Jon Carlo

Everything starts with story. A thirty second spot has one. So does a feature, so does a music video. Find it and the rest of the job gets easier. Miss it and no amount of craft will cover for you. That’s the first question I ask on every job, whatever the format or the budget.

Over the past decade I’ve directed and produced work for AWS, L’Oréal, Citi, Norton LifeLock, Merck, New York Life, and Cox Automotive. I’m as comfortable directing a Fortune 500 CTO as I am a creator with an audience bigger than most networks. Werner Vogels of Amazon and Yann Joffredo of L’Oréal Luxe on one end, the MoneyLion x Beast Games arena production on the other. Both need the same thing from a director, which is a reason to trust you in the first ten minutes. Outside of the commercial work I write and direct narrative features and music videos, and that’s where the instincts come from.

Nothing good gets made alone. The best work I’ve done came out of a room where the agency, the client, and the crew were all building the same thing, and where the idea got better because more than one person had a hand in it. I’d rather find the answer with people than hand one down. That goes for the client in the room and the gaffer on set.

I came up through production before I directed, and it shows in how I run a set. I write the treatment, build the scope, hold the budget, and deliver on schedule. What agencies get is a director who protects the production as carefully as the idea. Ambitious work, efficient sets, no wasted motion.

I’m drawn to brands with a point of view and stories that feel earned. Craft that doesn’t need to shout.