John Pytka

On December 11, 2022, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

Recently, I spent some time with my friend, director/cinematographer John Pytka at his farm in Western, Pennsylvania. John’s retired & just turned 80. We shot the bull about 35mm TV commercial production in the 70’s through 90’s. Back then, John & his older brother Joe, were Pytka Productions, one of the country’s top TV spot production companies. John directed & photographed network commercials for Alamo Car Rental, Gallo Wine, Budweiser, & many more. He was often used by San Francisco’s Hal Riney & Partners for iconic ad campaigns, including Ronald Reagan’s “Morning in America”.

His reel showcases a different style of production than what’s en vogue today. It’s slower paced, beautiful photographic images. Many of the scenes incorporate slow-motion that creates a bigger than life feel to the action. I describe them as “moving stills”.  This contrasts with today’s fast cuts, punchy graphics & rapid camera moves. 

From Youtube, here’s a link to John Pytka’s showreel from the days of 35mm, standard definition… (click here)

Excela Health Accolades 2022

On February 1, 2022, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

Excela Health wanted the region to be aware of the many accolades they’ve received from providing excellent healthcare. For their new TV campaign, Tom Chakurda, Excela’s Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, decided to use black & white for the medical procedures, combined with color for the various accolades.

Director-cinematographer, Glenn Przyborski had the challenge of shooting every scene during an actual medical procedure. There were no actors, rehearsed action or retakes. All the featured on-camera talent are the real doctors, nurses and hospital personnel.

Greg Yost 1957-2019

On November 19, 2019, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

Greg Yost, creative director of Lazor-Yost Marketing & Design, has passed away.

I first met Greg in the early 90’s. He was creative director of “The Kaiser Group”. Greg was the first agency art director I encountered that was sure computers would take over all mechanical aspects of layout & design in advertising. We both owned early Macintosh systems, and once a month we’d get together to swap 3.5” floppy disks of programs we either bought or borrowed.

The first project I directed and photographed for Greg was for Sheetz. Greg did much of the early creative marketing concepts and in-store signage for this family owned, Altoona based company. They were trying hard to be more than a group of “7-11 type” convenience stores. Greg created the advertising that introduced Sheetz Coffee, “MTO” food items, Sheetz Hot Dogs, “Sheetza Pizza”, “IT” Cola, “Jacks” cigarettes and Sheetz’s own brand of gasoline. When you pull into a Sheetz for coffee, food or gas… remember Greg Yost.

I also filmed many of Greg’s creative and sometimes crazy TV campaigns for Hoss’s Restaurants, HealthSouth Rehab Centers, Fruth Drug Stores, Unimart, CEI Cable & Internet and Atlantic Luggage. The projects always had limited budgets, but we always had fun shooting Greg’s concepts.

I last spoke with Greg in May and he never mentioned that he was sick and undergoing treatment for cancer. We talked about how the ad business had changed over the past couple decades and that today we’d never get away with what we used to do… He sounded positive, upbeat and directly involved in the marketing efforts of his clients.

As a remembrance, here’s a few of Greg Yost’s favorite TV projects from 1991 through 2009…RIP my friend.

Award Winning Writer-Director, Harry Greenberger

On May 14, 2019, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

In the 90’s, Harry Greenberger worked with us as an assistant cameraman. Harry loved all aspects of the filmmaking business and was always a great, positive thinking crew person. On some rare occasions, he even filled in as a background extra. Today, Harry is a writer and director of feature films. His latest, “Staring at the Sun” has won major awards at over 40 major film festivals including Best Picture category in New York, L.A. and many others. It’s great to see Harry Greenberger receiving this well deserved career success!

SmithFoods “The Children’s Table”

On November 5, 2018, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

SmithFoods of Orrville, Ohio is a family owned company, founded in 1909. They supply premium dairy and other food products throughout Ohio, Indiana and Missouri.

The Innis Maggiore Agency of Canton, OH chose Przyborski Productions to produce SmithFoods’ latest TV campaign. The concept called for casting 5 children and 5 adults who could be those same kids, only now in their 40’s.

Glenn Przyborski directed and photographed the commercial in 4K digital. Props and wardrobe stylists selected kid’s clothes and table props that were popular in the mid-to-late 80’s. Back then, all TV was standard definition, so we rendered the opening sequence in the 4 x 3 ratio of older TV sets. After several visual tests, we decided not to alter the color or contrast of the opening sequence.

The commercial runs throughout Ohio and selected portions of the Mid-West.

Images from a Summer Carnival

On September 30, 2011, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski


All across the country, traveling carnivals setup shop outside hundreds of small towns and cities. Within a day or so, workers transform an open field on the outskirts of town, into a midway with rides, games and lots of junk food. Where else can you enjoy chocolate funnel cakes and deep-fried ice cream?

