NORTH SHORE TO W E R S 14 North Shore Towers Courier n 40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION n June 2015 40 • 40TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL ISSUE • Producer Morty Schwartz discusses his career and his new documentary, celebrating NST’s 40th Anniversary BY STEPHEN VRATTOS “I majored in film production at a time when people said, “You’re majoring in what?!” says North Shore Towers 40th Anniversary documentarian Morty Schwartz, when he discusses his decision to major in film production at City College of New York after high school. The medium is still young and few schools offer film production programs. Four years later, Schwartz graduates with a BA in Social Science and an elective concentration in film. He lands a position as an assistant film editor for a post-production company, Ross-Gaffney, editing episodic TV shows, including the pilot for what later becomes “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” which is originally called “Head of the Family” and conceived with creator Carl Reiner as the lead. It isn’t long before Schwartz earns his first screen credit as a film editor for production company PGL Productions in New York on a documentary segment about Grand Prix Auto Racing. The piece appears as part of a 90-minute sports potpourri program, NBC’s “Sports International,” a precursor to ABC’s “Wide World of Sports.” Meanwhile, the documentary style of filmmaking, called Cinéma Vérité (truthful cinema), is all the rage and PGL begins employing this new realistic approach for its ads. With its first attempt, PGL hits it out of the park, creating an ad for French aperitif, Byrrh (pronounced “beer”). In the ad, a man enters a bar and orders a “Byrrh on the rocks.” The place suddenly goes quiet, before a slow ululation of snickers builds to laughter from the ignorant patrons, who believe the man daft for ordering, what they think is a “beer” on the rocks. The ad is a tremendous success, winning both a Cannes Film Festival award and Clio, the Oscar of advertising in America. PGL’s once minor advertising division explodes and Schwartz is forced to move from docs to ad production. “Documentaries make good money,” he explains, “But ads are so much more lucrative.” The THE PRODUCER move proves fortuitous for Schwartz, however, who gains a great deal of cachet in the industry. It also leads him to work with such later movie luminaries as Ridley Scott and Adrian Lyne, who worked in advertising at the start of their careers. For nearly ten years at PGL, Schwartz builds an impressive resume, which includes Clio Awards and an Altanta Film Festival Award for “Recess,” a feature film he edits before leaving the company in 1969 to start his own postproduction company, Filmpower. In the ensuing years, Filmpower flourishes, editing and supplying postproduction services for important clients, such as makeup giant Revlon, including the popular “Charlie” perfume ads, which star “Charlie’s Angels” actress, Shelly Hack, and New York’s own Bobby Short, singing the signature theme. Schwartz works with the fashion world’s most prominent, including Ralph Lauren, Leonard Lauder, Calvin Klein and fashion and portrait photographer Richard Avedon. In 1973, Schwartz merges his company with Galan Productions, changing the name to Filmpower Associates, producing public affairs specials for PBS, Westinghouse Broadcasting and Capital Cities Broadcasting. Media giant Gannett acquires Filmpower Associates in 1980, and Schwartz remains as CEO and Postproduction Supervisor for its Gateway Productions division before terminating his contract in 1984 and starting afresh with a new venture, Power Postproduction. For the next decade, he edits and produces video projects for clients, such as General Motors, Lincoln Center, PBS, Revlon and IBM. A sister company, Firework, followed in the mid-90s to concentrate on other avenues of visual communication, such as video wall displays and interactive media for Sony and Panasonic trade shows. When Schwartz and his wife Lynda moved to North Shore Towers two and a half years ago from Port Washington, where they lived for 45 years, he begins producing “A Spotlight on Us” documentaries, working with John Virga and Martin Ragusa of NST Video Productions, showcasing residents, like former New York City undercover police officer and NST Country Club Gym Supervisor Danny Cavallo, and Nelson Avila, world-renowned tango dancer and instructor, who created Broadway’s “Tango Argentina.” In 2014, believing the year to be the 40th Anniversary of North Shore Towers, since residents started moving into Building #1 at the time, Schwartz approaches Board Member Fred Chernow about filming a documentary in celebration. The world premiere of the doc on Friday, June 12, will be the culmination of hundreds of hours of work since then. “There’s not a lot of early stuff,” reveals Schwartz. “For many of the residents, it’s very difficult to remember details from forty years.” Schwartz is quick to point out that the documentary would not have been possible without the hard work of several individuals. Shirley Wershba – whose husband is the legendary Joe Wershba, – has a rich career in television, working on such notable shows as “Sixty Minutes,” “MacNeil Lehrer,” and serving as a consultant for the film, “Good Night and Good Luck.” She has been instrumental in massaging Schwartz’s script “paragraph by paragraph into something like a jewel.” Jack and June Schwarz have also worked on the production, Jack taking stills (photos), while June coordinates interviews and provides research. Using clever techniques, like zooms and special effects, combined with live footage, to enhance the production. Aforementioned John Virga and Martin Ragusa have provided hours of their time, filming and providing additional editing, graphics and technical assistance, while performing their regular Towers duties. And Linda Rappaport’s contribution cannot be understated. “Without Linda this would not have happened,” says Schwartz. “She stepped up to ensure this production got done.” Since he closed his company in 2003, Schwartz has kept busy at his Port Washington studio, producing and editing family histories, creating professional video experiences that can be passed down from generation to generation. Schwartz works closely with each client, first getting an idea of their story and a look at their memorabilia. He creates the type of questions he knows they’ll be able to answer on video in order to tell a story that will be interesting and memorable, making the best use of the family’s keepsakes. It’s the type of storytelling Schwartz has spent a lifetime doing, aking life’s moments and molding them into visual memories. Schwartz early in his career Schwartz in his home office, working on the NST documentary
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