I was having lunch with Tony Cervone, the Animation Director of SPACE JAM, and complimented him on what a brilliant job he …
So I make my deal and get the shooting script for SPACE JAM. It’s actually not titled SPACE JAM yet. I don’t remember …
DIANE KEATON When I first started doing commercials, Diane Keaton was doing them as well. I cast her in a commercial for …
Everybody’s on the internet. Facebook, Twitter, Google, Myspace, Ebay, Netflix, Vimeo, Hulu, etc. etc. etc. timewastersall. Everybody’s trying to figure out how …
I really don’t remember exactly when I worked with Woody’s ex. I just remember it was extremely difficult. Louise Lasser was playing a transmission …
I discovered the magazine while I was trying to survive engineering school at Pitt (University of Pittsburgh). I would go the the …
number ones MUHAMMAD ALI Heavyweight Boxing Champion My NUMBER ONE NUMBER ONE is Muhammad Ali. Not only do I think he’s the …
I started collecting authentic material to reconstruct a Santa Fe property. A guy from the village of Mora would bring a pickup truck …
TAKES I ran into an old editor I knew and we chatted a bit and he remarked to the friends I was …
Madonna had asked me to do a documentary of her BLOND AMBITION TOUR and I was interested, but not really interested, in …
THE HURDLER I was filming a Kodak spot for the Los Angeles Olympics and we had some authentic Olympic hopefuls. The amateur conditions …
I had just won a cinematography award and Hannah asked me for a favor. Robert Towne wanted to do a screen test of …
On my second tour of living (?) in New York, I fell in love with the Spanish Restaurant, El Faro, in The …
I was re re re re reading Larry McMurtry’s book of essays, FILM FLAM, a journal of some of his impressions of …
I was doing a road film on Rte 66 and got a call to do an electric truck commercial for Cummins Diesel. I …
Ed McCabe and I were having lunch and Ed said that he and George Lois were upset that the FOUR SEASONS restaurant …
WILL WORK FOR FOOD I discovered Venice by accident. I was traveling from Milan to Vienna on a tour of concert halls, La …
Back in the day, I always stayed at great hotels, THE BEVERLY HILLS in Los Angeles, THE ST. REGIS in New York, …
I was filming a mindless Miller Beer spot in Louisana. All Miller wanted were scenes of interesting people (no women) having a …
I’ve already spoken about ‘scripts’ and how ridiculous most are. On the two films I’ve done, the writers simply didn’t know what …
I had a huge fight with the record company about the video. They wanted to pull the footage and edit themselves because the …
Ray LoFaro had moved to Hollywood to try to get into films. He and I worked on a few things, a CHARLIE …
One of the things I find missing in work today is TRUST. Trust in using people that will get the job done no …
…an unlikely name. I first became aware of Haskell in a curious way. I used to read the classified columns in the …
NYVSLA When I first started working in New York, I found that the various talents there far exceeded those in Hollywood, especially …
SAN JOSE DE GRACIA This is a fabulous Church in the village of Las Trampas, New Mexico. When I was restoring Las …
We were in Paris nearing the end of the epic Perrier shoot. I wanted to get a sunrise shot of the Seine. An …
I began to stay at the Pershing Hall Hotel in Paris after Andree Putman redesigned it, despite the fact that it wasn’t …
We were doing a documentary on William Steinberg, the noted Conductor and Music Director of The Pittsburgh Symphony. At the time, that symphony …
THE GREAT GATSBY is the best book I have ever read. I have no idea how many times I’ve read it but each …
MOS is a term that says the film has no soundtrack. There a myth that it means Mit Out Sound, credited to …
When we were filming Bo Diddley and Bo Jackson onstage for the BO KNOWS commercial, a musician showed Bo Jackson how to …
This was Dave Kennedy’s passion and I’m glad that I was able to help a bit along the way. The campaign opened …
Out of the blue, I get a script for an Anheuser-Busch commercial for the Super Bowl involving soldiers at an airport and …
Bud Light wants to do the first beer commercial that features a woman. It’s a spot about the fears of a downhill …
Alain had been the sous-chef at Citrus under Michel Richard, but Richard got sick of Los Angeles and moved to acclaim in …
The teamster came to me. ‘What happened to the Clydesdales?’ ‘The brewery got taken over by a European conglomerate and they don’t …
I was trying to finish the film on motocross racing and hit a wall. It was just a bunch of guys riding …
THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS Lucas Carton, La Tour D’ Argent, L’Ambroisie, Louis XV, Le Restaurant, L’Orangerie, Le Saint-Germain, Ma Maison, Citrus. My …
We had pillaged Kubrick’s 2001 for an idea for a commercial with Garry Kasparov playing chess against a computer. The idea was …
