No, it's not your imagination. You may really know those people and those places. Two Bayville locations were the recent backdrop for a national television ad campaign tentatively set to begin airing today, March 20. The ads, done for Ritz Camera Centers, Inc. of Beltsville, MD, will feature scenes shot at the Bayville Meat Center and the Crescent Club, both on Bayville Avenue not far from the Bayville Bridge. Additional scenes for the four 30-second spots were shot in Syosset at Ferrari Citgo and Eye and Vision Care Associates, both near the train station on Jackson Avenue as well as at a private residence in Glen Head.

30fps, the outfit that created the spots, is a New York and Long Island-based production company with offices in Manhattan and Glen Cove. They have worked on numerous national campaigns and count among their past and present clients such names as Avon, Sony, Panasonic and Motorola. According to executive producer Philip Arfman, "It's just one of the projects we're working on right now. Ritz is a national retailer of cameras and processing and printing, on a massive scale. They have over a thousand stores, nationwide. They're not that big on this coast, but they're huge from Maryland and places west. It was a campaign for big, big enlargements."

He said, "We are also working with the Optimum Online people with a lot of their efforts, we are working with Bellawood out of Virginia. We're working with Ty Pennington and Bob Vila on some new stuff. Ty Pennington (from ABC TV's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition) represents something called Morning Star, a Bamboo wood flooring product making use of easily renewable resources that is sold through Lumber Liquidators, and Bob Vila speaks on behalf of Bellawood. Locally we just launched a Slomins campaign; the, '1-800-Alarm Me' is ours. There's a new one with a pirate that we just did."

Shooting in Bayville took place on Feb. 28. The first stop was the Bayville Meat Center, a local butcher that in addition to wholesaling to restaurants, supplies fresh and custom-cooked meats retail, offers deli foods and catering, and provides generous portions of Italian and German home-cooked meals to Bayville and Centre Island and points beyond. It was formerly the home of Zuccaro's, a well-known Bayville Italian Restaurant that moved across the street into the spaces of 'Our Hobby Market' before eventually closing. The interior of the Bayville Meat Center has the comfortable well-worn character typical of an established small town enterprise and the store is run by a fourth-generation butcher by trade.

Ed Vassallo, who along with his brother Kurt and his mother Else, has operated the Bayville Meat Center for more than 30 years said, "They came in one day and asked my mom if they could use the store in a commercial." His mom, Else, indicated she was hesitant over the whole thing and interjected, "They asked me if they could use the store. I said they should ask Ed." Parents: Beware of delegating seemingly innocent decisions to your children. You never know what they might involve you in. Good son Ed said he talked to the production folks and agreed to the filming, but that there was one more thing. The production people wanted not just the shop, they wanted Else, too. He said he quickly volunteered his mom even before she could speak.

Ed said, "They got here about 7:30 in the morning on Thursday and were here until about 10 o'clock. They set up lights, they set up a tent outside. It was a big production and they were very organized. I think we had every single car in Bayville stop for breakfast and coffee that morning to see what was going on. Even the man who delivers my bread every day said he had noted passing the unusual caravan of film trucks in Glen Cove. He said he was surprised to see them all later when he got here."

When it came time to film the German-born Else they sent her to make up and gave her a line to say. According to Ed she stubbornly gave the make up artist a bit of a hard time, figuring that make up was much ado about nothing, and was then supplied a line that had both he and Kurt, listening in while still preparing meals for regular business in the back, cracking up as the director made her repeat it over and over and over again. Else said she told the director, "It's a stupid line; it doesn't make any sense." She said the director replied, "I know it. Just say it." Meanwhile a lighting and camera crew of about 30 people swarmed about both the interior of the shop as well as the outside of the building. Else's sons later teased their mom that this was a line that she was now going to be famous for if it ever escapes to the world wide web. It was compared to, "Where's the Beef?" but more risqué.

When asked specifically what the line was, executive producer Arfman began laughing and said, "I can't go there because I give up the creative surprise. I'd love to. It was a very cute line."

Producer Michael Indejian said, "Else was great because we did cast a role for that spot and what we did is that we had an actress on set who read the line. We always felt that Else would have been great, but sometimes to use a non-professional in that role can be rolling the dice a little bit. We booked our actress regardless, and we still had Else do it regardless, and once we got into post-production and editing, we made the decision on which woman would work better. We loved Else. We trusted our gut, our instincts, and she was great. She was a natural. She's real, it's her store, she's comfortable, she's got a bit of a German accent, so it feels more fun."

After 10 a.m. the action moved over to the Crescent Club, an elegant restaurant and catering hall with expansive views of Long Island Sound. It was at the Crescent Club that they filmed most of the models and actresses. According to Crescent Club General Manager Bill Meis, "They started in the upper level, in the Sunset Lounge and they used the bar atmosphere in and around the piano. And then they used the lower level hospitality suite for an interior living room/bedroom type of shot and then they used one of our office spaces for an office shoot." While they did not use any of the staff of Crescent Club in the commercial he said, "They dominated the place. There were about 10 or 12 attractive models. That, I couldn't help but notice." He said, "They were very professional. At the end of the day they cleaned up about twice as fast as they set up, and they put everything back in order, and that's important."

Said Arfman, "When we go into a place like that [the Crescent Club] we can get multiple shots. We can get an office setting, we can get a date setting. That's why we use a place like that. We can get three or four different shots, and that helps us minimize company moves, packing and unpacking. We try to find facilities where we can get two or three shots in one place."

Arfman said, "The bottom line is that there are some very beautiful women in this campaign. Top models, not name models, but top models." He added that overall the ad series is one of humor and light comedy.

Filming in Bayville wrapped just before 7 p.m. in the evening.

30fps tries to use local locations when possible and has in the past contributed positively to the community. Clint Smith, president of the former "Sloop Christeen" corporation and now a lead in a beginning effort to restore Oysterman H. Butler Flower's beloved, Ida May, said that he knew executive producer Arfman personally and thought highly of him. Back in 1994 when the Christeen corporation had only an old disintegrating wreck and no money he indicated that 30fps was the company that made the short video that helped them generate funding and raise interest in the possibility of a restored Oyster Sloop. Arfman recalled the effort, "I remember. Clint was so passionate about the Christeen. I remember we used to send a small crew over in our spare time and we did that fundraising piece. And then we did get involved in the editing of the Oystering video for the Waterfront Center." The latter refers to a unique short documentary initiated by Tom Kuehhas of the Oyster Bay Historical Society and driven and executed by Fritz Coudert of the Waterfront Center. This DVD, still available at the Waterfront Center while copies last, is a very limited release that preserves some of the faces and memories of the people important to the oystering industry in Oyster Bay.