Production company expands

With a sticker promoting his company Pure Productions slapped on his iPhone, junior entrepreneurship major Mario Ciao is always on duty.

Since its inception earlier this year and its debut event at the Arts Garage in May, Pure Productions has been diligently promoted by Ciao in hopes of establishing the company not only on Main Campus, but to the entire city of Philadelphia.

“The idea of it is to bring an intimate musical experience for everyone,” Ciao said. “At the same time, we want to expose a lot of local talent.”

In addition to giving local talent a stage, Pure Productions has successfully brought headlining artists to Philadelphia — including Nadastrom, affiliated with the Mad Decent label, and German-supermodel-turned-DJ Miss Nine.

Ciao didn’t have a clear-cut plan for how he’d apply his major to the business world from the start.

“To be honest, I was never a good student,” Ciao said. “I really just tried to do the most of what I enjoyed, and that ended up being related to music.”

Although partying as a means of business opportunity may seem like a stretch to some, Ciao’s nights out with friends were the start of Pure Productions.

“Me and my friends have always started parties,” Ciao said. “You know, providing music for parties, that kind of thing — providing a good time for people. I actually entered the electronic dance music world, and once I entered that, it was like a whole other world. I just fell in love with it. The atmosphere, the people, the music — it’s just like addicting, almost.”

“We started throwing those kind of parties and it started escalating that way as well,” Ciao added. “That’s when we started realizing, ‘Wow, we can actually do something with this.’”

Today, Pure Productions has more than 30 students that help Ciao’s business promote events. Ciao has enlisted students from multiple Philadelphia area colleges, including Drexel University, University of Pennsylvania and West Chester University.

Ciao is working on gaining team members at St. Joesph’s University and La Salle University. While students handing out flyers, promoting via social media and helping Ciao throw parties may seem menial, Ciao insists it’s anything but.

“That’s the primary reason this is actually working — a lot of people want to be involved,” Ciao said.

Currently, Pure Productions has affiliations with multiple bars and nightclubs in the city. During the summer, Pure Productions was connected with Recess Lounge in Old City, a 21 and older establishment. While always grateful for a new opportunity, Ciao said that wasn’t the direction he wanted to take his business.

“We realized the whole 21 and over thing wasn’t the idea of what we are,” Ciao said.

Pure Productions has acquired a residency as the Let Out, located at 16th Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue. Thursday, Sept. 27 marked the first “Pure Music Thursday” at the 18 to party, 21 to drink establishment.

“Every other Thursday we are going to have Pure Music Thursdays to really get Temple involved and to expose it to the Temple community,” Ciao said.

Ciao hopes the residency will not only gain Pure Productions a following at Temple, but also introduce the Temple community to the electronic dance music scene, he said.

Pure Productions was also chosen as one of four promotional companies to aid Soundgarden Hall at Columbus Boulevard and Spring Garden Street, located near Festival Pier. In addition to promoting all of Soundgarden’s events, Pure Productions will also be throwing its own small local parties. The first event was Sept. 22.

“It went really well,” Ciao said. “It’s basically the elite venue in Philly. It’s aimed specifically for electronic dance music. Basically, they take the best aspects of each venue and make it like a super venue.”

Ciao’s face lit up with excitement as he began to list details of the event — confetti blasters, carbon dioxide cannons and a “robot transformer with smoke guns named Kryoman.”

As for the future, Ciao has a goal in mind for Pure Productions.

“I know this is kind of a stretch of imagination, but if we could have a Pure Music Festival, that’s where I want to take it,” Ciao said.

Regardless of what he’ll be doing with Pure Productions in the future, Ciao said he knows he’ll be happy doing it.

“Even if it’s not the best day, I’ll be doing something I enjoy my whole life,” Ciao said.

Jenelle Janci can be reached at jenelle.janci@temple.edu.