Posted by Glenn Lazzaro for his series “Adventures in Television”
National Video Center, New York City, 1985.
In the early ’80s when hip hop & rap were first noticed by the mainstream, most of the music videos were dance tracks and for the most part, devoid of political messages. Then Kurtis Blow released the single “America” and all that changed. It was a political rant about everything that was happening during the Reaganomics-Cold War-Anti-Russian era in America. Claude Borenzweig, then working at Polygram Records, was editing & directi…Continue Reading
Posted by Glenn Lazzaro for his series “Adventures in Television.”
2010. Los Angeles.
When Steph Sebag, owner & creative director at BPG, called and asked if I wanted to direct a spot he wrote for the 2010 TeenNick “Halo Awards,” I jumped at the chance. The spot, cut to Beyonce’s “Halo,” would showcase all the great things teens around the globe were doing to “change their world.” Steph’s idea was to create different tableaus using a series of movable sets that changed from one into another in one continuous “flow,” without using any cu…Continue Reading
Posted by Glenn Lazzaro for his series “Adventures in Television.”
1995, National Video Center, NYC.
David Letterman was going to London for a week and Linda Danner, then head of the CBS Late Night Promo Department, wanted to do a big spot announcing the stunt.
The problem: there was no London footage. The show would be live, so there would be no footage until the first show aired. We came up with an idea to shoot some maps and iconic London landmarks to intercut with existing footage from New York. We were hoping to create a kind of 1940s movie sequence,…Continue Reading
Posted by Glenn Lazzaro for his series “Adventures in Television.”
2000, Hood River Valley, Oregon.
When we arrived in the Hood River Valley in November to shoot an image spot for OLN (now Versus), we had a great DP (Trish Govoni), a great crew, a 35 mm camera package, a bag of props, and a great song idea we hoped to license.
We also had a miniscule shooting budget and almost no cast. In order to save money, we decided to source local cast members as we went.
Wendy McCoy, then VP/marketing for OLN, had asked us to develop ideas for an image campaign fo…Continue Reading
Posted by Glenn Lazzaro for his series “Adventures in Television.”
1990, National Video Center, NYC. Posted by Glenn Lazzaro
Before 1990, a lot of the things we did in the edit suite (animating art under the title camera, warping images, revealing the process, etc.) were primarily for promos and music videos. The commercial advertising world had yet to embrace the “MTV editorial style.” Agencies would borrow ideas occasionally, but they’d never really done a full-blown spot using “edit suite” techniques. This spot changed all that.
I’d worked with…Continue Reading
August 18. 2010, NYC Posted by Glenn Lazzaro
For the past few years, I’ve directed most of the launch promos for Bravo’s “Top Chef.” Whenever we’d discuss creative for a new season, someone invariably suggested a food fight. We’d all get excited, but ultimately we never did one. It would be too time-consuming. Too messy. Too hard to coordinate.
Then last summer I got a call from Bravo. Amy Troiano, VP of On Air Promotion, Trez Thomas VP Brand Strategy, and Creative Director Justin Reichman said we were finally doing a food fight, for an upcoming season of…Continue Reading
1996. National Video Center. NYC.
By 1996, I was transitioning from editor to director with the help of executive producer Susie Shuttleworth. Together we started a production company in partnership with National Video called Division 6.
I’d been working with Patrick McDonough at PMCD Design since the late ’80s as an editor; he was one of the first people to hire Susie and me to produce and direct his live-action projects. Patrick had designed ESPN2′s on-air look, so when they launched the first Winter X Games they chose PMCD to design the show packaging. P…Continue Reading
1986. National Video Center. NYC.
By 1986, I’d worked with co-directors Peter Kagan & Paula Greif on a few music videos, including Dream Academy’s “This World” and “Love Parade.” These grainy, dreamy, impressionistic videos were changing the MTV landscape. Most music videos at that time were bright, Pop-style linear storytelling. Steve Winwood’s “Higher Love” was going to be different.
Peter and Paula did most of their off-line edits with an editor named Laura Israel. Laura would cut on 3/4-inch videotape with window time-code. No list. I would lay d…Continue Reading
1989. National Video Center. NYC.
Phil Joanou set up a meeting to discuss the opening title sequence for his upcoming film “State Of Grace,” starring Sean Penn, Gary Oldham and Ed Harris. He’d been working with a film design firm, and was dissatisfied with the work they were doing. He’d started working on videotape while editing U2′s “Rattle & Hum,” and he’d heard through the grapevine that I was doing unconventional things in my edit suite. Phil had shot footage of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade; he wanted to deconstruct it and make it really moody to match …Continue Reading
1987. National Video Center. NYC.
Usually when I got a rush job to edit an ’80s music video, Rush was not involved. This was not one of those times.
Producer Stuart Samuels called sales exec Steve Ostrow to book me for 7 days straight. I’d have to be available 24 hours a day. Zbigniew Rybcznski, one of the hottest directors at the time, wanted the freedom of working around-the-clock on two music videos: one for Rush and one for Mr. Mister. He wanted to, as he put it, “Edit live.”
Rybcznski was know for his Oscar-winning short “Tango” and his supremely cool music video “Close…Continue Reading
