Leo Zahn, like many of the people I’ve been lucky enough to interview, has a very cool job. Leo directs commercials. Specifically, Leo, through his California based company Picture Palace, directed a commercial for Trendmasters. The product was Trendmasters line of Extreme Ghostbusters toys.<\/p>\n
<\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\nBusy as he is, Leo took a moment to answer a few questions for Proton Charging.<\/p>\nPC: First some background. When was the commercial shot and about how long did it take?<\/p>\nSH: The Ghostbusters spot was shot in May\/June 1997 in St. Louis. Trendmasters holds the license for the toy line of Extreme Ghostbusters. I shoot quite a bit for them. They are one of the largest toy companies in the U.S. (“Independence Day” ” Godzilla” etc). Usually, a 30 sec spot is shot in 2 days.<\/p>\nPC: I’ve always wondered; what are commercials shot on? I’m guessing they’re not all on film.<\/p>\nLZ: All [my] spots are shot on 35mm film.<\/p>\nPC: How did you get involved with doing the Extreme Ghostbusters ad? What did you know about Ghostbusters going into the shoot?<\/p>\nLZ: I knew a lot about Ghostbusters, having been a fan of both movies. I was not aware of the animated TV show. I feel in love with the design of the toy figures, and especially the design and look of the car.<\/p>\nPC: What’s the trick to selling Extreme Ghostbusters to kids? Was there a particular angle that Trendmasters was trying to get across? Suits on the set trying to explain their vision for the product?<\/p>\nLZ: The beauty of working for Trendmasters is the fact that they welcome a director’s input, and there are no “suits” on the set. Their product managers are very creative people with good ideas, who act as creative directors on the set. [There was] no ad agency involved.<\/p>\nPC: When you were shooting the EGB commercial were you using production toys or prototypes? Did you have any trouble with the product?<\/p>\nLZ: We shot mostly with production product. There were problems.<\/p>\nPC: Ah ha. Your company site separates the commercials for girl toys from the commercials for toys for boys. What’s the trick to selling toys to boys using a commercial spot on TV?<\/p>\nLZ: Boys to spots are usually aggressive, battle oriented spots. There is constant attack and destruction. As a director, you need to be sble to maximize the impact, while staying within the Federal guidelines for toy advertising.<\/p>\nPC: How do you think the commercial turned out? If you could have done anything different,would you? Or would you leave it as is?<\/p>\nLZ: I’m very pleased with it, and it’s on my boys toy reel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leo Zahn, like many of the people I’ve been lucky enough to interview, has a very cool job. Leo directs commercials. Specifically, Leo, through his California based company Picture Palace, directed a commercial for Trendmasters. The product was Trendmasters line of Extreme Ghostbusters toys. Busy as he is, Leo took a moment to answer a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,28,52,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-egb","category-features","category-merch","category-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.protoncharg.ing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.protoncharg.ing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.protoncharg.ing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.protoncharg.ing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.protoncharg.ing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.protoncharg.ing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.protoncharg.ing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.protoncharg.ing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.protoncharg.ing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Busy as he is, Leo took a moment to answer a few questions for Proton Charging.<\/p>\n
PC: First some background. When was the commercial shot and about how long did it take?<\/p>\n
SH: The Ghostbusters spot was shot in May\/June 1997 in St. Louis. Trendmasters holds the license for the toy line of Extreme Ghostbusters. I shoot quite a bit for them. They are one of the largest toy companies in the U.S. (“Independence Day” ” Godzilla” etc). Usually, a 30 sec spot is shot in 2 days.<\/p>\n
PC: I’ve always wondered; what are commercials shot on? I’m guessing they’re not all on film.<\/p>\n
LZ: All [my] spots are shot on 35mm film.<\/p>\n
PC: How did you get involved with doing the Extreme Ghostbusters ad? What did you know about Ghostbusters going into the shoot?<\/p>\n
LZ: I knew a lot about Ghostbusters, having been a fan of both movies. I was not aware of the animated TV show. I feel in love with the design of the toy figures, and especially the design and look of the car.<\/p>\n
PC: What’s the trick to selling Extreme Ghostbusters to kids? Was there a particular angle that Trendmasters was trying to get across? Suits on the set trying to explain their vision for the product?<\/p>\n
LZ: The beauty of working for Trendmasters is the fact that they welcome a director’s input, and there are no “suits” on the set. Their product managers are very creative people with good ideas, who act as creative directors on the set. [There was] no ad agency involved.<\/p>\n
PC: When you were shooting the EGB commercial were you using production toys or prototypes? Did you have any trouble with the product?<\/p>\n
LZ: We shot mostly with production product. There were problems.<\/p>\n
PC: Ah ha. Your company site separates the commercials for girl toys from the commercials for toys for boys. What’s the trick to selling toys to boys using a commercial spot on TV?<\/p>\n
LZ: Boys to spots are usually aggressive, battle oriented spots. There is constant attack and destruction. As a director, you need to be sble to maximize the impact, while staying within the Federal guidelines for toy advertising.<\/p>\n
PC: How do you think the commercial turned out? If you could have done anything different,would you? Or would you leave it as is?<\/p>\n
LZ: I’m very pleased with it, and it’s on my boys toy reel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Leo Zahn, like many of the people I’ve been lucky enough to interview, has a very cool job. Leo directs commercials. Specifically, Leo, through his California based company Picture Palace, directed a commercial for Trendmasters. The product was Trendmasters line of Extreme Ghostbusters toys. Busy as he is, Leo took a moment to answer a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,28,52,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-egb","category-features","category-merch","category-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.protoncharg.ing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.protoncharg.ing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.protoncharg.ing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.protoncharg.ing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.protoncharg.ing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.protoncharg.ing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.protoncharg.ing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.protoncharg.ing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.protoncharg.ing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}