Director Steve Ramser and executive producer Rossi Cannon have opened a new Los Angeles-based production company called Lotion.

Until recently Ramser and Cannon worked through Unscented, a subsidiary of now-defunct The End, but Ramser says Lotion has been in the works for some time. In addition to Ramser, Italian director Luca Maroni, Dutch director Jelle and American director Frank Samuel round out the Lotion roster.

"We're rich in emollients," jokes Ramser. "We've been cooking up the Lotion thing for probably six months now. We had a game plan set up and we were waiting for the right moment and had already looked for space."

The right moment came on a Wednesday night when Ramser and Cannon caught wind of The End's imminent, er, ending. The next Monday, Ramser and his crew were already assembling furniture. The next day Lotion was opened and the next week, Lotion booked its first job: Ramser is shooting a new Coca-Cola campaign through Amster Yard, New York. For his part, Ramser is jazzed about working with the creatives on a job he calls "a new venture with people with whom we share a lot of mutual respect." As for Unscented?

"There was the sense that Lotion was about to happen in the last year and we were figuring out an exit strategy, looking for timing. So, we were ready to roll when this happened," says Ramser. "If you are ready for change and change comes, then everyone is happy. We are conscious, awake people. In an organization like [The End] you get a vibe, you'd have to deny it to not know what was about to happen; I got the sense things were not great. Rossi and I spent a lot of time thinking about this and looking at space and other directors."

Currently in the midst of scouting locations for the Coca-Cola job, Ramser ruminates on the title of the new company, of which he is the principal.

"What Lotion is about is in the title. We want to have a place where I, as a director, and other directors are supported and it's all about creativity," he says. "We can talk to each other about work. I can sit around with Luca or Jelle and talk about scripts and it's not working in a vacuum and we are not competing with each other. There are plenty of folks to compete with. We want a safe place that is about collaborating with agencies. They have the idea and we will collaborate however much they want. We want creative work and want to engage in collaboration. It's about good work, being happy and focusing on the positive."