s track As I Am (ft Annalise Azadian) cut through. “It was just me and my camera, some cool effects, VFX, very DIY. Just us shooting it ourselves, making it work with what we had.”

When the film was picked up by visual effects site Eyecandy, emails started landing from production companies wanting to know if he was represented. “It felt like a real foot in the door to the industry. It was definitely a turning point.”

Above: Biasia's promo for A$AP Twelvyy’s track As I Am (ft Annalise Azadian) caught the industry's attention.

Biasia’s distinctive style is a rich mix of references, blending urban culture with bold in-camera effects, dynamic edits and striking mixed-media post production, much of it rooted in the 90s New York hip-hop culture he grew up consuming. “A lot of my aesthetic comes from that. I remember watching music videos back in the day, before YouTube, when you had to download them.” His cinematic influences stretch from New York filmmakers of that era, such as Spike Lee, to black-and-white films and classic European auteurs including Jean-Pierre Melville. “I also watched a lot of skateboarding DVDs, so the fisheye lens aesthetic and that visual language shaped my early work, though it features less now.”

Today, his work leans into layered imagery, blending grainy film textures with crisp digital footage to create a rich, multi-dimensional feel. “I used to shoot a lot on VHS and mix it with digital video, experimenting with different formats. Another hallmark of my style is paste-based edits and effects.”

I don’t sit over [an editor's] shoulder because I believe everyone needs their own space to work their magic.

Signing with London Alley for US representation last year marked a major step in his career. The production company was drawn to his adaptability and fresh perspective, and he quickly began working on commercial projects with bigger budgets, and greater creative scope. He cites his campaigns for Nike, Zalando and New Balance among his most creatively satisfying to date. “I felt I could be creative without limits. Of course, there were some restrictions from the brand, like certain outfit elements, but on the creative side we were able to do a lot, even within their advertising space.”

 It was his HO24 Y2K Global commercial for Nike that earned Biasia the shots New Director of the Year in the Americas. Backed by the brand’s larger budget, the film distils many of his signature traits on an impressive scale: kinetic camerawork, punchy edits, cityscapes and imaginative transitions, all peppered with playful, nostalgic Y2K touches.

Above: HO24 Y2K Global spot, for Nike, that earned Biasia the shots New Director of the Year in the Americas.

When so much of his visual language is crafted in the edit, how does Biasia collaborate with post production creatives to achieve his distinct look? In most cases, he still doesn’t. “I still try to edit everything myself,” he explains. “It’s easier. I don’t need to articulate things that are hard to put into words. I just dive in and it comes together. Sometimes there’s no real explanation. You experiment, see what happens, and occasionally it clicks almost like magic.”

Although, when he does bring an editor on board, he looks for someone whose instincts align with his own. “I give them direction, let them do their thing, and then we share notes,” he says. “I don’t sit over their shoulder because I believe everyone needs their own space to work their magic.”

I feel like as long as you are authentic, you can work wherever the industry is going. You can make an impact.

Working in urban landscapes often brings an unpredictability that you would never encounter on a controlled set. In his early music video days, that spontaneity was part of the appeal. “When we were just shooting on the streets, it was simpler,” he says. “You saw a place you liked, and you just went to shoot. It was more spontaneous, going with the flow.”

Commercial productions, however, come with a different level of complexity. “We had to close the streets for two commercials we shot outdoors, 
one for Nike and one for Zalando.” The latter presented the additional challenge of filming in a rougher neighbourhood. He laughs: “At one point, people were throwing things at us, like toilet paper. It was funny.”