Full Throttle at VTA Full Throttle at VTA Senior Editor David Turner worked with TNT/Latin America Producers Gabriella Guerrero and Francisco Cuevas to create a :90 promo for the "Rumbo al Oscar" (Road to Oscar) contest in VTA's digital composite suite. The TNT contest coincides with the Academy Awards and asks the viewers in Central and South America to choose the correct answer to the question, "Which movie earned the most Oscars: "Silence of the Lambs," "Dances with Wolves," or "Unforgiven?" The winner will be chosen from all the correct entries and will win a trip to Los Angeles to see the premiere of "Lethal Weapon IV." Cuevas supplied the graphics, a filmstrip image and supers, which Turner imported into the Infinit! character generator. Turner, using the Abekas DVE, animated the filmstrip so it appeared to be moving across the screen in front of footage of Los Angeles, and the contest rules crawled across the filmstrip. A little revision was needed in the contest rules, however with the Axial 3000 and Accom they were able to fix it quickly and precisely.

Turner also helped launch the return of the Big-Haired Lady to Longhorn Steakhouse commercials for Scharbo & Co. The spot, "Go With The Flow" features Longhorn owner George McKerrow and Flo, the Big-Haired Lady, in her cowgirl finery, dancing to "Buck Up," Longhorn's signature music. Featuring child sidekicks and a chorus line, the commercials promotes Flo's Filet, a popular menu item. Ron and Sarah Scharbo were responsible for the creative and reunited the team that Flo loved to work with before the account went on a one year hiatus at a different company. Marne Brobeck, Art Director; Bob Morrison, Writer; Polly Hathorne, Agency Producer; and Susan Hayes, Director and Owner of Maverick Productions joined forces and brought Flo back to start the first quarter off with a bang. Paul Miller edited the spot on AVID, Turner then conformed the spot in VTA's digital composite D2 suite, adding various effects and increasing the speed of several segments for comic effect with the Accom A-62 digital recorder and the Axial 3000 Editor. The result is a toe-tapping, high kicking comeback of Flo, Sarah Scharbo's alter ego, which already has helped raise Longhorn's sales.

VTA Editor Ray Klentak also recently completed two spots for CNN's new sports show, "Page 1 with Nick Charles," a weekly collaboration between CNN and Sports Illustrated. Andy Bobadilla created the image promos and created the spots from step one, because it was a new format for CNN. Working from Bobadilla's ideas, Klentak put together quick action cuts and layered them on a background of ghost images of players, created through the Abekas DVE. The Power Macintosh created curved text which was then imported into Axial 3000. The first promo was :15, followed by a :30 version. Klentak also worked with CNN Creative Services and Producer Deron Harris on two :15 promos for the "Larry King Show," where he interviewed Jane Roe on the 25th anniversary of the "Roe v. Wade" Supreme Court decision on abortion rights. By the way, the answer to the "Rumbo al Oscar" question is "Dances With Wolves."