Ryan DunnRyan Dunn jumped on board with New York design studio Charlex earlier this year after spending time directing at Chicago’s Vitamin Pictures, curating gallery shows and producing campaigns for Nike’s Energy Marketing department in Portland, and working as an associate creative director on commercial projects at Digital Kitchen in Chicago. His first spot with Charlex, in 2009, combined a live-action green-screen shoot with miniature photography for Verizon. StudioDaily got him to slow down long enough to answer Five Questions.

Q: What are you working on today?
A: I’m working on these five questions. And prepping for a short film shoot about two gypsy children who pitch tents around the world. I’m also polishing a draft of a television screenplay about a king, I mean a torturer, I mean a… wait, I forget.

Q: What’s the best tool or innovation you’ve started using in the last year?
A: The iPad 3G. I was skeptical at first, since I own a laptop, an iPhone, an iPod (and a [Barnes & Noble] Nook) already. But the iPad fills its niche. Reading anything in color, with pictures, is epic. Watching movies on it is, bar-none, the best lap experience you can have with moving images. Surfing the web with the extra real estate on the go, checking email with multiple panels — it’s all pretty remarkable.

Q: What’s the project (film, television, commercial or music video) that most impressed you in the last year? And why?
A: Inception blew my mind, but that’s cliché. Polanski’s The Ghost Writer was excellent for different reasons. Toy Story 3 made me laugh … and cry. I always like staying up on the Gobelins School [www.gobelins.fr], and their Annecy bumpers were great as usual. I haven’t seen many mind-blowing music videos lately, but I have a few in my head if anyone’s interested.

Q: What’s the best — or your favorite — project that you worked on in the past year? And why?
A: I recently worked on a Verizon Latin spot involving green-screen talent, cotton clouds, miniature cars, and plastic hot air balloons. That one was fun to work on.

Q: Name the top 4 artists on your iPod?
A: Three-quarters of the new Arcade Fire has worked its way into rotation nicely. Memoryhouse’s latest EP is quite soothing. Max Richter’s “Infra” is even more soothing. And School of Seven Bell’s latest LP is remarkably irresistible.