Following the success of its short film project for the 2004 Athens Summer Games, which tapped directors such as Daniel Askill, Nagi Noda and Neill Blomkamp, Olympic sponsor Panasonic teamed up with Tokyo-based Nowonmedia and RES Media Group to create five short films for the 2006 Torino Games, called Five Colors/Five Films: Capture The Motion II.

Built around the theme "glory of sports", the films draw on the talents of directors from five regions: Honest (America); Gabriel Malaprade (Europe); Hilton Tennant (Africa); Qian Qian (Asia); and Rumpus Room (Oceania). Nowonmedia, which also produces RESfest in Toyko, worked with RES Media Group senior programmer Sandy Hunter to source directors for the project.

"Our focus was to look for directors who can tell a story with humor," says Resfest Japan producer Kana Yamamoto. "Panasonic wanted to have humor in each film; humor can be shared beyond language."

Hunter elaborates by saying, "We were seeking talent from outside the established sphere of commercial and music video production. An aptitude for self-generating ideas that would be effective regardless of language also drove the effort."

Available on Panasonic's Olympic website, the standout piece is Gabriel Malaprade's "Archeo-logic" where a team of archaeologists discover artifacts from winter sports, including a bobsled and the skeletons of its drivers. Other concepts include a figure skater whose artistic flourish becomes his downfall ("Too Good for His Own Good" by Rumpus Room); a town so slippery that the townsfolk's favorite game is simply called 'Hold it' ("Slippery Town", Honest); and an animated creature who musters the courage to ski a monster mountain ("The Little Battle", Hilton Tennant). The most off-the-wall of the lot, "Yoman" from Qian Qian, involves psychedelic mushrooms and a playful group of snow creatures.

Five Colors/Five Films> www.panasonic.co.jp/olympic