American Cinematographer - May 2000 - 14

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CINEMATOGRAPHY

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MOTION PICTURE
FILMING TECHNIQUES

Laughs: Restoring

Your Show of Shows
by Debra Kaufman
JOSEPH V. MASCELLI
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Who says today's youth doesn't appre¬
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Riming Techniques

by Joseph V MasoelS

filmmaking

of hundreds of

Spot,

on

that broke ground

as

shows. While

riding the wave created by
Spot, they founded Entertainment
Asylum, an entertainment portal for AOL,
The

photographs and

and wrote
which is

presents the essential concepts and

a

sitcom for NBC Productions

being shopped around to the

networks.

techniques of motion picture

Tackenberg, Zakarin and the third
Light partner, Peter Jaysen, say
they are looking "to create franchises
with crossover potential for film, TV and
the Web." But how did they come to
devote their energies to Your Show of
Shows, which reigned before they were
Creative

camerawork, and how these impact
areas

a soap opera

of the first online "Web-isodic"

one

diagrams, it clearly and concisely

the allied

a

of filmmaking.

Paperback, 8 M>"x 11", 251 pgs.

even

born? "When I

was a

kid, I would

watch

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So

big, in fact, that the partners
option Caesar's autobiography
and try to produce a feature film. While
pursuing that dream, they met the influ¬
decided to

ential comedian, who lives in the Los

Angeles

and began working with
us poor video transfers
of his sketches, and we were laughing
our heads off," remembers Tackenberg.
"I offhandedly said, 'Too bad you never
put these old programs out there,' and he
replied that nobody had followed through
when they saw how much work it would

Saturday Night Live," recounts
Tackenberg. "Finally, when I was about
14, my mother said, 'If you think that's
comedy, I'll show you comedy.' She took
me

to the Museum of Television and

area,

him. "He showed

take."

became known in Internet circles for The

of the most

published. With the aid

ever

real labor of love," says

Rich Tackenberg, a 31-year-old partner in Creative
Light Entertainment.
Tackenberg and one of his part¬
ners, Scott Zakarin, met while doing
production at an ad agency. They soon

ORkCfNEMATOGRAP

widely respected books

that notion, three

on

vault and onto VHS, DVD and the Inter¬
net. "It's been an amazing experience

and

one

a

series Your Show of Shows out of the

(800) 448-0145

The Five C's is

before? In

young Internet innovators are bringing
Sid Caesar's groundbreaking television

$29.95

Motion Picture

come

Creative

Light Entertainment took

up the challenge. The partners estimate
that they spent more than a year and

$200,000 of their own money to revive
kinescopes for new generations.
Although it's been a huge amount of
work, everything has fallen into place.
The kinescopes, stored in boxes at the
Iron Mountain facility in Hollywood,
were disorganized but in prime condition.
Crest National, a postproduction house
the old

noted for its restoration and telecine

capabilities, got onboard to transfer the
kinescopes, and Creative Light Entertain¬
ment is authoring the DVDs itself.
The ultimate goal is to transfer all
of the original kinescopes, but for now
the company is creating a three-part
series

on

VHS and DVD; the short-term

goal is to release two more series of
three tapes/disks each. The first series
was

released last month and focuses

on

Radio in Manhattan, and we watched
two hours of Your Show of Shows and an

the best 24 sketches. "We sat down with

hour of Ernie Kovacs. I

expensive meal," recalls Tackenberg.
"There's a nice flow to everything on the
tape. The hardest part has been narrow-

I've been

a

since then."

was

hooked, and

big fan of Sid Caesar's

ever

Sid and laid it all out, like the

menu

of

an
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