Thirteen new half-hour episodes of “Jack’s Big Music Show,” the inventive live music and puppet series, begins its second production season from early July through August at Post Effects.
The show rolls out Jan. 1, 2007 on Noggin, the Nickelodeon division for preschoolers. It bowed last May.
“Jack’s” is the brainchild of Spiffy Pictures’ partners and executive producers David Rudman, a.k.a. Cookie Monster of “Sesame Street” fame, his brother Adam Rudman, and Todd Hemmert.
“We’re very excited and glad to be back with season two,” said Adam Rudman. “And we love to be shooting in Chicago.” The company is based in Highland Park.
Each episode features a loud and goofy mix of music, comedy and famous musical guests, designed to expose young children to the fun and exciting world of music and song. Rudman said Spiffy designed and built most all of the puppets, while others were made by a New York puppet builder.
The partners collaborate on music and lyrics, except for the two-to-three minute music videos and music that’s performed by guest artists.
Returning for the second season are DP Mark Kluiszo, editor Ed Pickart and Props Art’s Mary Byrzinski, who designed and created the set and props.
Terry Fryer of Third Wave, his company with audio guru Hank Neuberger, continue to arrange and produce the music.
The clubhouse is a physical set, designed by Byrzinki for puppeteering, and custom-built on Post Effects’ 35×24-foot stage. The stage has drive-in access and several staging/prep areas that allows Spiffy’s production team an easy path for set load-in and strike.
The new series again will utilize Post Effects’ Sony F900 CineAlta HDCAM 24P HD camera system. The 16×9 master videotapes will be down-converted to a 4×3 standard definition format for offline and online editing.
To aid in this process, Post Effects purchased a wide collection of new tools especially for “Jack’s.” They included new HD down-converters, wireless microphone systems and audio mixers.
Earlier for Nickelodeon, Spiffy Pictures produced “The Curious Buddies,” now a series on DVD.
David Rudman has portrayed “Sesame Street’s lovable Cookie Monster for the past eight years. He spends several months a year filming the show in New York.
Spiffy’s office is located at 1811 St. John Ave., Highland Park. Phone, 847/432-6880.
