Multi-disciplinary creative studio Thornberg & Forester has signed Claire Carrà© for exclusive representation as a commercial director. The Los Angeles-born Carrà© launched her directing career last year and has drawn acclaim for her wildly inventive music video work, which includes clips for such acts as Rainer Maria, Matt White and The Spill Canvas. Carrà©’s commercial experience includes a web-spot for American Express that was a finalist in the company’s 15-second CLIPS competition. (The competition was part of Amex’s sponsorship of the Tribeca Film Festival and its “My Life. My Card.” campaign.) Carrà© is repped for music videos by Partizan.
“Claire fits in beautifully with our culture,” said Thornberg & Forester executive producer Elizabeth Kiehner. “She has an amazing design sense. Her approach to treatments and production is fresh and innovative. She strives to evoke a particular emotional response and casts a spell through her storytelling that serves that intention.”

Carrà©’s directorial work is characterized by its creative risk-taking, stunning visuals and a craftsmanship remarkable in a young filmmaker. Her video Herr Bar which she directed for electronic artist Clark as part of the Radar Festival is a startling encounter between a white and a black dancer, intercut with lugubrious images of watercolors and cellular life.

Carrà© often invests her work with humor as in her Catastrophe video for Rainer Maria where toasters explode into confetti and “poisoned” tea causes a plant to suddenly spring to life. In her American Express spot for the Tribeca CLIPS competition, Carrà© appears on camera as an office worker who makes faces into the company photocopier on her first day on the job.

Carrà© cites Wong Kar-Wai and Jean-Luc Godard as influencing her aesthetic. “Much of Wong Kar-Wai’s work focuses on the feeling of remembering, something I am very interested in,” she observed. “I admire the way Godard uses unusual juxtapositions of images and text. In my work, I also like to create meaning by combining disparate elements. Keeping a sense of curiosity and playfulness is important.”

A graduate of UCLA, Carrà© has a background in design. While still in high school, she worked as a graphic designer at Launch Magazine and later was a staff artist with the Digital Entertainment Network. She began her film career as a director’s assistant. She worked with Patty Jenkins on Monster, Damon Wayans on Behind the Smile, and Adria Petty on music videos and commercials.

Carrà© covets jobs that pose creative and technical challenges. “I like to figure things out and not be limited by what I already know,” she said. “What I don’t know is much more creatively stimulating. I want to come up with the strongest idea first, and then discover the best way to craft it.”

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