Abe Vigoda, the ideal Super bowl commercial spokesperson / actor for a country in search of change and hope.

(Edit update) After I wrote this article I decided to google Abe Vigoda and the first thing I found was the above photo located at Abe Vigoda dot com. Lol, then I found this article from 2009 as well.

In 1975, Barney Miller premiered on ABC television as a television sit com cop show. The cop show without action or violence but snappy dialogue had a very successful 8 year run on ABC. All the characters were memorable and perhaps Abe "Fish" Vigoda made the most lasting impression on me.

Abe played an elderly police detective named Fish who acted even older than he looked. Fish's character acted like he was 75 going on 95. Barney Miller ended its successful ABC run around 1983. By the early 90's, I recall reading or hearing someone say that Abe was no longer alive. By the late 90's, anyone too lazy to look it up on the internet might have assumed Abe Vigoda had most assuredly passed by then.

In the early 2000's, I recall reading a story, possibly in one of the tabloid newspapers that Abe Vigoda was actually still alive, and it surprised me. I think in the article Abe actually mentioned that many people genuinely were surprised that he was still alive as they just assumed he had passed on.

In the 2010 Super Bowl snickers commercial starring Betty White, an unheralded Abe Vigoda delivers a memorable closing line of..."That hurt"! In the media coverage that I have seen so far, NOBODY has mentioned that it was Abe Vigoda!

The media reported on the "Betty White" super bowl snickers commercial as being one of the funniest from the 2010 Super Bowl but the media seems to have missed the significance of ABE VIGODA ON THE GROUND, IN THE MUD, ALIVE and delivering a very funny ending to a funny commercial.

How can Abe Vigoda not be a rediscovered star 20 years after people thought he was dead is beyond me. Abe could probably star in a series of commercials for all kinds of products, each product would start with the same tag line....

"Hi, I'm Abe Vigoda, people thought I was dead 20 years ago, but they were wrong. What do I owe my longevity to....?

...then insert product name here..., then come back to Abe Vigoda making some rueful comment about his agent encouraging him to play an aging detective on Barney Miller that basically prematurely tempered his career after Barney Miller went off the air.

On my Super Bowl Commercials Consulting website, I list dozens upon dozens of commercials and I offer critiques for them as well.

The combination of Abe Vigoda on the ground at the end of the Snickers commercial, and his "That hurts" comment lives up to the kind of consulting advice I would endeavor to bring to anyone who hires me as a commercials consultant.

Whomever came up with that ending can be credited with a master stroke ending that memorable commercials always end with, and I commend whomever it was that made it happen.

It would be worthy of a short youtube video on the making of that ending just to see how it came to be. Was it the editor who threw it in, did Abe Vigoda ad lib it? Was it a forgotten moment suddenly remembered? I would like to know. When a commercial ends on an up note, the entire commercial suddenly gets elevated in popularity, and the Betty White / Abe Vigoda commercial lives up to the challenge of being a memorable commercial.

Super Bowl Consulting Services offered by Alex LOGIC.

Isn't it interesting that when we watch super bowl commercials, there will inevitably be some commercials that either just miss the mark, or, if they had just done something a little differently, would have become a classic.

Although the ability to improve a commercial has become intuitive for me, my mindset starts with the idea that the commercial is going to be good. I actually prefer to appreciate good work that needs no improving, (hence my appreciation of Seinfeld,) so I don't automatically assume a commercial needs fixing. I tend to watch commercials for what they were intended to be, a short story that if executed properly will be remembered later on in a favorable light.

I also believe for a commercial to be good, it has to be truthful.

If your commercial fell short in the super bowl this year, or you are going to make one for next year, it may be wise to hedge your bet by getting outside of the box feedback. I recognize nowadays that we have millions of people who would love to do this kind of work, or believe they can do this work. What I have going for myself is years of actual client interaction discussing, strategizing, then implementing the plan, reviewing it, and then moving forward. I spent over 10 years problem solving video editing clients projects and it turned out to be an incredibly unique experience.

You can view samples of commercials in which I share how I would have improved them by clicking here. Once again, improving a commercial does not mean it was bad to begin with, just that it could have been even better.

I also have a technical awareness involving color correction, the pacing of the editing, and soundtrack mix levels that also has come from being solely responsible for the release of hundreds of video projects to my clients. A project is never really done until it is released for others to view, and I have received valuable feedback over this final step as well.

No matter how competent your marketing team is, there will always be an unwritten code of cooperation and complicity as the project nears completion, and sometimes that can thwart the real success of a project. The team needs to work together, so nagging doubts have to be let go, even if the doubts are valid.

