We are happy to announce that, after almost a year in the pipeline, our redesign/ repackaging/ re-imagining of HBO’s only Entertainment News show “The Buzz” has delivered and, this past weekend, launched.

The packaging, which was created in collaboration with the excellent folks at Exopolis, is innovative in many ways, but most notably in its awesome depth. Both in terms and visual interest and — most unusually for TV graphics — linguistic content, there are many layers working here. This is as it should be. The bar was high: “The Buzz” is a portal through which almost all of HBO’s programming is filtered and distilled, and the package had to — in a very central way — represent what the network is about. No small challenge.

I produced/directed the outgoing package (orange with animated figures communicating along honeycomb-like lines) back in 2001 (pre-Lucky 8 Prods) and it stayed on the air for over seven years. I’m personally very pleased with this new incarnation. I like the way it refers to the core essence of story-telling and human communication — i.e. pure language — but re-imagines it in a bold way to suggest that there are larger patterns and matrixes at work that we may not (at least at first) be aware of. In this context, the package’s clear connection to our other story-driven activities — 1000 Words most obviously — may NOT be a coincidence. Words, it seems, “r” us.

Music for this package was, after an agonizing process, conquered by Arkansas’ own Barry Poynter. Sound Effects by I. Malcolm Francis in NY. Creative directors at HBO-NY were Rob Stein and Sue Bailey. The guys at Exopolis-LA, though, primarily lead animator Magnus Hierto and Designer Camille Chu (who came up with the initial boards) deserve the most credit. Staff strategist Charlie Short weighed in big on the copywriting side — you’ll find a lot of his special humor in there if you look carefully. And special thanks to Garrett Braren and Jason O’Leary, Exopolis producers, for being so flexible as the Buzz folded, flipped, dangled and — most importantly — wrote itself into existence.

I have posted a clip of the main logo open for the show on my tv/longform page but it’s highly embarrassing to show it at You-Tube-rez. I am trying to figure out how to embed a movie there with a better looking clip. Until I do though, it will have to do. Or, of course, you can catch it in beautiful HD many times a day on HBO!

Thirty-plus deliverables later our multi-platform campaign for Russell Simmons’ Def Comedy Jam hosted by DL Hughley (currently airing on HBO), is done. We are gratified that ratings for the show have been some of the highest EVER. It was an amazingly original season packed with breakout young talent. Cool-ass graphics for the campaign were designed by my homies at Exopolis (working with them on another amazing project right now, to be announced soon) and post was handled at The Studio at New Wave Entertainment. Editors included the talented Mssrs. Scott Straw (who did most of it) and Mike Ziemkowski (who did most of it last year!). Low-glow VO artist was JKing out of NY. It was hectic in November and December for sure! Thanks to Chris Stifel, the CD at HBO-NY, for keeping us street, to Nina Rosenstein, and to Stan Lathan and the people at Simmons-Lathan for all their help!  We’ve posted some spots on our You Tube Channel as well as on this site under both “Promos” and “Long Form”. There is also a Facebook campaign going on. Keep it comin’ Def Jam!