Some favorite 1” analog, broadcast TV ads for Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. I directed and photographed these commercials from 1995 to 1998.
All footage was shot on 16mm or 35mm motion picture film. 35mm for staged production scenes & 16mm for a “documentary” feel inside the hospital. Of course, everything in the 90’s was standard definition.
During film-to-tape transfers, we’d increase the grain effect from the 16mm negative and add an effect that simulates double printing each frame. An overall blue color grade was added to the 16mm to null out any red blood during operating room procedures.
Atlanta’s Cinefilm processed the color negative. Film-to-tape transfers were handled by colorist, Brent Clenny at Nashville’s Elite Post. Dennis Morabito was the principal writer & Paul Jorgensen was the hospital’s production coordinator. Don Wadsworth was our voice actor.
CLICK HERE TO PLAY JOHN’S REEL
My friend, director/cinematographer John Pytka passed away in 2024. It happened soon after his 82nd birthday.
For years, John & I would get together for lunch every month or so. We’d share stories about film production in the 70’s through 90’s. Based in Pittsburgh, John & his older brother Joe, were “Pytka Productions”, one of the country’s top commercial production companies. On some of Joe’s projects, both brothers would work together. Separately, John directed & photographed network TV commercials for Alamo Car Rental, Gallo Wine, Budweiser, & many more. He was often used by San Francisco’s Hal Riney & Partners to photograph iconic ad campaigns, including Ronald Reagan’s memorable “Morning in America” TV commercial.
John’s reel from the days of 35mm film, showcases a different style of production than what’s en vogue today. It’s well paced, beautiful photographic images. Many of the scenes incorporate slow-motion that creates a “larger-than-life” feel to the action. I describe his photographic technique as “moving stills”. This contrasts with today’s fast cuts, punchy graphics & rapid camera moves.
As a true “filmmaker”, John also edited many of the commercials he shot. This involved cutting thousands of feet of 35mm work print, using a classic Moviola upright editing machine. At the start of his career, John worked at a motion picture film lab. He mastered all aspects of color film processing, Hazeltine color timing & the use of sophisticated optical printers.
John spent much of his retirement with his wife, Jennifer on their farm North of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He loved his dogs & would often take them for rides in his truck. We’ll all miss him.
Living in the city of Pittsburgh, it’s easy to forget that most of Pennsylvania is rural farm country.
Once a year, my wife Carol and I travel an hour and a half north of Pittsburgh to Meadville, Pennsylvania. It’s the annual site of the Crawford County Fair, the largest agricultural and livestock exhibition in the state. For an entire week, kids and adults from all over Northwest Pennsylvania show off the best looking animals they’ve raised. 4H members and others take pride in their sheep, cattle, pigs, horses, goats, ducks and chicken. Every exhibitor hopes to win a prize and the bragging rights to having raised a “best of show” animal at the Crawford County Fair.
I call this video “Scenes from a Pennsylvania County Fair” because every week in the summer, scenes like these repeat themselves in rural towns across the state and throughout the country. It’s was a hot, sticky 92 degrees at the fair but everybody enjoyed walking the fairgrounds, eating junk food and catching up with their old friends.
Here’s a 4 minute “mini time capsule” of GNC’s early TV advertising. General Nutrition Centers had an amazing period of growth and profitability in the early 90’s. During this time, TV Advertising helped GNC realize it’s first quarterly profit as it went public for the second time.
From ’93 through ’96, Przyborski Productions produced most of GNC’s network TV spots. We introduced their “Gold Card” and many product lines that are still in stores today.
All the commercials were filmed in 35mm, then transferred and edited on 1″ videotape. By the end of 1993, we were editing on D2 composite digital. (In the 90’s, everything was standard definition.)
Most of these old commercials are dated and a little “corny.” Saturday Night Live even did a comedic parody on GNC’s “Colon Cleanser”, titled, “Colon Blow.” Thirty years ago, sophisticated computer graphics were in their infancy. The stock music GNC used also dates the ads. The commercials in this video were selected from several GNC campaigns.
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.
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.
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.
Usually, I’m shooting nice things… like attractive people eating food while smiling. This project was completely different.
John Brabender (BrabenderCox) is one of the country’s top political media consultants. For over 10 years, he and I have worked together on many successful TV campaigns. John rarely thinks anywhere near the box, much less inside it.
John gave us less than a week to put together this project. Fortunately, I remembered scouting an old abandoned manufacturing building in Pittsburgh for a previous TV campaign. My producer and production coordinator, Judy Gurchak and I re-scouted the location and it was still available.
I set up most of the shots to take advantage of a wall of windows that lined the North side of the building. This became my primary light source, supplemented with 1200 and 2500 watt HMI’s. We used smoke machines to add atmosphere and distance to the scenes.
Growing up in Florida, I hate shooting in freezing cold weather. For the entire shoot day, our set temperature was less than 50ºF. We couldn’t use heaters because they quickly dissipated the smoke. Our shoot day was overcast and snowy, so we knew we would loose useable window light by 4:30PM.
I used a motorized, 7′ slider for the marching feet scenes and all ground level camera angles. This slider can smoothly move 25 pounds of camera.
I photographed everything with a RED Epic M using the standard set of RED primes including the 300mm telephoto. Every scene (except the fall) was shot at 30fps for playback at 23.98.
Thad Christian at Pittsburgh’s Phenomenom Post did an amazing job editing and grading the 90 second spot in less than 2 days including numerous effect shots. Michael Goodis handled original sound design. Steve Parys worked his butt off as my assistant director. Without the talents of gaffer, Ted Wiegand and scenic designer, Rich Schutte none of this would have been possible in such a short amount of time.
Director, Glenn Przyborski and artist, Burton Morris
Burton Morris has created major works for CocaCola, The Academy Awards, Heinz, the Olympics, Absolut Vodka and hundreds of other corporations. Although he’s an internationally famous artist, Burton Morris’ is also one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet.
He just completed a fun project for Eat ‘n Park Restaurants. Burton created his own original art to celebrate the 25th anniversary of “Smiley,” Eat ‘n Park’s corporate cookie icon. This summer, Burton Morris’ original artwork will adorn t-shirts, coffee mugs and other items that are sold in Eat ‘n Park’s chain of over 80 restaurants.
Sorry, I can’t reveal Burton’s original “Smiley” artwork, ’till it’s unveiled in June!… stay tuned!
