Last month, Sony rolled out a sweeping celebration of its own contributions to technology and the arts. Now, it's diving deep on the same subject, taking viewers on a tour of Northlandz, a giant model railroad museum in New Jersey, as miniatures photographer Matt Albanese uses a Sony QX100 camera to capture images of the tiny scenery.
Northlandz's creator, Bruce Zaccagnino, co-stars in the documentary-style ad, offering such bits of humble-bragging genius as: "Thousands of people will come out, and they'll say this is a wonder of the world. … I don't think it's a wonder of the world. It's not the Taj Mahal." Fact is, the landscape is quite impressive. The photos that come out of Albanese's work are plenty cool, too, and a nice testament to the potential of the camera.
But the four-minute documentary, created with Wieden + Kennedy, makes the whole thing feel pretty forced and awkward. "For this project I chose a camera that will get me into tight spaces and gives me unique vantage points," says Albanese. That may be the selling point, but the footage and the photographs make the point well well enough without the contrived sales pitch. A little less throat-clearing and philosophizing might serve the spot well, too—but at the end, Zaccagnino's extra talent makes for a perfectly oddball kicker.
The campaign includes a website, www.Separate--Together.com, that goes beyond the film and features an interactive companion piece with three panoramas you can rotate and zoom into.
Credits below.
CREDITS
Client: Sony
Project: Be Moved - Separate Together
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Mike Giepert, Dan Hon
Copywriter: Charlie Gschwend
Art Director: Devin Gillespie
Information Architect: Jason Sack
Creative Technologist: Billy McDermott
Head of Interactive Production: Pierre Wendling
Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz
Content Producer: Katie Reardon
Account Team: Trish Adams, Diana Gonzalez, Nick Larkin
Associate Director of Technology: Ryan Bowers
QA: Robb Hand, Rachel Mason
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples, Susan Hoffman
—Web Film Partners
Production Company: m ss ng p eces
Director: Josh Nussbaum
Executive Producers: Ari Kuschnir, Kate Oppenheim
Head of Production: Dave Saltzman
Line Producer: Veronica Balta
Director of Photography: Alex Khudokon
Editorial Company: m ss ng p eces
Editor: Adam McClelland
Post Producer: Amy Crowdis
Colorists: Nat Jencks, Adam Mcclelland
Composer, Original Score: Matt Abeysekera
Sound Design & Mix: Eli Cohn
—Interactive Experience Partners
Development Partner Company: BOSSA
Executive Creative Director: Hans Weiss
Creative Technologist: Jeramy Morrill
Lead Developers: Jeramy Morrill, Josh Gross, Matt Greene
Creative Director: Andrezza Valentin
Art Director: Sarah Skapik
Producer: Nic Santana