Wednesday, September 22, 2010

THE GREAT RUSSIAN ICE SHOW

First performances in North America of the Soviet Ice Ballet arrived at The Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia to preview their show for arena managers and local audiences creating fantastic reviews as highlighted in this Highlights Reel. The Great Russian Ice Show was produced by Bolshoi Enterprises, Inc. Tom Crangle, the national marketing director asked me to write and produce two commercials and a marketing video to send to arena managers through out the USA.

I designed the commercial announcements to capture the intimate details of the skater's actions during the show preparation and the curtain entrance. "My Work", "My Heart", "My Life" spoken in Russian for an American audience. It was cool. Three camera's were set up in the arena, one in the balcony for wide shots and one hand held for audience reactions between acts.

This production was fantastic. The artists were incredible. The choreography, the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion and form were totally original. The opening act was a ice ballet interpretation of Faust.

Faust is bored and disappointed. He decides to call on the Devil for further knowledge and magic powers with which to indulge all the pleasures of the world. In response, the Devil's representative Mephistopheles appears. He makes a bargain with Faust: Mephistopheles will serve Faust with his magic powers for a term of years, but at the end of the term, the Devil will claim Faust's soul and Faust will be eternally damned.

Mephistopheles helps him to seduce a beautiful and innocent girl, who is destroyed. However, naive innocence saves her in the end and she enters Heaven. However, Faust is irrevocably corrupted; when the term ends, the Devil carries him off to Hell.

For those of you who view this video, you'll be captured by true art on ice.


European Champion Igor Bobrin, a true ice master, one of the most innovative contributors to the world of figure skating, the king of exhibition skating and performer of world renown "Cowboy", "Paganini", and "Invisible Partner", united a group of like-minded skater friends. Olympic Gold Champions, Natalya (Natasha) Bestemyanova, and skating partner Andrey Bukin, joined Bobrin a year later and continue to star with the Moscow Stars on Ice.


The theatre's authentically original choreography, unique skating styles and complex dramatic compositions are celebrated around the world. Guest Star List includes many European, World, and Olympic champions. Among them: Elena Valova/Alexander Vasiljev, Irina Vorobjeva/Igor Lisovsky, Larisa Selezneva/Oleg Makarov, Marina Yeltsova/Andrey Bushkov, Marina Pestova/Marat Akbarov, Oksana Kazakova/Artur Dmitriev, Vladimir Kotin, Alexey Urmanov, Andrey Vlashchenko, Kira Ivanova.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

The Newport Harbor Concours d'Elegance

htt One of the really great moments of shooting video was being introduced to Tim Allen of The ATSC which is a wonderful charity for assisting children with emotional problems and broken families in Orange County. Each year they offered a special event to benefit those children. The 20th Annual Newport Coast Concours d'Elegance was an opportunity to record this event.


This highlights reel features the early morning placement of the cars on the Hidden Valley Field Park, Irvine, CA where the judging process of more than 200 vintage and classic automobiles under the direction of Mark Tuttle, Chief Judge took place. Then the announced winners and Best of Show presented by honorary guests Sir Stirling Moss and Lady Moss.


A Concours d'Elegance (French, literally "a competition of elegance") is an event open to both prewar and postwar collector cars in which they are judged for authenticity, function, history, and style. Classes are commonly arranged by type, marque (manufacturer), coachbuilder, country of origin, or time period. Judges select first-, second-, and third-place finishers for each class in the event, and the judges confer the "Best of Show" award on one car from the group of first-place winners. In addition, a group of honorary judges, individuals who have made significant contributions to the automotive industry or motorsports, award a number of subjective awards to recognize standout vehicles regardless of class ribbons, as well as memorial awards created to honor specific automotive industry personages.


Written, produced and edited by Charles Lange with additional camera and visual consultation Howard Koby, Studio 19

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

1970 was 40 years ago this year

1970 - Paul McCartney announces that the Beatles have disbanded. 100,000 people demonstrate in Washington DC against the Vietnam War. National Guards fire on and kill 4 protesters on May 4th at Kent State University. Music continues to make a significant impact with the largest ever rock festival held on the Isle of Wight with 600,000 people attending, including some of the biggest name in music including Jimi Hendrix and The Who. This was also the year the age of voting is lowered to 18 in the US.

1970 was 40 years ago this year,
and I found myself working for my father-in-law Burton Browne, who had become famous for creating The Gaslight Clubs.
Private 'men only members' key clubs in Chicago, New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, and Paris, France. As VP of Operations it was my job to help select the entertainment venue, audition the singers and dancers, work with the musicians, check out the best restaurants and night clubs in the markets where we had a club to steal recipes, presentation techniques and generally just try not to get into too much trouble.


from Charles Lange on Vimeo.

NBC Chicago in 1970 wanted to do a television bio doc on the man who started it all in the private key club business. Burton Browne was an incredible entrepreneur, who owned an advertising agency on Michigan Avenue that dedicated one room and called it The Sundown Room (a place to get a drink on a tab after 5pm). Hundreds of associated ad types and clients frequented the room every day, so Burton in 1953 opened a private club for his friends and called it The Gaslight Club. It became the standard bearer for all key clubs, and was soon copied by one member Hugh Hefner who did his version ultra modern calling his place The Playboy Club.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Success On The SuperHighway


           from Charles Lange on Vimeo.


This 30 minute Infomercial was produced to sell internet marketing. Written and directed for direct response company Universal Mediatek to highlight the amazing opportunities of setting up a free marketing website on their servers.  But the real joy was to actually work with Super Star Shirley Jones. And she was totally professional. Almost no retakes, we completed her stuff in two short days... The testimonials were fun. Everyone had a good time and as always there was a great 'wrap party'.