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Apr 12 2013

MTV | Influencers of a Generation

How do you take the sacred medium of television and “fuck with it”? Looking back at the early, revolutionary days of MTV, Glenn Lazzaro shows how. This clip from the 2008 Promax/BDA conference was part of the session “Influencers of a Generation: MTV.” Glenn’s message: Things were different back in the ’80s. Experimenting! Magnets dragged across screens! Anti-promotion that turned into some of the greatest promotion of all time! It’s all in one quick peek at how a groundbreaking brand was born.

Here is a little sampler of some of the best MTV Promotion.

Written by David · Categorized: Uncategorized · Tagged: 99tigers, dennis Leary, Glenn Lazzaro, john payson, LA production company, Mark Pellington, MTV randee of the redwoods, ny oroduction company, Pam Thomas, ted demme, the police, Yo MTV Raps

Jan 26 2012

1990 NBC Promo Break

http://vimeo.com/35702481

Posted by Glenn Lazzaro for his series “Adventures in Television”

Several of the spots in this promo break came from the edit rooms at National Video Center. NBC producers Tim Miller and Don Duncan usually had one or two rooms going at any given time in those days. I worked on the “Real Life with Jane Pauley” promo in this break. As a bonus, I also got my first chance to shoot film.

Tim and Don had hired a documentary film crew to shoot “real-life scenes” of America for Pauley’s show open. For the promo, they wanted to intercut the open with an interview with Jane Pauley. The crew shot in Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York along the Amtrak train line. (The railroad tracks became part of the title sequence.) As we cut the show open, Don felt there weren’t enough “Middle America” scenes, since most of the footage looked urban.

I was heading to the Catskills for a vacation, so I volunteered to shoot some footage with a 1956 16mm Bolex camera I’d just bought at a garage sale. The cinematographer told me which film stock to buy and which filters would match his footage. I kept the camera with me at all times, shooting wherever I happened to be with my kids: farms, baseball games, front porches, a dude ranch. I didn’t really know how to shoot; it was the first time I’d used the camera. Luckily our film style was cinema verite, so my grainy footage fit right in. I shot a lot of footage of my kids, but for some reason they never made the cut.

BONUS! My son found a spot with him as a 4 year old prominently in the beginning. And yes, the opening chords are from Rod Stewart’s Maggie May.

http://vimeo.com/45262340

 

Written by glenn · Categorized: Adventures In Television · Tagged: 99tigers, Bethel, bolex, Catskills, Director Glenn Lazzaro, Don Duncan, Editing, editorial, film triva, Glenn Lazzaro, Jane Pauley, LA production company, National Video Center, nbc, NY production company, post production, Real Life With Jane Pauley, tim miller, title sequence, tv trivia, videotape, White Lake NY

Jan 06 2012

Leo & Khloe Are Saving the Tigers

What the world needs now is peace. Brotherhood. Great on-air promotion.

Oh, and more wild tigers.

As we ring in 2012, 99 Tigers invites you to join a seriously cool mission: to keep wild tigers from vanishing forever.

As few as 3,200 tigers are left in the wild, endangered by illegal trade and deforestation.

Leo diCaprio and the World Wildlife Fund have launched a global campaign, Save the Tigers, to turn this around. Leo’s pledged $1 million to help build political, financial and public support to double the number of wild tigers by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger.

The Kardashians are letting the fur fly, too.

This week, Khloe Kardashian helped promote the WWF’s Texting for Tigers campaign:

“By texting TIGERS to 20222, your $10 donation will help WWF save the tiger in its vast range–from India to China, to the Russian Far East,” Khloe tweeted, spurring a flood of donations.

So hey, why not start 2012 with a roar? Join 99 Tigers, Leo and Khloe…and save a tiger today.

 

 

 

 

Written by David · Categorized: General · Tagged: 99tigers, bill price, David seeley, Director Glenn Lazzaro, Glenn Lazzaro, Khloe Kardashian, LA production company, Leo diCaprio, Molly Benson, NY production company, Save the Tigers, The Kardashians, wild tigers, World Wildlife Fund, WWF

Dec 08 2011

MTV-Mysterious Man/Randee Gets A Job

Posted by Glenn Lazzaro for his series “Adventures in Television”

http://vimeo.com/32156004

National Video. 1989

In 1989 most MTV producers were trying to out-cut each other using blinding-fast edits. There was one exception. John Payson. John had come to MTV from the Harvard Lampoon so the majority of his work was comedy based. He was less concerned about “being cool” and concentrated more on linear storytelling. (but with a decidedly MTV feel) Between 1987 and 1990 John was responsible for helping make “Randee Of The Redwoods” the face of MTV.

Mysterious Man

When John shot the “Mysterious Man” promo he intended it to be one long 60-second shot. Sadly when we got into the edit we had to put a few cuts in just to bring it in on time. We created the soundtrack in the edit stealing bits of music from classical CDs that John brought in. (in those days no one was worried about licensing music)

He shot the “Mysterious Man” in color but wanted it to have a “noir” feel. We turned it black & white but John felt it needed something else- some strange “Randee” kind of thing. We put some color back into his hair because, as John said, “Not even Film Noir could contain Randee.”

Randee Gets a Job

While working at a gas station Randee has a run-in with a “yuppie.” The most hated stereotype of the 80s and his obvious archenemy. The edit is pretty straightforward with the exception of Randee sucking the car into the gas nozzle. Doing it today it would be simple. Just shoot the car separately against a green screen. But MTV shoot budgets in those days wouldn’t allow that so John shot the car in the gas station. In order to separate the car from the background we cut mattes by feeding the shot into a TV monitor under the title camera. We then traced its outline off the face of the monitor onto a piece of paper with a sharpie. We cut the shape out and put it under the title camera and used it as a matte to separate the car from the background. Using an ADO I shrunk and distorted the car frame-by-frame to get it into the nozzle

Note: The explosion at the end was borrowed from a UK show called “The Secret Life Of Television” that I had lying around the edit suite. In the show they dynamited a stack of televisions just to see what would happen. The explosion found its way into many, many MTV promos over the years.

Bonus. As part of a marketing stunt, Randee became the dark horse candidate for President and John had Artist Peter Max do the campaign poster. I got a signed poster for working on the project. Sadly mine is gone but it looked just like this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Written by glenn · Categorized: Adventures In Television · Tagged: 99tigers, Director Glenn Lazzaro, editorial, film triva, Glenn Lazzaro, Harvard Lampoon, jim turner, john payson, LA production company, MTV, National Video Center, NY production company, Peter Max, post production, Randee of the Redwoods, tv trivia, videotape, yuppie

Nov 15 2011

Inside Pee-Wee’s Playhouse

Posted by Glenn Lazzaro for his series “Adventures in Television”

I am very proud to have been included in a new book  entitled “Inside Pee-wee’s Playhouse: The Untold, Unauthorized, and Unpredictable Story of a Pop Phenomenon” By Caseen Gains. Its a great read about the making of the original CBS television show and filled with great-behind-the-scenes stories and photographs.

Believe it or not, this “Connect-the-Dots” segment I edited for the show was  considered “state-of-the art” in 1986.

If you are interested in reading the book you can get it here:  http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Pee-wees-Playhouse-Unauthorized-Unpredictable/dp/1550229982/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321373227&sr=1-1

 

 

 

Written by glenn · Categorized: Adventures In Television · Tagged: 99tigers, caseen gaines, Director Glenn Lazzaro, film triva, Glenn Lazzaro, Inside Pee-Wee's Playhouse, LA production company, National Video Center, NY production company, pee wee herman, post production, tv trivia, twin art, videotape

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