At QED we were almost a happy family, probably because we were there for a cause, working for minimum wage under extreme …
About the same time I became aware of Sir Ridley’s work, I saw his brother, Tony’s, astonishing as well, but different. I found …
I first became aware of Ridley’s work at David Dee’s place. David was the premier editor in New York and his partner was …
Howard was a legend in the transformation of advertising into a sorta art form. When I was doing documentaries (and hating ads) I …
HINES WARD So we’re shooting a Super Bowl commercial with the Steelers and Seahawks for Disney. Of course, the clients ask for …
I was in New York and had just finished filming a spot with Deion and Denis Leary. It wasn’t as pleasant as it …
The chess script with Kasparov called for a little girl to stymie him. I thought that was a predictable ending, but I asked …
Sunshine Parker was an important actor in a few Henry’s commercials that we did. He was a perfect codger. We first used him in …
Frank Lowe strode across the stage in Cannes using the classic British staggerwalk made famous by Alec Guiness in THE BRIDGE ON …
I’m working on a Census campaign directed towards American Indians (not Native Americans) because of their lack of representation in the Federal …
When I got the Cindy Crawford Pepsi script, it had her getting out of a limo with high heels. Made no sense. Why would …
The Brits were on top of the world in the seventies. Ridley, Tony, Alan Parker, Hugh Hudson were doing mind blowing commercials. The …
Matt had written a script for one of the NASA ‘docs’ we were doing. It was our only ‘formal’ film. All the others were …
I’m walking to valet to get my car after having lunch at the Beverly Hills Hotel and someone calls, ‘Joe!’ I turn and …
‘BOND, JAMES BOND.’ Everyone knows of my dislike of Steve Jobs because of his treatment of my friend, Neil Aspinall, who saw …
Here we go again. I’m doing a Lincoln commercial with Dwyane Wade. He just won an NBA Championship but isn’t that well …
I hate scripts. I hate reading them. I hate the stupidity around them, the tacky screen directions. Plays are different. Scripts are written so …
RP stands for RECEIVED PRONUNCIATION in England. It’s sometimes referred to as THE QUEEN’S ENGLISH, although the present queen doesn’t speak it. It’s estimated …
I had just gotten to Cannes for the ad festival and a friend and I were chatting as I was checking into …
I get a Gatorade script that has Michael playing himself, one on one. Okay. It’s an idea that has been done before. All I …
Stanley Kubrick was famous for being obsessive about screenings, even going to theaters personally to observe the existing technology. There’s a funny …
THE DREAM REDUX I’ve spoken a lot about THE DREAM as it was a project close to my heart after watching western …
PANDEMIC DANCE The Jingle Dance got its name from the metal cones attached to the dress of the Ojibwe Indians of Minnesota. …
Captain Jack Phelan was the organizer and coordinator for all my shoots in Ireland. Jack was ex-Irish Army and was a terrific human …
16mm (sometimes disparagingly referred to as spaghetti). That’s all I knew. I got into film, partially because I was studying chemical engineering. A …
…not the pastry. Before I started the sojourn at NET, a miracle happened. The French developed a sound camera that revolutionized cinema, the …
Of all the cameras that I’ve used, the Bolex was probably the most important. When I developed newsfilm at night, the news photographers …
When I was a kid, magic came into town. Pizza! Braddock, Pennsylvania. Pizza? We would all chip in and one of the …
Chuck Klausing was hired to coach the Braddock High School Tigers football team. I was just starting High School, but I was …
LeBron has just shown up for a McDonald’s shoot. We’re in his old neighborhood, Cleveland. The commercial is about his return to Cleveland, …
…was the original name for the McDonald’s commercial with Michael Jordan and Larry Bird. I’ve discussed the problems with the original production, mainly …
A while ago, McDonald’s asked me to do a few spots for a campaign called BLACK AND POSITIVELY GOLDEN. McD was changing its …
John was an older (really older) actor that was auditioning for a part in a Henry’s Beer commercial about a bunch of …
Russia around Berlin Wall time. Moscow. I’m shooting the Red Army singing, ‘YOU GOT THE RIGHT ONE BABY, UH HUH!’ I’m walking around Moscow and …
US West Water
US West The Dream
US West The Woman
Tiger Woods I am Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods Sloppy Sack
Stamps.com Toaster
Pepsi Vaccum
Pepsi Two Kids
Pepsi Deli
Nike Vince Lombardi – 8
Nike Moses Rebound
Nike George Plimpton Introduction
Nike Deion
Nike US Tech – Running 30
Michael Jordan Showdown II
McDonalds Victory
McDonald”s Showdown
Johnson & Johnson Warriors
John Hancock Webb
IBM NFL Color
IBM Mid Market Color
IBM Player
IBM Big
IBM Gallery
IBM Dream On Diner
IBM Business and Technology
