Eat ‘n Park’s Strawberry Pie TV

On April 28, 2011, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

I used Panasonic’s new AF100 to shoot the latest HDTV campaign for Eat ‘n Park, a Pittsburgh based chain of restaurants. In one 10 hour shoot day, we had to set, light and stage a sequence inside the company’s test kitchen. This included several tasty food shots of strawberry pies. The second half of the day was used to film “customer testimonials” and customer interaction with country singer and company spokesperson, Sarah Marince. (Sarah just celebrated her 21st birthday!)

The shots inside Eat ‘n Park’s test kitchen were lit with 3, 1200 watt Arri HMI’s located outside the kitchen’s windows. To create a warm feel of early morning sunlight, we put CTO gel on the HMI’s. The interior fill light was from 12″ x 12″ daylight balanced LED panels. I manually set the AF100’s color balance to 4700K to keep the warm feel without going too yellow or orange. Most of the kitchen scenes were shot from a Fisher 10 crab dolly. For the pie cutaways, I mounted my AF100 on a small, homemade tabletop dolly with skate wheels. I used my Olympus 14-35mm F2 lens for the wide and medium wide shots and an older Canon 85mm F1.2 FD lens for close-ups.

A few of the in-restaurant scenes were filmed from the Fisher crab, but for most I used a Manfrotto mono-pod. This created a more spontaneous and unpredictable feel to the back and forth dialogue. Most of these scenes were shot with a EF series, Canon 24-70 F2.8L lens, wide open at F2.8. All the in-restaurant footage was lit with HMI’s outside the restaurant and LED panels and white bounce cards inside. We exchanged all the warm-white CFL bulbs for 5000K lamps.

The second portion of the video is a movie theater ad that plays between shows in hundreds of theaters in Western Pennsylvania. I shot this simple on-camera delivery spot at the end of our shoot day.

S&T Bank spot featuring Jerome Bettis

On April 21, 2011, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

I used Panasonic’s new AF100 HDTV camera to shoot this commercial which features former NFL SuperStar Jerome Bettis. With the exception of the airliner cutaway, every scene was shot at 1080P using Canon FD series lenses. I shot the Airbus 319 airliner cutaway in the pouring rain using my smaller GH-2 camera. The spot was fun to shoot and the folks at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, PA and Spirit Airlines from Ft. Lauderdale were very accommodating. Jerome Bettis always arrives on-set with a great attitude and gives 100% to the project. The commercial will air on numerous stations and cable systems in Western Pennsylvania.

Pittsburgh based Elias-Savion Advertising is S&T Bank’s advertising agency.

Shooting in Florida

On April 21, 2011, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

Producer, Judy Gurchak dining at JB's Boca Raton, FL

Just got back from Florida where I directed and photographed a new commercial for Boca Raton Regional Hospital’s amazing orthopedic services. We had a great crew from Miami who primarily work on the popular show, Burn Notice. Pittsburgh based, assistant director, Rich Schutte made the trip with us. We shot continuously from 6am to 4pm! I’ll post the new spot as soon as its edited.

New Technology HDTV Cameras

On April 12, 2011, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

Przyborski shoots with Panasonic's new AF100 HDTV camera

The biggest trend in commercial production is to create images with very shallow, film-like depth-of-field. This “look” was easy with 35mm movie film. As a general rule, the larger the film frame or imaging device, the “tighter” the depth-of-field and more selective the focus. This contrasts with previous HDTV digital cameras that achieved sharp focus throughout the entire frame.

 

Although I love film and have shot over 2,000,000 feet of it… today’s budget for a typical spot doesn’t have the luxury of $10K to $20K for 35mm film stock, processing, HDTV transferring and sync-ups.

Using “film-like” shallow depth-of-field to separate actors or products from a scene’s background can now be achieved with new, cost-effective cameras from Sony and Panasonic. They use large scale digital imagers that approximate the size of 35mm film negative. Since these cameras record to solid state memory, there’s no added size, weight or expense related a tape mechanism.

I recently shot a series of commercials with Panasonic’s new AF100. I love the fact that all my Canon and Nikon 35mm lenses work perfectly with this camera. Plus, it will shoot 1080P, true slow-motion at 60 frames-per-second. I don’t have a lot in common with James Cameron, but we both agree that professional cameras need to be smaller and lighter.  Technology marches on…

Time Capsule: GNC TV Spots ’93-’96

On March 17, 2011, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

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.)