Since companies that can afford to create an ad campaign for the super bowl and beyond already have a competent team in play, I recognize there are at least two distinct routes my consulting services can travel. The first reason to use my consulting services is your marketing team "does not care what I think at all, they are just curious to see if I think they took their pre-existing plan and fulfilled that message in the commercial"... That is fine by me. Your plan is your plan. Rather than a consultant try and reinvent your wheel, helping to determine if you at least executed your plan is critical.

The second reason is..."Did we miss something in our commercial that could suddenly make it memorable?". I have come up with ideas that I would have loved to have bounced off a commercial's ad agency or marketing company, it is just a natural talent I have. Keep in mind that what I am saying is I am excellent collaborator. Collaboration means I am acknowledging your wealth of talent and vision and that I may be able to offer that one unique idea to enhance your commercial.

Where I supply that input becomes another thing to consider. If my input is applied after the commercial is edited, should that idea cause a reshoot, or not? Or, should my ideas be implemented during the animatic stage of the commercial? Or what about when the idea is a storyboard only? That is your call to make, I'll be ready no matter where you want my consulting services.

Yes, Alessandro Machi does consulting work.

I firmly believe that the pressure to produce video work that will actually play correctly over a huge spectrum of media choices has caused the actual content of the message to be compromised. Nowadays, simply getting ones project to play correctly can feel like victory irrespective of whether or not the video delivers.

It was for this reason I never bought into the latest and greatest technology.

I saw how much pressure there was in keeping up with all of these amazing new digital editing platform choices and formats, and how on some level too much technology advancements too fast was becoming a distraction to story content, message, and believability of the message.

So if you need an ideas person who also doubles as a technical quality assurance person, a regional emmy winning person (who is honest enough to not drop the word "regional") to bounce ideas off of or help make your already good idea even better, I'm your man. I charge by the year. You buy a one year consultation package for a flat fee, and then I help you excel.

I have a super bowl consulting site you can check out if you are curious. Super bowl consulting.

Please, nothing too weird or tacky. (I'm purposely being vague). I don't do plane travel and I'm in Southern California. Probably my best talent is making that final suggestion that makes your product that much better.

Humane Society of the United States 24th Genesis Awards to be held March 20th, 2010

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

The Genesis Awards is one of the coolest Los Angeles Awards show ever. Not only does the Genesis Awards honor the media for spotlighting positive animal stories or exposing animal cruelty, many celebrities involve themselves as award presenters at the Genesis Awards. It's like the Academy Awards, only for animals. If you love animals you may want to consider attending, space permitting. Click here to learn more.

A basic ticket costs around 350 bucks and you get an entire evening of hobnobbing for animals, Hollywood style. Your evening could include seeing your favorite Hollywood celebrity presenting an award, a silent auction, a vegan meal, and amazingly enough, an actual awards show being filmed for broadcast on Television after you dine! There's even an after awards party as well.

I learned of the Genesis Award over 10 years ago via Nora Fraiser, and together we created a demo tape for the Genesis Awards back.

I also was involved in several other Genesis Awards projects including remastering Genesis Awards Founder Gretchen Wyler's demo reel and adding her acting segments to it (Gretchen's guest starring role on Friends as a grieving widow entertaining the bereaved guests was worthy of a guest star Emmy nomination), creating the DVD for the 19th Genesis Awards, the Genesis Awards Red Carpet DVD, and remastering archival video footage from the first 19 shows inclusion in a very special 20th Genesis Awards tribute.

It has been pretty amazing having a home video and editing business that over the years has allowed me to create projects for corporate giants such as Sony, the Genesis Awards / HSUS, Prudential Jon Douglass, Rodeo Reality, Glen Tonsor and Joico, In Defense of Animals, and a Harman Kardan video that apparently was shown to congress after the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, to name just some of the companies I have worked with.

I've also had a chance to meet and work with Hollywood celebrities, and just as importantly, people with ideas and a passion to see those ideas to fruition.

Yes, I plan on doing something really crazy with Alex Logic dot blogspot dot com.

I think I'm going to offer a 900 number for anybody who wants to talk about film and video production with me. Let me explain why.

My attempt to profitably run a video production and editing company for well over a decade met with many production successes. However, being successful at creating productions while remaining profitable is an area that is far more difficult than many might ever imagine.

I can help the ultra newbie with on hands classes explaining the value of multitude of video and film equipment, and I can also help those just needing quick guidance via a phone call as well.

I will use the Alex Logic Blog to explore the inner workings and strategies of the over a hundred projects that I was a involved with. In many instances, my responsibilities carried over into several adjunct positions, including producer, director, camera person, editor, scheduler, technical trouble shooter, project negotiator, billing and production assistant.

