The real monsters, dragons, and basilisks are back! More than 60 live lizards and snakes from five continents are now displayed in exquisitely prepared habitats. In addition to the live animals, the exhibit uses interactive stations, significant fossils, and an award-winning video to acquaint visitors with the world of the Squamata, the group that includes lizards and snakes.

Join Darrel Frost, curator of Lizards & Snakes: Alive!, as he walks through the exhibit and describes some of the fascinating traits these creatures possess.

Produced for the American Museum of Natural History on March 10, 2010.

With Madagascar containing nearly two-third’s of the world’s chameleon species, Christopher Raxworthy, Associate Curator of Herpetology at the American Museum of Natural History, recently embarked on an expedition to the island in search of these special lizards. His hope was to track down the lined-chameleon in order to further study speciation on Madagascar.

Having recently returned from Madagascar, Raxworthy brought back video footage of his research trip to give everyone a glimpse into his studies and what life is like for scientists in the field, including camping in remote villages, searching for specimens in the jungle and traversing the varied island landscape.

While Raxworthy’s recent findings must remain in Madagascar until the end of this current collection season, once he has the chameleon specimens at the Museum his work to classify and study the DNA will begin.

I produced this video for the American Museum of Natural History on March 5, 2010.

There was a time when Broadway melodies would play on radio stations across the country, a time when showtunes were part of a crooner’s nightly set list at the club. Those were the days of musical heavyweights like Oscar Hammerstein II, George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein and Irving Berlin. When one of these musical masterminds crafted a song, chances are, people around the country wanted to hear it.

It was called the Golden Age of Broadway — a period of time between the 1940s and 1960s that is often recalled by theatrical historians and Broadway devotees. Sadly, nostalgia does not pay the bills, nor does the current exposure Broadway musicals have been getting these past few years.

While the average twenty-something isn’t dying for another Gershwin-like hit, innovative musicals have been offering up songs that could strike a chord with the iTunes and YouTube generation. If only someone in the marketing community would hurry up and figure out a way to reach these unaware future fans.

The musical ‘Next to Normal’ uses a contemporary sound to deal with themes of depression and emotional crisis — dark themes reminiscent of Emo rock. ‘In the Heights,’ another currently running show, takes soft-rap music and combines it with Latin flair, making it an easy fit for contemporary hit radio playlists. And the soon-to-open ‘American Idiot’ is, well, full of music by the already hit mainstream band Green Day.

It is the latter musical, ‘American Idiot,’ that’s making the biggest strides in Broadway marketing, thanks in major part to Green Day’s lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong and his push to get the Broadway actors on stage at this year’s Grammy Awards telecast. Musicians joining Broadway shows as producers isn’t a new concept, and this season has a few big names joining the crowd, including ‘Fela,’ which boasts an affiliation with Jay-Z. It’s time to take advantage of that relationship.

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Traveling the Silk Road brings to life one of the greatest trading routes in human history, showcasing the goods, cultures, and technologies from four representative cities: Xian, Chinas Tang Dynasty capital; Turfan, a verdant oasis and trading outpost; Samarkand, home of prosperous merchants who thrived on the caravan trade; and Baghdad, a fertile hub of commerce and scholarship that became the intellectual center of the era.

I produced, edited and narrated this Silk Road trailer for the American Museum of Natural History February 18, 2010.

Introducing the first official app from the American Museum of Natural History.  This app lets paleontologists of all ages explore the Museum’s famous fossil halls in depth.  DINOSAURS: American Museum of Natural History Collections contains more than 800 images from the Museum’s archive, woven together to create a striking image of the world’s most famous dinosaur, the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

The app also features six detailed stories that take you even further into the Museum’s archives to explore the deep history of fossil collection. Keep an eye out for additional adventures coming soon.

I produced and edited this promo video for the Museum’s first iPhone app January 2010.