THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 28, 1995 TAG: 9504270141
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: THUMBS UP!
SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
JUST ABOUT EVERYONE can tell you what Oscars and Emmies are. Some have a nodding acquaintance with Clios, the awards given to whose who produce network commercials featuring soft-drink guzzling bears and little old ladies who drive around in 1950 Dodges looking for the beef.
But ask even the most devout couch potato about Tellies and you're probably going to get a great big ``huh?''
Unless, of course, you happen to work at the Christian Broadcasting Network, which recently took home two of the awards that are given annually for excellence in non-network and cable TV commercials.
Penny Naglee and Mark Young of CBN each won a silver Telly, the highest award given, for commercials that they produced for the network.
Naglee won her Telly in the Corporate Image category for a spot called ``Find Us Faithful.'' Done with no spoken words, the commercial is a loving 60-second look at a father and son spending a day together on an otherwise deserted beach.
As Terry Meeuwsen, co-host of CBN's popular ``700 Club,'' sings the soaring musical piece for which the spot is named, real-life father and son Jay and Chris Edgerton walk along the water's edge, draw pictures in the sand and build castles together.
Only the words ``Join the 700 Club,'' which appear at the end of the commercial, mark it as anything other than a small and very beautiful Christian music video.
If the scenery in Naglee's spot, which still appears from time to time on both CBN and the Family channel, looks familiar, it should.
``We shot it at Fort Story on a beautiful day last February,'' Naglee said. ``That was after we had to cancel three times because of snow and wind,'' she added.
The second of CBN's winning commercials was one called ``Signs of the Times'' produced by Mark Young and entered in the Media Promotion category. Starting with a shot of a white clock, which appears to be floating in a pure black background, the spot then moves on to actual footage of massive armament, famine victims, urban violence, natural disasters and a nuclear explosion.
It was used as a promotion for a series called ``Signs of the Times,'' which aired last year.
``We're updating it for use this year as well,'' Young said.
The introduction to this commercial was also done locally, but it's doubtful that anyone would recognize the location.
``We shot the clock sequence in a darkened warehouse in Portsmouth,'' Young said. ``The rest of the footage came from our great files here.''
Both Naglee and Young received master's degrees from Regent University's graduate program in communications, then stayed on to work for the network where they are now producers with the broadcast fund-raising division.
Naglee, who worked for CBN Publishing for three years before joining ``The 700 Club'' five years ago, said she has found her niche in producing commercials.
``Everyone (who goes into production) thinks of doing movies,'' she said, ``but I see commercials as little parables, little messages.''
Movies, both short and long, are something that Young knows more than a little about. He made his first one when he was 12.
``My brother got me into it,'' he said. ``We grew up in Indiana in a 24-by-24-foot house without running water, but our parents, especially our mother, always encouraged us to be creative.
Creative the brothers were. Young had made 60 movies with such titles as ``Wild, Wild East'' and ``Tar Strek'' before he ever entered the doors of Regent University.
A photo buff, his office space at CBN is defined by screen after screen of prints both old and new. The side of one file cabinet is covered with pictures of Harry Truman and his family.
``I found out a few years ago that my great-great-great uncle was his mother's father,'' Young explained. ILLUSTRATION: Photo courtesy of CBN
CBN's Penny Naglee won her Telly award in the Corporate Image
category for a spot called ``Find Us Faithful.'' Mark Young won for
``Signs of the Times'' in the Media Promotion category.
by CNB