The experiences I went through, if interactively shared with others, might save others from time and money.

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The mechanic in the Seinfeld clip below is reminiscent of me, at times, except I'm not as tall, and I give my clients more safe space when we are confined in the same editing room.

I'm not necessarily the mechanic who drives off the lot with the clients car, but I am proud that when I finished working on a project, it was ready for duplication or release.

Let me also add that I am on Jerry Seinfeld's side in the video clip above.

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I believe I have experiences that will help accelerate your learning curve forward in the world of film and video production. I will share how it is possible that the effort you put forth may or may not result in a positive result.

Imagine doing a demo for a corporate sales person who wants to try out for Home Shopping network, the sales person makes it to the next round because of the demo I made for them, is then offered an on air job, AND DOES NOT TAKE IT BECAUSE IT WILL MEAN A PAY CUT!

It's kind of funny. Imagine if this client had taken the job, pretty nice feather in my cap. Same with another client who was offered a four deal on Channel One after we had a very fascinating experience putting her demo tape together.

There are at least half a dozen and perhaps as many as a dozen success stories in which the person I helped didn't completely follow through with the project after it was completed, for a myriad of provocative reasons as the ones described above. There are no hard feelings on my part because I have a lot of semi interesting stories to tell as a result, but I do wonder what might have been if just a couple of the many people I feel I helped, would have actually followed through with a bit more intensity than they did.

Besides the projects that sort of trailed off because of reasons not related to the work making the video, there are several dozen behind the scenes stories that I will be sharing.

One such example is the cancer video I worked on where out of the crew of 9 that worked on the video, 8 SMOKED. (I was the lone exception). Or the time I was in film school and I got five of us hired to work on a Rebe Jackson music video called Centipede, as production assistants. What was our job? Picking up cigarette butts. I kid you not.

Being able to keep the location looking within 10% of the way it looked when we first got there meant the production company had succeeded, even if the footage came out badly, they still could consider it a success if they hadn't thrashed the place!

I will keep adding more and more images and stories of all the film and video projects of note that I have worked on in my own world of truly independent, low low budget, NO WEDDING VIDEO, film and video productions throughout the late 80's, the 90's, and into the new century.

There is one rule that I believe I never broke from early on on any project that I edited. I would not release a technically inferior edit master to a client. As a result, I can take a 10 to 15 year old betacam sp edit master, put into a betacam sp player, and not be embarrassed to show it. I am very proud of that as nowadays I realize filmmakers have one huge disadvantage versus the generation that came before them.

In the 90's, we were FORCED TO INTERACT and work with each other whereas nowadays, you get to learn how to be a mr. and mrs. know it all, just you and your computer. I realize now that many of the experiences I had years ago when I was working 10-15 hour days on projects that required more cooperation among other people make them richer experiences than many of the present production experiences that seem to be about mastering a new format or improved technology rather than about the people, place and thing that is being documented.

Why will I be offering a 900 number? I figure by the time I have this blog filled with several dozen production stories along with the imagery on the sides of the blog that is sure to elicit more questions than they answer, along with what I hope are bits of wisdom mixed in, paying a couple of bucks a minute to ask me pertinent, direct questions just might be worth it to somebody on the planet.

If you think I'm being greedy for offering a 900 number so you can talk directly to me for a relatively small minute by minute fee, I have already donated literally 5 thousand hours of my time in the past 10 years on various forums, blogs, and websites. To this day I still donate my time for free to All Experts and most of what I have written still exists on the internet.

However, one thing about the internet that I find both rewarding and frustrating at the same time is that there is too much information. And that's where my 900 number comes in. You can cut through hours of conflicting albeit "free" research, and just ask me specific questions that relate to the nuts and bolts of film and video production from a somewhat unique experience.

Imagine being the one person who MUST finish each and every job, and then imagine the learning curve that must go into being able to deliver a project to someone and have them accept it when they paid 1/5th the going rate yet expected 5 times the value. You don't have to imagine it, I'm your guy.

If nothing else, I will have at least documented my absolutely crazy intensity to make my clients film and video project be watchable when completed, no matter what the budget was that they had to spend.

Taco Bell's version of Thelma and Louise, the commercial that was taken off the air after only one night.

After being named the winner of an Academy of Television Arts and Sciences internship scholarship back in the 80's, my internship was spent at a commercials production company called Film Fair.

It was an honor to win such an award as I had to compete against students from colleges all over the country, including Harvard!

Some time after my internship had ended, automobile driving specialist Larry Boenzle informed me of a Thelma and Louise Taco Bell commercial that he would be participating in with fellow stunt car driver Mike Ryan, imagine my surprise to encounter a couple of Film Fair employees working on the shoot.

