Naked Project, a bicoastal commercial production company, has been launched as a live-action sister shop to Jam, a New York-based tabletop house that opened in May ’98.
Naked Project opens with director Pierluca De Carlo, who was formerly affiliated with Los Angeles-based Ritts/Hayden for the last six years. De Carlo’s partner in Naked Project is executive producer Joe Masi, who also continues to head up Jam, which features tabletop director Leo Kocking.
Jam recently severed its affiliation with New York-based Mathew Brady Films; the two shops had combined their operations in late ’98 (SHOOT, 10/23/98, p.1). Masi said that he has acquired Brady’s 10,000-sq.-ft. studio, which will continue to serve as Jam’s-and now Naked Project’s-East Coast base. Naked Project also has a branch in Venice, Calif., which will be the production office for the West Coast-based De Carlo.
Already, De Carlo has wrapped two jobs under the Naked Project banner: a four-spot package for Erlanger Hospital via Lewis Communications, Birmingham, Ala., and an Asian-market spot called "Open Eyes" for Ford Focus via Dentsu, Tokyo.
According to Masi, he had wanted to get into the live-action business and found the means to do so when he met De Carlo. Masi explained that while in Tennessee seven months ago, he first saw the director’s work on a spot for Vanderbilt Hospital. After some investigation, he discovered it was De Carlo who had directed the ad, which he praised for its striking cinematography, as well as for the quality of its performances and dialogue.
After meeting with De Carlo, Masi was convinced he was the right director to go into business with. "We talked about the ways of doing projects-not just commercials-and doing them in a different way," related Masi. "We both had the same ideas, and that’s when we decided to open the company."
Masi explained that he opted to open the live-action division under a separate name in order to give it a more distinct identity. "Even though I oversee both Jam and Naked Project," he said, "there’s a totally different staff for each company. We’re really running [Naked Project] as its own entity."
De Carlo said he parted amicably from Ritts/Hayden, and left to form Naked Project to be a part of a creative collective that works on spots, still photography and design projects. He said he intends to collaborate, when appropriate, with Paris director Laurent Chanez, who is represented in Europe by Paris production company Entropy. (Chanez and De Carlo have co-directed a five-minute film, Urban Natives, and a spec spot for Comme des Garaons perfume, which is slated to open the Naked Project reel.)
As well, De Carlo said, he will be collaborating at Naked Project with Los Angeles-based Ben Wolfinsohn, a freelance graphic designer/web designer in the West Coast market who is making his foray into directing. Wolfinsohn, whose credits include designing the Web sites for Naked Project and bicoastal music house tomandandy, has helmed several rap videos, but no spots to date, said De Carlo.
Wolfinsohn will be doing graphic design and directing at the company. "Any opportunity I can find to help Ben to put out ads, [I will] because I truly believe he’s a very talented guy," said De Carlo.
De Carlo said he envisions Naked Project as evolving into a similar formation as Tomato (the creative collective repped stateside by bicoastal Curious Pictures), and as a place where "they won’t be selling [individual] names." He added that he will initially direct all of the commercial projects, but as Chanez and Wolfinsohn become increasingly known to agencies here, they will likely do a larger share of directing.
"I think why I really wanted to open a company like this," said De Carlo, "is to be able to see other young talents bring some new blood to every project, and I think that’s always going to make Naked Project a fresh group of people to work with."
"The idea is Pierluca is going to direct, but there’s a whole group of people behind him," said Masi. "So we can do everything from shooting the commercial, to the still photography. Ben does beautiful type design, and we can also edit it ourselves, with Luca supervising. We would put the team together; it’s not one person per se." In fact, for the aforementioned Ford Focus job, Masi said they brought in two Flame artists, Stephan Guillot and Mathiu Casare of post facility Mikros Image, Levallois-Perret, France, who work regularly with Chanez.
De Carlo had been repped by Ritts/Hayden since ’94 (SHOOT, 3/4/94, p.1). His association with company partner/director Herb Ritts dates back to the late ’80s when De Carlo began serving as production designer for some of Ritts’ jobs, including the Janet Jackson clip "Love Will Never Do" (which Ritts directed in ’89 through now defunct O. Pictures).
After graduating from Milan-based European Institute for Design in the mid-’80s, De Carlo started as a fashion still photographer; his credits include Italian Vogue. In ’86, De Carlo moved to the U.S and began directing videos at bicoastal/ international Propaganda Films in ’90. His other affiliations include brief stints with Spellbound Pictures and with Squeak Pictures, Los Angeles.
At Ritts/Hayden, De Carlo directed work for clients including Vanity Fair, Canadian Airlines, Polaroid, Haagen Dazs, Revlon, L’Oreal, The New York Times and the Stanford Stroke Center.
