- About Przyborski Productions
- Show Reels
- Misc Videos
- Introduction of 24P (from 2002)
- Americana
- Images from a Summer Carnival
- River Rafting
- Scenes from a County Fair
- America Lost
- Moments@24fps (1999)
- Behind-the-Scenes Prop38 (2000)
- 1991 Pittsburgh Penguins
- Barth Bartholomae (1997)
- Behind-the-Scenes Pagetime (1998)
- Frontier Telephone (2000)
- Time Capsule: GNC 1993-1996
- Glenn
- Jimmy D
- Map
- Contact Info
- Scrapbook
This fast-paced reel is a mix of varied concepts, visualized by Glenn Przyborski’s directorial style and production techniques. Some spots are new, others were produced over the past few years. All scenes are from actual on-air commercials created for ad agencies and clients from across the country.
From gritty to silky-smooth, Glenn’s years of experience allow him to create different visual “styles” using lighting & camera techniques to best convey an ad’s concept. Glenn’s at home shooting “guerrilla” style with a small crew of 4 or a 25 person, multi-day studio production.
Here’s a “time capsule” of KDKA-TV promos from ’79-’96.
Friends at a retirement party for KDKA’s Drew Moniot reminded me of the many promotional campaigns Przyborski Productions produced for KDKA from 1979 through 1996. Those were the “analog” days of 35mm film production, film-to-tape transfers, and tape-to-tape video editing.
I was fortunate to work with 3 of KDKA’s creative services directors… Brad Crum (1979-1982), Art Greenwald (1985-1988), & Lorraine Sneebold (1988-1996). The promos we produced were often music-driven, high-energy spots that featured KDKA’s on-air talent and their interaction with the community.
The earliest of these promotions aired 40+ years ago. They’re a visual tribute to KDKA’s talent and staff, many of whom are retired or unfortunately, no longer with us.
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.
Edgar Snyder is the most recognized attorney in Western Pennsylvania. Edgar Snyder & Associates is also the region’s largest buyer of broadcast and cable advertising.
Marketing director, Lisa Rosen Glaser planned a series of ads that would showcase the public service work of Edgar Snyder and the partners of Edgar Snyder & Associates. Lisa wrote key copy points for each ad, but no script. For the first time, Edgar and the partner/attorneys had to improvise and ad-lib their on-camera segments. (ie: no teleprompter)
I decided to shoot the spots, “documentary style” to contrast the law firm’s numerous graphic-driven TV ads. I wanted to show a different side of Edgar than his usual high-energy TV persona.
Although most of our shoots employ 12 to 20 crew people, grip trucks, make-up, craft service, etc, etc… I photographed this entire campaign hand-held, with just a 3 person crew. Sony’s new A7S camera equipped with Canon lenses allowed our production team to maintain a low profile while shooting in active public places. The 3 day shoot was fun, fast and totally spontaneous…
The commercials were edited in our Strip District facility. They currently air on virtually every TV station and most cable channels throughout Western Pennsylvania.
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.
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!
Gateway Health Plan “No One Asks & Can’t Stop Me” :30 TV spots from Glenn Przyborski on Vimeo.
Gateway Health Plan offers “Medicare Assured” coverage to qualified residents of Pennsylvania. The multi-spot campaign featured people who have overcome their health problems and disabilities.
I’m confident in sharing that extensive pre-production is the primary difference between a successful project and hours of overtime and uncontrolled expenses. I elected to photograph the commercials with a Canon 5Dmk3. This camera’s 36mm x 24mm imager yields very shallow depth-of-field images. This keeps visual separation between the on-camera talent and the background. The 5Dmk3 also has great looking color, especially with flesh tones.
For the location spot, generator powered, HMI lighting supplemented natural daylight for the outdoor footage. For the garage scenes, the primary light source was a 1200 watt HMI through a 3′ x 3′ Chimara diffuser. Talent back-lights were LED lighting panels.
The white limbo studio spot was shot using incandescent lighting. 1K & 2K Arri fixtures were used combined with 3×3 & 3×4 Chimera soft diffusers. The BG white limbo rear wall was lit with 5K Arri fresnels. It’s very important when you shoot this type of commercial that the color balance of the light fixtures that illuminate your BG be exactly the same. Otherwise you’ll end up with a color shift from left-to-right or top-to-bottom.
The campaign currently airs in high-definition throughout the State of Pennsylvania USA.
