Joe Pytka

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Joe Pytka (2011)

Joe Pytka (born November 4, 1938 in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania ) is an American director . Pytka is best known as a director of commercials . But he also made music videos , documentaries and two feature films .

Life

Pytka's grandparents emigrated to America from Poland. Pytka grew up in the Pittsburgh suburb of Braddock . He wanted to become an artist from a very early age, and at the age of 8 he already dealt with this in the Children's Studio of the Carnegie Museum of Art .

At his father's request, he then studied chemical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh , which, according to Pytka, ended "disastrously". He left university without a degree and worked at the Pittsburgh WRS Motion Picture and Video Lab in the 1960s and 1970s . There he familiarized himself with the basic techniques of film recording and film editing . He later produced shows and documentaries for the local television station WQED.

In order to finance further projects, he took on his first orders for commercials from the late 1960s. He shot some of his first spots for the Pittsburgh brand Iron City Beer . Together with his brother John, he founded the production company Pytka Productions in 1984 . During his career, Pytka shot over 5,000 commercials, including for PepsiCo , Budweiser , McDonald’s and Nike . More than 80 of his spots were shown at the annual Super Bowls .

Pytka has received numerous awards for his work, including three Directors Guild of America Awards in the Commercial Direction category . In 1997 he won the first Primetime Emmy in the Commercial category . Advertising Age named him to the Top 100 Advertising People list in 1999 . In 2011 he received the Clio Award for Lifetime Achievement .

Since the early 1980s, Pytka has also made music videos, including several for Michael Jackson . In Spike Lee's documentary Bad 25 , Pytka talks about his work with Jackson.

In 1989 he shot his first feature film Alles auf Sieg with Richard Dreyfuss , David Johansen and Teri Garr . In 1996, the animated real film mix Space Jam followed with basketball player Michael Jordan and animations by Looney Tunes . While Alles auf Sieg fell short of its expectations both artistically and financially, Space Jam grossed over 230 million US dollars on a budget of around 80 million US dollars.

Private life

Pytka met his wife Emanuelle in 1987 on a flight to Sweden. The relationship resulted in two daughters.

From 2002 to 2011, Pytka ran the Bastide restaurant on Melrose Place in West Hollywood , which was initially given very high ratings by leading restaurant critics, but later, due to constantly changing chefs, no longer achieved the high quality of the first few years and Pytka repeatedly closed and re-established it opened.

Filmography (selection)

Commercials
Feature films
  • 1989: All for victory (Let It Ride)
  • 1996: Space Jam
Music videos

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d CLIO is pleased to announce the 2011 Lifetime Achievement winner is Joe Pytka. at clioawards.com, accessed October 22, 2012
  2. ^ A b Joe Pytka in the Advertising Age Encyclopedia, accessed October 22, 2012
  3. ^ A b Joe Pytka at adcglobal.com, accessed October 21, 2012
  4. ↑ a b Small LA Firm Scores Big With TV Ads: Pytka Productions Wins 6 Prestigious Clio Awards in New York in Recognition of Notable Commercials in LA Times, June 18, 1986
  5. ↑ Joe Pytka in DER SPIEGEL 46/1996
  6. ↑ Top 100 Advertising People: 76-100 at adage.com, accessed October 22, 2012
  7. ^ Joe Pytka closes Bastide, plans another revamp at LA Times , November 26, 2008
  8. ↑ Bastide Closes: This Time For Good at laweekly.com, accessed October 22, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Pytka, Joe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American director of commercials and music videos
DATE OF BIRTH November 4, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , United States