He was a star basketball player with the Detroit Pistons and the Milwaukee Bucks.
He played in 8 NBA All-Star games.
He wore size 22 shoes.
He is in the basketball Hall of Fame.
He is the president and founder of Bob Lanier Enterprises.

But at Midland Video when we think of Bob Lanier, we always remember a 30-second spot we did with him for Wisconsin Gas.

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It sounded too good to be true…and it was.


When you arrive on location and the videographer unpacks a consumer camcorder that had clearly been made during the Roman Empire, it’s time to start panicking.


In February 1984 I had flown to Italy to direct a corporate video for Marinette Marine at a shipyard south of Genoa. It was my first trip to Europe and I was excited to be working with an Italian crew that had been hired by the client. I was surprised when Emilio and Luigi turned out to be in their 70’s and dismayed when they pulled an ancient camera out of a gym bag.


The fact that I spoke only “train station Italian" and they spoke even less English didn’t help matters. I had spent a bunch of the client’s budget getting to Italy and I desperately needed these scenes to complete the video, so quitting now wasn’t an option.


After a day of work and with no useable scenes in the can, it was time for Plan B – hiring another crew. I found one in Florence but it was several days before we could coordinate schedules and clear up some red tape, so there was nothing for me to do but kill time.


If you have to kill time, there are far worse places than Italy. Here are a few scenes of the waiting – and then some segments of the completed video.

The completed Marinettevideo.

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