Tanner D. Masseth
Filmmaker, VFX Artist, 3D Animator
TannerD.Masseth@gmail.com
@tanner_masseth
Tanner D. Masseth is a Fargo, ND native with over a decade of experience working in Chicago's vibrant film production industry.
He took on a variety of technical and managerial roles for big and small budget productions, including alongside industry greats Spike Lee, Karyn Kusama, Michael Bay, and Jordan Peele. Inspired while working in tandem with VFX maverick James McQuaide on Candyman in 2020, Masseth left the industry to pursue an education in alternative methods for indie production. His practice emphasizes the experimental application of combining virtual environments, 3D models, and character animation with live-action footage.
Masseth has produced and directed a number of internationally screened short films, winning Best Avant Garde short for Portrait 001: Security Guard (2023) at Drunken Film Fest Oakland and the Chicago Award for Sing Our Song When the World Ends (2024) at Chicago Underground Film Festival.
Tanner has co-produced and co-directed two omnibus feature films — Coin Celleil (2023), a remake of Chris Marker's Sans Soleil involving more than 40 contributors, premiered at Sara's Gallery in New York City in September 2023. Man with a Movie Camera (2025), a cut-for-cut 3-panel remake of Vertov’s 1929 film premiered as the opening night film at the 35th Onion City Experimental Film Festival.
He is on the board of the Chicago Underground Film Festival and resides in Logan Square.
CV
SELECTED WORKS Sing Our Song When the World Ends
Sing Our Song When the World Ends
USA, 2024, 16min, Stereo Sound
Directors: TANNER D. MASSETH & ANDREA FLORENS
Producers: TANNER D. MASSETH & ANDREA FLORENS
VFX & Animation: TANNER D. MASSETH
Sound: ANDREA FLORENSSUMMARY
A young girl is chased out of a nightclub by an evil force. She escapes between game worlds, idly witnessing a surreal chain of events beyond her control. Sing Our Song When the World Ends is a surreal depiction of the burden of knowledge and the ways in which information festers and disrupts the joys of daily life. It is about the maze of secrets that exist in parallel to the visible world and how these two realities permeate and invade one another at the expense of one’s peace of mind.
Each game world was designed to depict a particular historical event, clandestine operation, or abject horror for the protagonist to confront. She observes the eerie physical manifestations of her paranoia through encounters with occult magick, astral projection, remote viewing, sacrilegious priests, and ritual sacrifice. How does one find peace among such complex and unrelenting evil?
While separated between Chicago and Mexico City for two months, Tanner D. Masseth and Andrea Florens started the film as an exercise in writing short, disconnected vignettes to be recreated in Unreal Engine. The pieces began to form a single, grand narrative complimented by the uncanny qualities of the game engine. Sing Our Song When the World Ends won the Chicago Award at Chicago Underground Film Festival.
Trailer