Friday, February 20, 2009

Wyeth Pharmaceutical Spot

Rosey Media, partnered with post house Northern Lights Post, completed "Trailer," an industrial piece in the sweeping style of a feature film trailer for Wyth Pharmaceuticals. Rosey and Northern Lights Post were contracted by international ad firm Cline, Davis & Mann to produce the corporate commercial for Wyeth . "Trailer," as well as a second studio piece, was co-directed by Rosey Media's John Rosenblatt and NLP's Mark Littman. Rosenblatt also served as Director Of Photography on the project. "Trailer" was shot on location in NYC. You can see the piece at:

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The Jonas Brothers... Actually Very cool.

For those of you who didn't see The SNL Digital Short "Property Of The Queen" featuring The Jonas Brothers on the Feb 14th Valentine's Day show, Check it out. . . The Short itself features four of six songlets the very game Jonas Brothers recorded with Digital Short creators Akiva Shaffer, Andy Samberg, and Jorma Taccone. The other two may well be lost to perpetuity, but we have to confess. . . they all rocked. Really. Now, don't misunderstand. We get it. That was a significant part of the joke. Big hair. Headbands. Ridiculously tight pants. Downtown L.A. cowboy hats. But while Rosey DP John Rosenblatt, Cameraman Luke Riffle, Soundman Dan Walter, and monkey juggler Brian Townes spent a few hours in a green screen studio shooting the mock videos, we realized something. We were really enjoying it. Silly as it may have been, these songs made us remember why we had what we had in our tape decks in high school in the first place. We were, in a word. . . rockin'. And we weren't alone. Between deft costume changes, wardrobe czar Brian Hemesath could also be seen leaning towards a vintage Trans Am headbang. And while we didn't notice whether or not Dina Moles was rocking out the entire time-- she is from LI-- so it's pretty likely.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Was the "Saturday Night Live" skit "MacGruber" a comedy bit or a Pepsi commercial?

A lot of articles have been written about how the Pepsi/Macgruber spot Rosey Media shot that aired during last weekend's Super Bowl is blurring the line between comedy and commercial. Check out this article from MSNBC that discusses this emerging trend.- JR
Image: Scene from a "MacGruber" episode
Was the "Saturday Night Live" skit "MacGruber" a comedy bit or a Pepsi commercial? It aired as a comedy sketch on SNL, then during the big game as an ad.
NBC
updated 10:33 p.m. ET, Mon., Feb. 2, 2009 NEW YORK - Was "MacGruber" a "Saturday Night Live" sketch or Pepsi commercial? Depending on when you were watching television over the weekend, it was hard to tell. On Saturday night's "SNL," the recurring bit starring cast member Will Forte aired three times during the show, each time with comical over-the-top promotion for Pepsi. Then on Sunday night, one of the same "MacGruber" sketches — in which Forte plays a parody of the '80s action series "MacGyver" — aired during NBC's broadcast of the Super Bowl as a commercial.

As it turns out, all were paid commercials by Pepsi, made in collaboration with producer Lorne Michaels' "Saturday Night Live." The segments weren't product placement, but commercials paid for by Pepsi and produced by "SNL." Though they appeared to be sketches on "SNL," they ran during allotted commercial breaks.

NBC Entertainment Co-Chairman Ben Silverman said Pepsi paid full freight for the spots — which sold for about $3 million per 30-second spot during the Super Bowl.

(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC.)

"They really made it very funny and obvious, so I don't think there was any confusion," said Silverman. "Everything is ongoing experimentation, but the reality is we need to evolve and do more and more things."

Added Silverman: "It's not just an ad for Pepsi, it's an ad for `Saturday Night Live.'"

Branding expert Peter Arnell was in charge of PepsiCo's Super Bowl campaign, which also included a 3-D commercial for its SoBe Life Water.

"The creative space is `SNL's' and they were commercials we would have bought, so the economics were as normal as it ever was," said Arnell. "It's the un-advertising advertising."

The first "MacGruber" sketch/commercial that ran during "SNL" came amid other commercials — after a movie trailer for "The Pink Panther 2," which is what host Steve Martin was (what else?) promoting.

