Meet Aaron Cameron Muntz
New York still-life photographer and tabletop director
Aaron Cameron Muntz focuses his passion and creative energy on a holistically balanced work environment that allows his studio to experiment, collaborate, and foster deeper and more nuanced relationships with his clients and teams to produce incredible campaign work for cosmetics, products, food & drink stories.
Case Study Breakdown
Concept :: Art producer Gia Gilliard at Taylor Strategy originally approached me in April to capture bottles of Smirnoff Ice covered in gems.
Client :: Taylor Strategy | Smirnoff Ice – Just Add Ice
Creatives ::
Felton Brown, Creative Director
Gia Gilliard, Art Producer
Stills Team ::
Photographer, Aaron Cameron Muntz
Set Designer, Brian Byrne
Retoucher, Ashlee Gray
Motion Team ::
Post Production Company: Apollo Post House
Post Producer: Alex Peterson
Post Supervisor: Sean Carroll
Motion Designer: Vincenzo Lodigiani
Cut Downs: Ben Gillespie
Sound Design: Martin Delisle
Music: Butter Music
Behind the Scenes
This is a two part story.
When first approached, I knew exactly who I wanted on my team to help bring the project to life. Set designer Brian Byrne and I worked together to overcome the challenges created by the unique bottles. And once the bottles and sparkles were captured, retoucher Ashlee Gray brought it all together. What started out as a one-off summer OOH campaign featuring bedazzled bottles of Smirnoff Ice, rapidly expanded when the images were well received.
In June they reached out once again, this time we were going to capture bottles and cans from the entire Smirnoff Ice family, all bedazzled. So we got the band back together for another round. While on the shoot, Felton and I discussed the possibility of creating some motion work with the images. After all, we were capturing backgrounds, products and sparkles separately and they were begging to be animated. Fast forward a couple months and the agency reached out about creating a TV spot with the assets we had captured and the resulting commercial ran throughout the month of September.
Final Deliverables
This was a special project for me. I’ve shot billboards and other OOH campaigns in the past but none have ever run here at home in NYC. Seeing these billboards, with one even running in Brooklyn not far from where I live, was exciting enough. Then to have the whole thing come to life again on the TV screen was icing on the cake. I’m so grateful to the team at Taylor and the teams that came together to create the photos and motion graphics.
When the first billboards started running in Los Angeles in May, it was creative director Felton Brown who spotted the massive hand-painted billboard at the corner of Broadway and Olympic Blvd. I tip my hat to the incredible artists at Overall Murals in LA and Colossal Media in NY for their stunning hand-painted renditions of these very intricate photos.
As I continue to grow and define my work and myself, I find it important to enjoy the creative process, to have a clear vision and consistent approach no matter what the subject matter. I take this same approach with my own multidisciplinary creative practice as well, from experimental short film to painting. I look forward to sharing my excitement for collaboration and image making with you. – Aaron Cameron Muntz
