Director Tricia Caruso has signed with New York-based Highway 61 for exclusive commercial representation. Caruso’s first assignment at her new spot home, is an ad for K-Mart via Campbell Mithun Esty, Minneapolis.
The addition of Caruso follows other changes at Highway 61. Freelance producer Marc Rosenberg joined the company in January as its executive producer, replacing Mark Jaffee, who left in December ’99 to pursue independent producing. Jaffee could not be reached for comment at press time. Rosenberg, in his 10 years of freelancing, worked with numerous commercial directors, including Max & Dania of London-based Bullet, and Mark Benjamin of New York-based Screen Gems.
Last month, Highway 61 also signed director Jeffrey Cooney of New York-based Jeffrey Cooney Films. Cooney’s company will remain open, but he will be represented for commercial work under the Highway 61 banner, Rosenberg said.
Caruso, a former advertising agency producer, comes to Highway 61 after a four-year stay at TAG Pictures, New York, where she helmed spots for numerous clients including Super 8 Motels, Healthy Choice and NYNEX (now Bell Atlantic).
"Tricia has a great eye and a great sensitivity with talent," said Highway 61’s marketing director, Christopher Miller. "She’s developed a talent for very natural performances, and she brings a great following in the business."
Caruso began her career in the early ’80s as a producer at Southfield, Mich.-based Doner, and later worked as a senior producer at DDB Needham (now DDB) Chicago and J. Walter Thompson, New York. Then at Deutsch, New York, she became head of production, which led to her first spot directing foray. "As a producer, I’d talk to some clients who had maybe $15,000 to do a spot," she recalled. "I felt like an idiot calling outside production companies and saying, ‘Could you guys do us a huge favor?’"
After overseeing several spots with limited shooting schedules and inexperienced directors, Caruso convinced Deutsch to form an in-house production company to handle smaller-scale jobs. "We hired outside DPs and crews, and people from Deutsch directed," she explained. "These were not special effects spots with big budgets, but a lot of real-people ads with great concepts. A strong concept is the most important element." Working in-house, Caruso co-directed with Phil Morrison (now of bicoastal Epoch Films) a series of lifestyle spots for Ikea.
"I really love working with non-actors, and I love being able to evoke a performance in professional actors that’s very realistic," Caruso said. "I don’t do a lot of broad humor. I do more of the quirkier human reactions."
In ’91, Caruso struck out on her own, forming King Horse Films, New York, and serving as director, producer, and sales agent. "I called everyone I knew and said, ‘Got anything for me to shoot?’ And it worked."
As Caruso accumulated directing credits, she continued to show her reel to Jim Golden, a longtime friend who later became executive producer at TAG Pictures. When Golden opened his own company, he signed Caruso to his directing roster. (Caruso then shuttered her one-woman production house.) One of the highlights of her work with TAG is "Let’s Look," a comic spot for Super 8 Motels via Grey Advertising, New York. In it, NASCAR champion Bill Elliott gives a brief, deadpan tour of his Super 8 Motel room, where a pit crew works frantically under the bed as though servicing a race car.
After leaving TAG in August ’99, Caruso freelance directed jobs for Highway 61, including "Everybody’s Story," for Knox NutraJoint via Sierra Communications, Westport, Conn., which was part of a one-hour infomercial for the vitamin supplement.
One of Caruso’s favorite spots to direct was "The Future," a spot for SNET via Publicis, New York. In it, children and young teenagers offer their predictions for future technology. "Originally we cast SAG kids, but we weren’t able to find enough of them," said Caruso. "We decided to do local casting in Connecticut, where we filmed, and ended up finding kids through elementary schools and junior high schools. Eighty percent of who you see in the spot are real kids, non-professionals, and they were great."
Working with children, Caruso explained, requires a friendly, easygoing set. "I believe that with kids, you get it in the first three or four takes, because after that their attention starts to wane, and it isn’t fun for them anymore. And you have to make sure there’s no pressure on them, and no bad feeling on the set. Actually, that’s true with adult non-actors, too. If there’s tension among crew, kids and grown-up non-actors think that they are the cause. You have to let them know they’re not doing anything wrong. Otherwise they get self-conscious."
Highway 61’s roster also includes directors Peter Cherry, Bob Gaffney, Christopher Hawker and Jamie Morgan.
