Method Studios: The Ballad of Tina Pink

Zune continues to fund weird and beautiful work, and while I’m not sure how effective their marketing strategy is, I’m certainly glad they’re doing it. The latest Zune-fueled creation is an ethereal spot entitled “The Ballad of Tina Pink.”

ballad.jpg

Although the transitions and vignettes played out in the project are impossibly surreal, Method pulls it all off with deadpan sincerity. This is the kind of visual effects I like. Beautiful but not overwrought. Unbelievable and yet enchantingly real. Hooray Method!

About the author

Justin Cone

/ justincone.com
Together with Carlos El Asmar, Justin co-founded Motionographer, F5 and The Motion Awards. He currently lives in Austin, Texas with is wife, son and fluffball of a dog. Before taking on Motionographer full-time, Justin worked in various capacities at Psyop, NBC-Universal, Apple, Adobe and SCAD.

16 Comments

david

My god, she’s trapped inside a zune, I can think of no worse fate!

Simon Robson

This is delightful. It’s like Gondry meets Nagi Noda meets Joji Koyama. Brilliant stuff.

Marc B.

I like. Unfortunately a product that’s 2 years behind.

TheTofuFactory

@Marc B. – Very true. Great commercial, horrible product.

I wish Apple would open up more with their creative. They seem to have died out and gone to a corporate kind of scheme.

rhooks

Wow! Amazing spot, would almost convince me into buying a Zune. O’ the power of persuasion. Kexp/Ted Leo/Indie Hipster college scene?? I think that demographic may be a bit smart for Microsoft(wink).

chaimeli

If you like the spot check out Firstborn’s amazing site for the same campaign… http://www.zunejourney.net

I was the producer on this one and also helped concept it, its so beautifully executed in both programming and design.

Would love to hear what you guys think…

bk9

geez can they think of something other than the jellyfish thing?

i think i first saw it in the Chemical Bros video The Test. then i saw it again in a Scissor Sisters video.

use a goddamn seahorse, ffs!

iline

I would be a bit pissed if I was Gondry watching this. I mean, it’s nice he’s such an influence on the ad industry, but for some disciple in another land to just clearly steal ideas and art direction from him seems wrong.

However it’s a nice advert all the same.

Marc B.

@iline

How is this gondry? It’s not like he owns the copyright on stylized sets and costumes.

blahblahblah

Spot looks good……………………….but the endtag is really really nice!

cokedhead

PATRICK DAUGHTERS is the director. A lot of the ideas in this spot seem to come from his great music video work. See his work and realize the realized reality.

ochyming

This ad reinforces my love to Apple ad approach.
I think an ad shouldn‘t be [al-thought it is art] a conversation between artists, but actually to be franc and honest.

This is pretty.
But as someone said ART is dead.

Apoteka

Art is dead? Oh crap!

anonymouse

“How is this gondry? It’s not like he owns the copyright on stylized sets and costumes.”

time to watch his smirnoff commercial to know what people are referring to.

zeniamai

I love the ad and I especially like the surreal like transitions. The jellyfish part is rather very common, I must agree with bk9 however nonetheless it still fits and the visual effects brims with elegance and magic..

csmallfield

Hey all, nice to see so many compliments. I was one of the many artists that worked on it. We are all really proud of how it turned out.

It should be noted that the production designer for this commercial, KK Barrett, is the production designer who did many Gondry films and was the art director for the Chemical Brothers “Let Forever Be” (directed by Gondry). So it’s not a huge surprise that the art direction feels like Gondry :)

Check for another spot in the same vein, made by the same people soon.

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