Fans may be uncomfortable with sale PepsiCo American Beverages chief Massimo d'Amore, who watched the game from a luxury box with NBC and Michaels, declined to say how much the company paid the network for the spots. An estimated 95.4 million people watched the Pittsburgh-Arizona Super Bowl, making it second only to last year's game as the most popular ever, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The ads include all the same usual characteristics that the sketch series normally does: its cheesy opening theme song, a frightened sidekick (played by fellow cast member Kristen Wiig) and MacGruber's inevitable distraction (in this case, a Pepsi). The real MacGyver — Richard Dean Anderson — also made a cameo.

That a marquee "SNL" sketch would be sold to a marketer might rub some loyal viewers the wrong way. Fans, after all, tune in for comedy, not for well-dressed commercials.

Silverman says the viewer only wins, since the Pepsi sketches replaced regular commercials. (He also noted that "SNL" talent was paid for the work outside of their normal salaries.)

"It wasn't inside the show," said Silverman. "Lorne really protected the show. I think the fans of `Saturday Night Live' got to see a `MacGruber' that they wouldn't have otherwise seen."

Michaels wasn't available to comment Monday.

"What we're doing is selling entertainment vehicles and marketing platforms," said Silverman, who has looked for other revenue streams for NBC as network TV ratings have slid. "This is where programming is going."

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Laser Cats 4. . . Makin' Laser Cats 3 Look Like Laser Cats 2!

Friday, January 30th, 2009- Rosey Media films yet another installment in the increasingly epic sci-fierce SNL Digital Short series "Laser Cats." In this, the fourth episode, director Akiva Shaffer once again pits Nitro (Bill Hader) and Admiral Spaceship (Andy Samberg) against evil forces that threaten the galaxy- in this case, out of control man/ machine Cyberface (Kenan Thompson.) Rabid fans of the series will note this is Mr. Thompson's second appearance as a villain in "Laser Cats." Coincidence? Significant? Interesting? Perhaps. . . perhaps not. . . Oh, and did we mention the guest appearances by comedy legend and 15 time SNL host Steve Martin and SNL Executive Producer Lorne Michaels? The intergalactic drama unfolds below: Watch closely and you'll catch SNL (and "The Line") writer Simon Rich, staffers Rachel Lynn and her brother Joe caught on camera, as well as a bona fide speaking role-- that of the captain of the Space Police-- masterfully portrayed with rare sensitivity by editor extraordinaire Matt Yonks. The Short was shot by John Rosenblatt, with audio by Dan Walter, and special technical consultation (that's read "cat-on-Roomba") by Brian Townes. Probably the best part of making a "Laser Cats" episode is the complete disregard for the conventions and techniques one uses to make a motion picture look. . . well. . . good. In fact, the guiding aesthetic is one of "the crappier, the better." While it is a bit difficult to throw aside habits of checking continuity and lighting a scene properly, and to embrace the auto focus, it can, in the end, be quite a liberating experience. Like running without pants. Not something you'd want to do all of the time, but every once in a while. . . a must.

Holy Cow--We Made A Frickin' Super Bowl Commercial!!

On Monday, January 12th, Rosey Media had the opportunity to fulfill a dream held dear by all of us whose voices changed before Bill Clinton took office. We met MacGyver. THE MacGyver. If you weren't a pre-pubescent boy in the 1980's, his name is Richard Dean Anderson, and under the direction of Jorma Taccone, with co-writer John Solomon and DP John Rosenblatt, he made history when MacGruber met MacGyver in a Pepsi ad for Super Bowl 43. The ad also stars SNL cast members Will Forte (of course) and Kristen Wiig. Dig it: Also priveleged to have been locked in a control room, so to speak, with His Supreme Flannel Gadgetiness were Rosey Media camera jock Luke Riffle, audio wizard Dan Walter, and reigning snack champion Brian Townes. As many folks watch the Super Bowl for the ads as much as the game itself, we are damn proud to have contributed our very first offering to the estimated 167 million viewers of the big game. It's not quite as cool as defusing a bomb, rescuing a damsel in distress, and getting out of a poison gas-filled room with nothing but a shoe lace, a paperclip, and some tic tacs. . . but it's a close second.