New York Special: m ss ng p eces

Finding its offices in darkest Brooklyn may be a journey into the unknown for New York’s finest cabbies, but once there you’ll find ‘production and entertainment company’ m ss ng p eces  is enjoying blazing trails into the future of platform-neutral storytelling and exploring a model of curiosity and change

“How do you go?”

“Pardon me?”

“How do you go?”

“I’m sorry, but that sentence seems to make no real sense.”

“How do you get there?”

Ah, yes, of course, the motto of all New York taxi drivers. Seemingly not knowing the whereabouts of Brooklyn is, admittedly, a high water mark in cab-driving ineffectiveness but, map in hand and a few casual stops to ask passers-by for directions, and I’m only 30 minutes late meeting the team at Brooklyn-based (It’s just there! Over the water, to the east. You can see it!) production and entertainment company m ss ng p eces (the gaps are theirs).

If New York’s yellow taxis are an example of an institution which is ill-prepared and directionless, m ss ng p eces exists in stark contrast. It was set up in 2005 at the advent of the online video boom, by Ari Kuschnir (and a former business partner), who saw the potential of platforms like YouTube and technology such as the then-new iPod with video capability.

Though Kuschnir attended film school in his youth, he says he never felt like a traditional producer or a director, but when the idea to concentrate on short form and branded content hit, he remembers “very clearly selling my car in Miami to buy a laptop and camera. We were like, ‘OK, this is going to be the thing.’”

The company’s first real project put them firmly on the map. Cool Hunting, an online magazine covering design, technology, art and culture, had also seen the potential for online video and joined up with m ss ng p eces to create a weekly show, Cool Hunting Video, in 2006, which was a huge success with audiences.

That led to conference trailblazers TED asking the company to document what it was like to be part of the TED community, giving m ss ng p eces access to some amazing people. “That’s sort of where this idea of making meaningful stuff came from,” says Kuschnir. “It was like, we’ve got to do something with this. It’s really something and we’d better use it for good to propel things. It gave us a sense of the future-gazing thing that’s always been in the company, the wanting to be a little bit ahead.”

Despite the huge amount of content the company produced almost from the get-go, m ss ng p eces was, for around five years from inception, still only two people. It worked with a number of directors on a regular basis, including Josh Nussbaum, but in a freelance capacity. Nussbaum became a partner in the company in 2011, along with executive producer (formerly of Ogilvy) Kate Oppenheim.

What do you do again?

Why did it take so long for more people to join the company? “By 2010 it was clear that we had to figure out who we were,” explains Kuschnir. “We were so ahead that you couldn’t pinpoint us and that can backfire. I remember coming out of a meeting or two feeling like people didn’t know what we did. If you step into a meeting and people ask, ‘What do you again?’ then you’ve fucked up. And so [bringing Kate and Josh in] sort of de-mystified parts of our process.”

“Between 2005 and 2010 there still wasn’t an established way of working when it came to content,” says Oppenheim. “As a very young company, and a very small company, we weren’t necessarily prepared to put a stake in the ground and say, ‘This is how the business model is going to work.’ But between 2010 and 2012 it started to become really clear that the way that agencies in particular were going to want to make content was not dissimilar to the way they were making commercials.” The company now has 12 full-time employees in New York and has recently opened an office in LA, headed by former Tool of North America president, Brian Latt.

Like their early work for Cool Hunting and TED, much of m ss ng p eces’ work has broken new ground. Last year they helped create the first global campaign for Starbucks, which encompassed the not insignificant task of producing a TV spot, an interactive film and eight short documentaries shot in 59 different stores in 28 countries using 39 local filmmakers and 10 local photographers.

Explorers of curiosity and change

The Red Bull Music Academy project in 2013 gave the company the task of creating and releasing content every day for 30 days, including lectures, concert recordings, animations and behind the scenes footage. Then last year saw the release of their interactive film for Pepsi, Now is What You Make It, which allowed viewers to change the direction of the story through a simple mouse click.

The eclectic nature of m ss ng p eces’ output means they cannot be pigeon-holed. The company’s site defines them as ‘a production and entertainment company inspired by storytelling, technology and the limitless potential of the web’ and it’s that potential that excited Brian Latt when he joined the team. “There are a whole bunch of very successful [traditional] production companies,” says Latt. “They have something that works for them, they have a steady flow and run a steady ship, but what’s the drive for them to move and change? m ss ng p eces started with that model of change and curiosity and we want to use that to tell great stories, regardless of the platform.”

One of the platforms to which Kuschnir and his team are applying their storytelling skill is virtual reality. Last year they worked on the hugely successful Dos Equis VR campaign with Havas Worldwide, called Masquerade, which featured the brand’s character, The Most Interesting Man, as he held a fancy masquerade party at which the viewer is a guest. The live-action film allows the viewer – or should that be participant? – to interact with other guests, choosing various paths through the story which impact on the final outcome. As Kuschnir correctly predicted the huge impact of online video ten years ago, does he see VR as the next step in video’s evolution?

“You know, 3D was the thing for a while and [that technology] comes in and out in waves,” says Kuschnir, “[but] at the end of the day the storytelling doesn’t change whether it’s 3D or not. When you’re getting into VR the story is entirely different and that’s the wonderful challenge, that suddenly you’re tasked with creating a story that’s a full 360-degrees, with no edit points, and where you’re a participant in that story. It’s so exciting from a creative, writing and directing standpoint.”

“VR is going to grow and mature,” adds Nussbaum, “and it’s really exciting to see what those opportunities will be, but I think that everything [with VR] is wrapped up to the point where change is going to happen a lot more quickly and technologically-based storytelling will open up. [We have] a wonderful range of opportunities where we’re explorers in this model of curiosity and change. And it’s not only discovering how we tell a story in VR, but how we do that in a 60- or 30-second commercial that’s super-fresh and hasn’t been done before.”

Bigger, better and more exciting

Exploring what hasn’t been done before seems to be one of m ss ng p eces’ fortes. Kuschnir started the company on the basis of exploring the potential of online video and that ethos of exploration and discovery is still at the heart of the company. Whether it’s using new technology or simply looking at new ways of working, he and his team are constantly pushing boundaries and are excited about the direction in which the company is headed.

“We’re attracting incredible talent,” concludes Kuschnir. “Some amazing directors – and the very definition of ‘director’ is expanding as we speak – and we have some announcements about directors, and beyond-directors, to come. Plus we’re venturing more into original content, and solidifying our relationships with agencies and clients. We just want to do bigger, better and more exciting stuff.”