Microsoft Zune Arts has one of its short films, The Masks, being inducted into the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection in New York City as part of its recognition at the AICP Show (Art & Technique of the American Commercial by the Association of Independent Commercial Producers. The Zune Masks television commercial has been described as “Braveheart meets Carebears in psychelic battle with peace as final winner”.
Click on the image below to play the Masks video.
The Masks Credits
The Zune Arts project is curated by 72 and Sunny by creative director Glenn Cole, executive producer Sam Baerwald, producer Elisa Orsburn, designer Jeff Beberman and copywriter Charlie Stephenson.
Animation for The Masks was developed at PandaPanther by directors/designers/3D artists/compositors Jonathan Garin and Naomi Nishimura with producer Lydia Holness and assistant producer Natsu Takahashi. The animation team also included designers Elisa Riera Ruiz, Ari Hwang, lead 3D animators Chad Yapyapan, Ajit Menori, David Hill, Bill Burg, Han Hu, Peter Karnjk, Eric Wagner and Eugen Sasu, 3D artists Guy Manly, Ari Hwang, Shu Chen Li, Paul Liaw. Props and art were the responsibility of Keiko Miyamori, Natsu Takahashi, Jonathan Garin and Naomi Nishimura.
PandaPanther are represented by Blacklist, a Psyop company.
Glenn Cole, creative director at 72 and Sunny, gives some of the background to the collaboration with PandaPanther…
“PandaPanther have a wonderful knack for expressing complex ideas in simple ways. We talked a lot about the transformative power of seeing the world through another person’s perspective. It’s a heady concept but they found a way to make it clear, fun, ridiculous and provocative all at the same time. Someone should ask them to solve global warming and see what they come up with.”
Music is “Young Men Dead” by The Black Angels.
Other commercials inducted into the New York MOMA were Guinness “Dot” and MassMarket’s Monster.com “Legs”. Generous Monster, another Zune ad, was inducted in 2007.