Spot Production During a Pandemic

On September 21, 2020, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

2020 will go down as the worst year on record for commercial filmmaking. Pennsylvania’s governor declared that TV and film production was not an essential business. Przyborski Productions was literally shut down for months. 

Our first project during the ongoing pandemic was an orthopedic campaign for Excela Health. Production is different during COVID-19. Every morning, each crew member’s temperature was taken. Fortunately, nobody had a fever. Everyone (other than on-camera talent) had to wear a mask during the entire production.  

Another difference was crew & client meals, snacks and beverages. Instead of the usual catered lunch, each person was handed a “bagged” lunch which they ate while maintaining social distancing. There were lots of crew snacks & beverages, but now each item is individually packaged and handed to the crew. This includes sealed water bottles & soft drinks. No open trays of fresh fruit & deli items.

Thanks to the planning & detailed work of production coordinator, Tracey Kovell, the multi-day Excela Health shoot happened smoothly, efficiently… and safely. 

Film Production in the 90’s

On July 18, 2019, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski


About once a year, clients will ask if I miss shooting commercials on film as we used to do on every project. Our last “film” production was in 2006. Looking back, my business partner, Jim DeVincentis and I had a lot of fun on film shoots in the late 80’s, 90’s & early 2000’s.

In the mid-90’s, JVC introduced a small mini-DV camcorder. We bought several of them and asked clients and crew to shoot some behind-the-scenes video during our film productions. I located several of the old tapes and edited them together with the actual footage we were filming. Of course everything back then was standard def.

Most people think of the past with nostalgia… as if things were always better in the “good old days.” Do I miss shooting film? I’ve always enjoyed working with agencies & clients to create commercials that everyone was proud to air. The specific production “medium” was never the most important part of a project.

My son John said, “Dad… If the vinyl LP record can return to popularity, movie film has a good chance of a come back.” You never know…

YES & the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

On April 3, 2017, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

This Friday, April 7th, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will induct England’s popular 70’s & 80’s rock group, YES. Cheering in the audience will be John Brabender, one of the country’s best known political media experts, ad agency owner, frequent contributor on MSNBC and CNN and long-time super-fan of YES. Brabender also led a crusade to get his favorite band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Every once in a while, a project comes along that’s completely different and fun to shoot. With hits like “Roundabout”, “Owner of a Lonely Heart”, “Long Distance Runaround” and many more, YES, is truly a major group from the 70’s & 80’s. Yet they still have a huge, cult-like, devoted following that sells out every performance.

For the group’s U.S. tour, Brabender asked Glenn Przyborski to direct and photograph several short videos that would play on YES’ concert video screens. They were tied to late 70’s nostalgia, including an homage to a scene from the movie “Almost Famous”. The videos were played before the band’s performance and to signal the end of intermission.

The videos were edited at Phenomenon by Thad Christian. Michael Goodis created the original sound design. John Brabender created and wrote the original concepts.

4 Different Hospitals… 4 Unique TV Spots

On February 11, 2015, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

Here’s a look at 4 distinctively different ad campaigns, all directed, photographed and edited by Glenn Przyborski.

First, Sharon Regional Health System… This ad features Debbie Lewis, who’s alive today thanks to Sharon’s Cardiac team. We meet Debbie in her home which she shares with 54 unusual pets. The agency is Scoppechio from Louisville, KY.

Curing cancer of the lungs or esophagus requires specialists. Dr. Rodney Landreneau and Dr. Blair Jobe co-chair Allegheny Health Network’s Esophageal & Lung Institute. Produced for Mullen Advertising, this new spot introduces their team of patient-focused doctors.

If you live in the Akron-Canton area, there’s a good chance your medical provider is Aultman Healthcare. This ad is part of a multi-spot campaign from the Innis-Maggiore agency to showcase the healthcare system’s total capabilities…everything from preemies to hospice care.

The Marcus Neuroscience Institute is the latest addition to Boca Raton Regional Hospital. This commercial introduces their new 52 million dollar facility and its talented team of doctors. The spot also credits the philanthropic donors who made the Institute possible. Tom Chakurda created the campaign’s concept and wrote the copy.

1995 TV Spot featuring Cardinal Donald Wuerl

On March 25, 2013, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski


Giant Eagle is one of the largest supermarket chains in the country. Between 1994 – 2000, Przyborski Productions produced literally all of Giant Eagle’s TV advertising.  These were years of tremendous growth for the multi-state company. During that time period, Giant Eagle’s advertising was fun, different, interesting and entertaining.

In 1995, Bishop Wuerl (now Cardinal Wuerl) was featured in a 35mm TV commercial, endorsing Giant Eagle’s “Apples for Students” program.  With the inauguration of Pope Francis, Cardinal Wuerl has been all over the news. Some say he was under consideration to be the next Pope.

Click the image above to replay this unique TV spot from over 20 years ago…

Eat’n Park’s “Project Grillway”

On June 12, 2014, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

Bill Garrison and Dave Hughes created a unique vehicle to introduce Eat’n Park’s new gourmet hamburgers. The concept required Przyborski Productions to produce a runway fashion show, only the featured items would be burgers, instead of designer clothing. The commercial was to be a fun parody of the popular TV show, “Project Runway”.

Stylist, Rachel Vallozzi created the individual looks for the Eat’n Park servers who were actually experienced runway models.

Glenn Przyborski photographed the food scenes during the studio set & light day. Food stylist, AnneMarie Leydon worked to insure the new burgers looked great on-camera. Custom made, high-intensity LED panels were used as “strobes” to simulate paparazzi camera flashes.

Sarah Marince had fun playing host of the “fashion show”. Director/cinematographer Przyborski shot the commercial with a RED Epic and a Canon C100, both equipped with Canon lenses. Some of the non-sync cutaways were shot at 96 frames-per-second.

