The Super Bowl for me too. I don't really care who wins but I hope there are some funny commercials. Remember the one with the three frogs that said, "Bud - weis - er". I thought that was hilarious.

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Marky

Remember the music is not in the guitar

That was a good one, Marky. Big bucks in those commercials.

I had the pleasure of being the only commercial director at work for seven years having clients from a previous station and agency connections. We may have been the first to take a camera down a waterslide owned by NHLers (the Babbit twins) here since we had four of the first six Betacams with built in tape and with a custom waterproof housing which we built. I always got the chance to see the year’s best international commercials.

My favourite of all time was a behind shot (pun intended) of a large single file lineup of little Japanese kids in the buff with towels in hand, who entered a gigantic indoor pool. The overhead camera zoomed In isolating on a little kid. Bubbles rose to the surface from his little butt, the camera zoomed back out for an extreme wide shot to show him embarrassed, and alone in the middle of the humongous pool without the any other kid to be seen, and then the Japanese close caption was added. I think it was about soap.
Enjoy those great commercials.
FSB

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Hello, big guitar. Meet my little fingers.

The end of the Super Bowl.

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"Electric Lady"

"The Town"

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The Godfather

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"Electric Lady"

"Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows"

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"Super 8"

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I never saw that one but it sounds hilarious. You had such an interesting career. I must have been a lot of fun, at times.

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Marky

Remember the music is not in the guitar

It could be. Well, let’s just say it wasn’t boring. Here in Canada we didn’t have as many players to compete with or the big bucks available in some cases as our brothers and sisters on your side of the border. A lot had to do with sponsors preferring a larger audience stateside. We did share more off shore influence, exported our talent in front and behind the scenes, and it was a time of experimentation, development, and live TV gave us station to station face to face access to celebs (like Public Enemy No.1 Creepy Karpis) that today are taped and uploaded. It was like 60s radio with pictures, and we had the top rock station AM/FM in the neighbourhood, and we shared the benefits. While big shows were and now are often made in big town production houses, we literally did it all. Instead of satellites we had daily film delivery or shipping at the back door. Later it was video tape. One day we might be shooting a network game show, and the next it might be a national figure skating championship, or Canada Russia hockey championship .Compared to none today in the same company. 10 network shows a week were not uncommon. Lots of perks like the studio kitchen that kept the crew well fed Why, golly gee, we even had pageant queens on staff.
I’ll leave it with this. Technically things overall have improved, unless it’s a cellphone camera replacing a real news camera. As far as production, there is an improvement; but, sadly, some have lost their way. Lots of coverage doesn’t equate to good coverage.

My take is that accepted out of house productions tend to shine because they have to compete more. In house often calls the shots, and that can be good or bad. Before this, it wasn’t so easy to deliver from outside without the gear and expert savvy. Tech schools were few, and it was either OJT or experience from another section of the entertainment world. Experience was valuable and in demand. Now days a HD home camera and voyeurism sells a formula. Starting with gear that had mechanical switches and ending with digital I can tell you I wish even the home quality had been available to me back when . .

I guess it’s all good, but great is not a given. Just like a guitar doesn’t play by itself, audio video gear is only as good as the one who uses it, or the
audience who accepts it. Most times it begins with a story.

FSB
Back to topic: What am I watching? Well, after working from B/W to colour and Digital TV, I was hoping to experience no glasses high quality 3D TV before my time is up. I don’t think humans landing on Mars will make it either, as earlier predicted; but, that's more likely to appear sooner than great 3D TV.

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Hello, big guitar. Meet my little fingers.

Outbreak

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"Electric Lady"

I just saw a promo from a major network that old sitcoms are coming back. Not sure if they will be the originals, copies, rewrites or all. At first I thought that’s cool since I missed a lot working 24/7, and I’ll get to find out “Who shot J.R.”.

Then I thought about it. Uh oh. There’s something sinister about it. A lot of those shows came to an end, not because they became unpopular, but because of a writers’ strike. Talent throughout the industry, and not just writers, were replaced and many of their like were never to be seen or required again.

Funny home videos set the stage, mediocre writing filled the void, shows didn’t last a season, some still don’t, and the audience accepted less as the networks found a new money machine that bundled informational TV, re-packaged bought and paid for programming, collected reality shows and whatever came cheap. Charlie’s Angeks became the Mod Squad. The audience loved the new look. Well, some did.

Now we get what? Old shows, maybe seen before, or maybe second best or outdated? Don’t get me wrong, I love ‘em like others do and I’m sure there will be some good with the bad; but, lately my provider took my movie bundle channels and replaced the mostly recent movies with a major sprinkling of old ones that have run the course. These are not additional! They are replacements.. The worst of it is that TV is not free like it was, and the networks are laughing all the way to the bank while the consumer is duped and compromised. Maybe, this is their business plan to migrate and to control the Net media. In case you haven’t noticed, record companies are on board too.

If I want old shows there is streaming, mostly free and legal like YouTube, or subscribed channels specific for that. With monopolies we might even get duplication of this balony all over the place. That’ll look good when both internet media and TV coverage increases their price. That smart TV might just be smart after all, or maybe it will look like all the rest of the offerings,

Excuse me while I watch a nothing sports game from a few years back. I might even already know who won.

“Where’s my Strat?”

FSB

Ah . . . just when I had ya, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Another Twilight Zone series is coming. Who knows? Could another Perry Mason with Hamilton Burger be in the works? Hot Dog!

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Hello, big guitar. Meet my little fingers.

"Trains And Locomotives"

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Deepwater Horizon

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"Electric Lady"

Goodfellas

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Marky

Remember the music is not in the guitar

The Globetrotters making more world record moves. That comes to 21 World records in total!



FSB

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Hello, big guitar. Meet my little fingers.