The adage it's a small world in the film production world sure can be true at times.

I decided to use a super-8 camera that Dave Riddle of Four Designs company fame had specially modified per my request to capture the actual stunt of the car jumping the train tracks while a locomotive cruised by at 15-25 miles an hour.

Dave Riddle added a rheostat dial to the super-8 camera that altered the level of current the camera received. The rheostat mounted dial would allow this particular Super-8 camera to smoothly fluctuate in speed from a low of around 2 frames per second all the way up to around 36-40 frames per second.

This rheo stat modification apparently does not work on most super-8 cameras, but in this instance for this particular super-8 camera, it worked like a charm. I used good old trusty Kodachrome 40 super-8 film to film the stunt.

There are times when I display a bull in a china shop etiquette, and this time was no exception.

Before the stunt was to take place, I recall going up to one of the youngish agency executives and exclaiming my surprise that they would attempt this type of commercial. I think I said something along the lines of "this strikes me as the kind of commercial that gets taken off the air because of viewer complaints within a day or two of the first time it is shown on television".

Fortunately, I did not say this to the executive in front of other people as well, so he remained pretty non-plussed about my comment and stated that the commercial had not received any major cautions from the ad agency or taco bell and therefore he was not concerned.

I may sometimes be a bull in a china shop, but I try to make sure there is room to maneuver for all parties involved.

And yes, the commercial was pulled from national broadcast after the first night or two of broadcast. File this under "just another example of people not listening to me when my opinion might have helped them figure out a solution to an upcoming unforeseen problem".

As for the Super-8 camera rheostat, you can see the car turn into slow motion as it begins to jump the train.

Dali,Dali,Dali four minute short film version I was cinematographer on.

Dali Dali Dali was a 2008 VSM finalist.
Director: Irakli Karlo Uchaneishvili - Writer/Producer: Levani Uchaneishvili

Dali, Dali, Dali is the visionary work of Levani Uchaneishvili, who not only co-directed the film but also handled art direction, design and played the lead role of Salvador Dali. It was amazing to see Levani transform into Salvador Dali right in front of us.

I handled all of the camera and lighting for this four minute film to video project. Since I had no crew for most of the shoots, I devised a lighting system that was powered by anton bauer lithum batteries.

The anton bauer lithium batteries in conjunction with portable frezzi HMI lights allowed me to power up the HMI lights using only a 1.9 lb Anton Bauer battery source. The batteries could keep one light going for TWO HOURS! This in turn allowed me to literally pick up the light, stand and battery and the same time and move them.

I used a quick charger to immediately charge discharged batteries while the back up anton bauer batteries were being used. I also used lead batteries but those start at a lower voltage and one has to watch the voltage because once it gets below 12.0 volts, it could start to do some damage to the frezzi hmi lights. Frezzi lights like 13.2 volts but the lead batteries are such a constant source of power that I felt they were fine as long as the voltage remained up above 12.0 volts.

Its amazing how quickly lighting can be down when the power supply is a battery located at the base of the light stand. No cords to hide, no generator necessary, a wow all the way around.

The shoot got really crazy on some days. There were days where I was running TWO SUPER-8 FILM CAMERAS at the same time, doing the lighting, even taking polaroid stills to assist in nailing down the proper exposure, loading and unloading the film.

As if that was not enough, the film cartridges were almost always removed from the camera before they were run completely through so that the same angle could be filmed with different film stocks. This required my using a digital frame counter so I could keep track of how much film had been shot with a particular film stock before it was replaced.

I would write how many frames had been shot, put the new film in, shoot with that, then at some point, go back to the prior film stock. I would have to reset the digital frame counter to zero then do the math in my head as to how many frames were left. Yeesh. All this while doing lighting and keeping track of exposures and shooting some wonderful BW polaroid stills that enabled me to calculate the exposure of the shot.

Over the course of the production we shot on a boat (I lost my favorite cap on that shoot as the wind blew it off the top of my head during one boat manuever), the beach on more than occasion, in tight quarters, in movie theatres both old and refurbished.

The film transfer to video was done by Spectra Film and Video in North Hollywood California.

They did an awesome job of doing a normal transfer, plus also a "special effects laden" pass of the footage as well.

You can go here to see a four minute promo of a short film I shot for the multi talented Levani and his brother Ira. I was asked to edit the longer version of the film but the prolonged illness of my father and several other considerations made it impossible for me to step in and do the editing on the longer version, but I was the editor of this four minute version that edited in my own studio.

The longer versions of the Dali Film will also feature the work of other camera people as well as some of the film has since been shot in Europe.

It's amazing what can be done with a 45 year old film format called super-8.

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