Working with Garrison-Hughes’ producer Nan Quatchak, Ray Tragesser of UpperCut edited the spot. Rob Deaner at Market Street Sound created the original music and mixed the finished commercial.

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CMU Showcase 2014

On March 21, 2014, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

Carnegie Mellon’s School of Drama is one of the nation’s finest dramatic schools. You can’t watch an evening of network TV without seeing CMU alumni. The CMU School of Drama is celebrating its 100th anniversary.

My friend and CMU Drama professor, Don Wadsworth asked if I would volunteer to film their Showcase 2014 video. Each year, the school creates a music driven video to introduce the graduating seniors to America’s top producers, directors and casting agents. CMU then flies these seniors to L.A. and NYC to personally meet and perform for entertainment industry leaders.

JohnAtCMU-2

Working with CMU professor & director, Randy Kovitz, John Przyborski and I filmed the video on the day students returned from Christmas break. As a two camera shoot, it was my first opportunity to film a project with my son. I’m proud to say that half the scenes in the video were shot by him.

Bob Chamberlain, Chad Calcagno, Tom Gregg, and Ben Perkins all volunteered their Sunday to crew the shoot. Pittsburgh’s LightSpeed generously supplied the crab dolly, lighting and grip equipment .

Check out CMU’s “Showcase 2014” and remember the names and faces. The next time you see them, they might be in a movie, TV series, or Broadway play!

The Ramp of Hope (1991)

On November 24, 2011, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

Back in the 90’s, I directed and photographed many TV campaigns for Cleveland based ad agencies. The most talented agency creative director I worked with was Alan Glazen. His agency was given an assignment to produce a TV spot and long-form video for Action Technology (now part of the Invacare Corp.) The company manufactures specialized, wheelchairs that are used throughout the world by athletes. The video was produced to be played at a major wheelchair athletics competition.

The Americans with Disability Act (ADA) had just been signed into law, but many public buildings weren’t “wheelchair friendly.” Alan Glazen created an amazing script that was designed to let the world know, that people who have a physical disability, don’t want your pity or sympathy. They just want you to get out of their way and treat them as you would anyone else.

Alan and I filmed the intense, stylized action scenes of the wheelchair athletes in an old basketball gymnasium at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University. I shot all the scenes with my Arriflex 35BL4 equipped with Zeiss super-speed lenses. During film-to-tape transfer in Nashville, the clipped color and accentuated grain was added.

The “news event” scenes were filmed the following day in the lobby of an old downtown Cleveland office building. After transferring the 35mm negative to 1″ analog tape, I edited part of the project in Pittsburgh, with Glazen handling the final edit, original music and audio mix at a Cleveland facility.

As a footnote: Some years ago, Alan Glazen sold his ad agency and today is the successful owner of multiple restaurants in Cleveland, Ohio.

Pittsburgh Pirates’ Neil Walker for AHN

On May 21, 2014, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

Neil Walker plays second base for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He’s a very popular hometown kid and the Sports Medicine Spokesman for Allegheny Health Network.

Glenn Przyborski directed and photographed a 6 spot TV campaign featuring Neil Walker. On-camera scenes were shot at Pirates’ Spring Training in Bradenton, Florida. The medical sequences were photographed at Pittsburgh’s Allegheny General.

It’s always a challenge to work with a sports personality… You’re given specific time restrictions, so you better know exactly what you’re doing and have your act together. With this project, we had to shoot all 6 commercials in only 4 hours. This included weight room cutaways and recording Neil’s VO segments for all 6 spots.

The day before the shoot, Glenn Przyborski, Mullen Creative Director, Michael Hoff, and AHN’s Tim Donovan planned, discussed, and walked through every Neil Walker scene. This included meeting with stadium groundskeepers and our Florida based production crew. Producer & production coordinator, Judy Gurchak broke down the entire shoot day into 15 minute segments.

On set, Neil Walker was a real pro. He was enthusiastic, never complained and quickly memorized his lines. Extensive shot planning & pre-production allowed us to finish the Florida portion of the shoot in 4 hours, 20 minutes.

The ROOT Sports division of DirectTV supplied the MLB Pittsburgh Pirates’ game footage. The multi-spot campaign airs in regional broadcast and cable sports programming.

WVU Healthcare “Anthem”

On October 16, 2012, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

WVUHealthcare “Anthem” :60 from Glenn Przyborski on Vimeo.

WVU Healthcare is West Virginia’s largest medical center. The facility is also a teaching hospital for hundreds of West Virginia University medical students.

My assignment for this commercial campaign was to capture the thoughts and stories of several doctors and real-life patients. No actors were to be used. The marketing team wanted to show some technology, but humanity would be the primary focus.

Working with WVUH’s creative marketing team of Heidi Specht and Jay Coughlin, I scouted dozens of locations around the hospital complex. In the “real world” of tight budget production, extensive pre-production and logistics play a key role. You’d like to shoot dozens of scenes and angles, but you only have a couple 12 hour days. I needed to spend the time shooting rather than moving from location to location.

Putting together a “doable” shoot schedule is the responsibility of my producer and production coordinator, Judy Gurchak. While the crew was moving equipment from one sync-sound setup to another, I was shooting hand-held footage in operating rooms during actual surgery.

I shot all the sync-sound talent scenes with my Canon 5Dmk3. It’s shallow depth-of-field separated speaking doctors and patients from busy backgrounds. I used a Panasonic GH2 with high-speed Canon FD series lenses for rapid, “B-roll” cutaways. I also employed a GoPro Hero2 HD camera for the exterior time-lapse scenes of the hospital. Pittsburgh’s Jay Green of Big Science Music created the original music and mixed the spot.