Compared to what we produce today, 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.” Eighteen years ago, sophisticated computer graphics were in their infancy. The stock music GNC used also dates the ads. The 8 commercials in this video were selected from several GNC campaigns.

Scenes from an AirShow

On September 13, 2011, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

Each year, the 911th Air Wing of the Air National Guard sponsors “Wings Over Pittsburgh” an air show that features military and civilian aviation acts from all over the country.

Even if you’re not an aviation buff like me, it’s a great time to get out and enjoy the sunshine. The second day day of this year’s event took place on Sunday, September 11th, the 10th anniversary of the infamous attack on America. (I’ll never forget 9/11/01. We were shooting a commercial in Jay Verno’s studio the day the Towers fell. We didn’t know if we should continue shooting or just go home…)

The sky was threatening all afternoon and everyone expected weather delays. As it turned out, the only delay was caused by the President and Air Force One as he departed from giving a tribute at the Flight 93 Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

I thought the most interesting aerial visual was a modern F-16 jet fighter flying in tight formation with a classic, World War II vintage, P-51 Mustang.

This video is a short collection of scenes from this year’s event.

Arena Football Home Opener!

On March 15, 2011, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

Judy Gurchak, Dave and Julie Didiano, Jocelyn Wrzosek

The home opener for the Pittsburgh Power, was fun and at times, very exciting! It was an all-Pennsylvania battle with the Philadelphia Soul winning in overtime. After every touchdown, the full-house crowd at the Consol Energy Center went crazy! The event was broadcast nationally on NFL Networks.

Arena Football is a new entertainment concept in Pittsburgh, but considering the possibility of the NFL player lockout… it just might catch on.

Corbett Approves Film Tax Credit

On March 10, 2011, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

Glenn Przyborski, John Brabender & Governor Tom Corbett

This week, Governor Tom Corbett approved Pennsylvania’s film tax credit. To a collective sigh of relief from hundreds of our state’s film workers (and our Pittsburgh based crew people) Corbett agreed that the incentive brings hundreds of millions of dollars into Pennsylvania. It helps many businesses and individuals who are not “filmmakers.” Companies like caterers, restaurants, hotels, transportation suppliers, location owners and many, many more.

There are several major films, including the latest Batman feature, who want to shoot in Western PA, but have been waiting for the Governor’s decision. In today’s complicated world of film finance, states bid against each other to see which can provide the biggest incentives to producers. Now the proposed budget has to be rammed through our state’s legislature.

Svetlana Becomes a U.S. Citizen

On February 27, 2011, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

Her friends from Eat 'n Park congratulate Svetlana Maine (wearing red, white & blue) on becoming a U.S. citizen


Svetlana Maine is the senior art director at Eat ‘n Park and she’s now an American citizen. Svetlana, a graduate of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, is from Russia. As an intern, her work ethic and unique flare for original design quickly became apparent to Eat ‘n Park’s Cliff Miller and Kevin O’Connell. She was offered and accepted a full-time position before graduation.

Svetlana designs the artwork for many of Eat ‘n Park’s in-store promotions and other printed materials. She also creates title graphics that are used on television commercials for item/price inserts.

On Feburary 18th, Eat ‘n Park’s entire marketing and advertising team crowded the Federal Courthouse in downtown Pittsburgh to witness Svetlana Maine become a citizen of the United States. Congratulations Svet!

Eat ‘n Park’s TV Campaign

On February 7, 2011, in Uncategorized, by Glenn Przyborski

With over 75 restaurants throughout Western Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, Eat ‘n Park called on Przyborski Productions to shoot their ongoing testimonial campaign. VP of Creative Services, Cliff Miller and Senior VP of Marketing, Kevin O’Connell worked with director/cinematographer Glenn Przyborski to establish a fun, free-spirited look and feel for the very successful marking campaign.

Glenn shoots the on-going, HDTV campaign using a specially modified Canon 5D digital camera. The camera’s extremely shallow depth of field yields an intimate portrait of Sarah and featured customers, while blurring background action.

Eat ‘n Park spots are always shot in busy restaurants, so it’s important that guests are not disrupted. Before dawn, dozens of ceiling lights are exchanged with special daylight bulbs. Powerful HMI’s are used outside to stream “daylight” into the restaurant. Przyborski also uses low power LED panels as fill light on featured customers.