Comedy director Kenan Moran has signed with Curious Pictures for exclusive TV commercial representation. He comes aboard after wrapping a freelance assignment through the shop, a seven-spot image campaign for Comedy Central.
Moran, who previously was with Public Domain, New York, brings extensive live-action experience to Curious, a New York-headquartered house that’s been best known for its animation and mixed media work. Company executive producer Mary Knox related, “I think of Curious as a collection of extremely smart artists, regardless of whether or not they work as animators. I’ve been a fan of Kenan for a long time, and Comedy Central proved to us how strong he is conceptually.”
Moran wrote three of the spots in the campaign, and co-wrote two others. The Comedy Central project enabled him to return to his broadcast promo roots. Earlier in his career, he was a senior producer at MTV’s on-air promotion department.
Each Comedy Central spot shows a prank gone terribly awry, with the tagline, “Comedy is dangerous. Please, leave it to the professionals.” In “Billboard,” for example, a guy who’s climbed up one in the middle of the night to alter its message into something rude tumbles off the catwalk as he does a premature celebratory dance. In “Xerox,” a heavyset office worker can’t resist the after-hours temptation to photocopy his butt. His weight, though, cracks the copier machine’s glass plate, leaving him stuck. He tries to pull himself up by a power cord from a window air conditioner unit. Instead the unit falls on his head in Wile E. Coyote style. And in “Pants’d,” a man sneaks up behind his buddy who’s shooting baskets from mid-court and yanks his pants down. But the joke is on the prankster when the victim, trousers around his ankles, loses his balance and falls onto the perpetrator’s head, burying it (with the aid of a Flame) where the sun doesn’t shine.
Besides affording Moran the opportunity to push the comedy envelope, the campaign also enabled him to collaborate with Curious visual effects artisans to help enhance the live-action-based comedic storytelling. Moran said he is looking forward to further tapping into the creative resources–artisans, tools, and ideas–at Curious. On the tools front, he is intrigued by the prospects of Curious’ motion-capture system, billed as being the only one in New York, and its potential to create characters than he can animate in real time. The mo-cap system was used to create a number of the comic effects in the Comedy Central package.
Moran broke into the business at Jim Henson Productions, New York, moving up the ranks from janitor to production assistant. In 1990, he joined MTV’s on-air promo department, producing and directing his own concepts, with work earning Cable Aces, as well as Peabody Awards and daytime Emmys. “That’s where I became a filmmaker and learned about strong brand positioning,” recollected Moran of his MTV days. Toward the end of his tenure there, which ran through ’96, he also directed shows, including Zoo TV, which featured Moran’s parody spots.
In ’97, Moran joined the former Slavin/Schaffer Films and then was affiliated with Half Baked Productions, New York. In ’99, Moran signed with now defunct Compass Films, where he won a Gold Clio in ’00 for a Companion Animal Placement PSA and began building a national reel with spots for Eggo and Cascade. In ’02, Moran moved over to Public Domain, helming commercials for such clients as adidas, Nintendo. Burger King, EA Sports, the Texas Department of Transportation and Comcast Digital Cable. A Captain Morgan Rum commercial gave him the opportunity to again direct celebrities, as he did on occasion while at MTV. Clinton administration strategist James Carville appeared in the Captain Morgan ad.
Moran joins a Curious directorial roster that includes Eric Fogel, Stefan Nadelman, Steve Oakes, Joan Raspo, Saul and Elliot, Tom Warburton and Mo Willems.