For many residents, a trip to the carnival’s an annual tradition. For the $5 admission, you can spend all day and night cruising the fair grounds. There’s groups of girls checking out the guys and catching up on mid-summer gossip. As day slowly dissolves to night, young lovers stroll the midway hand-in-hand.

At a Midwest carnival, tractor and truck pulls are very popular. A powerful truck or tractor drags a weighted sled down a dirt track. It’s not a sophisticated sport, but it’s fun to watch and very loud! The owner of the winning entry gets a prize, but more importantly, all his friends know he drives of the most powerful truck in town.

I shot this video to capture moments from a hot, humid July day, at the fairgrounds, just outside Butler, Pennsylvania.

New Healthcare Awards

On May 17, 2013, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

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A Przyborski Productions’ TV campaign, produced for Boca Raton Regional Hospital, has won Gold in the 2012 Cancer Awareness Advertising Awards.  This prestigious advertising competition included thousands of entries from hospitals and healthcare facilities located throughout the United States and Canada. Here’s a link to the winning multi-spot campaign:
http://www.przyborski.com/award_videos/Award-Boca-960×540.mov

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Our Children’s Hospital spot for West Virginia University Healthcare is an award winner in the 2012 Healthcare Marketing Report’s national contest. There were over 4,000 entries in the 2012 competition. Here’s a link to the winning spot that features “Aaron’s story”: http://www.przyborski.com/award_videos/Award-WVUH-960×540.mov

A “Knock-Out” Shoot for Przyborski & BrabenderCox

On September 14, 2011, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

It’s like the story of David vs Goliath… only this time Goliath wins. It’s all from the crazy mind of political media superstar, John Brabender. The spot’s a visual metaphor for the unfair tax advantage a big internet business has over small local shops.

I shot the commercial using a RED One camera at Pittsburgh’s 31st Street Studios. At the rear of the 31st facility is the interior of an old industrial warehouse. A crew erected a full-sized, professional boxing ring as our set. We used 4 “space lights” over the ring as a primary light source. Numerous other HMI’s and other lights were used to highlight portions of the old steel warehouse.

I used the RED for most of the camera setups outside the boxing ring. The fighter’s “punches” were shot at 96fps. Inside the ring, I used a Panasonic AF100 for POV shots from both fighter’s perspectives. All the POV scenes were recorded at 40fps to add a “bigger than life” feel to the action. For several intense fight shots, I wore the primary boxer’s glove on my right hand and punched past the lens to the actor’s face for action cutaways. In case you’re wondering, it’s hard (and very unusual) to shoot a scene while you’re punching your actor.

Senior editor, Thad Christian of Pittsburgh’s, Phenomenon Post edited the high energy spot and created the original title graphics.


A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to direct and photograph Steelers’ coach, Mike Tomlin in the new TV spots for “The Extra Mile Foundation.” This worthwhile, non-profit organization gives urban kids the chance to attend a school where they learn in an atmosphere that’s free from drugs and violence.

When you’re the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, every hour of your day is blocked out with meetings, interviews and other activities. Mike Tomlin was kind enough to give us 3 hours of his time. Producer and production coordinator, Judy Gurchak and I worked our entire shoot day around Tomlin’s schedule.

Stan Muschwek wrote and produced the new ad campaign. Stan thinks in visual terms, so he wrote scripts that didn’t require our featured talent to rush through his on-camera and voice-over copy. Stan and I have worked together on numerous projects for the past 25 years.

I shot all the 1080P “B-Roll” footage in actual working classrooms. For these scenes, I used Panasonic’s new GH2 camera. It makes great images and it’s small enough that kids don’t feel intimidated having it close to their face. Gaffer, Ted Weigand used small LED soft panels, bounce cards and battery powered LED fill lights to minimize classroom disruptions.

I shot Mike Tomlin’s on-camera segments with Panasonic’s new AF100, HDTV camera. I also photographed the still images for The Extra Mile Foundation’s 2011 print campaign. It feels great to give your time to such a worthwhile cause.

Cancer Survivors

On March 12, 2012, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

The concept sounds deceptively simple… real cancer survivors sharing their stories with the home viewer. We all agreed that the TV campaign would be most effective if these non-actors could talk one-on-one, directly to camera.

At Florida’s Lynn Cancer Institute, I mounted a through-the-lens teleprompter system in front of a Sony HDTV digital camera. The prompter’s monitor was fed by a video camera focused on an off-camera interviewer. Suddenly, our cancer survivors were talking and relating to a live human face, instead of a cold glass lens.

Producer/production coordinator, Judy Gurchak deliberately kept crew size to the bare minimum so the on-camera people wouldn’t be intimidated. Black flags and “floppies” were used to block the talent’s view of equipment and off-camera people.

During post-production, I decided to cut the best thoughts together and not worry about jump cuts. We made no attempt to hide the fact that the material had been edited. I felt that once the home viewer feels engaged with the talent and their story, why introduce random side cutaways, shots of hands or other distractions.