T&A at TBD: Looking for Obama Girl with Max Blumenthal at Take Back America

You may have seen Max Blumenthal’s words at The Nation or HuffPo. Or, if you were at this week’s Take Back America conference, you might have seen him conducting interesting interviews of such folks as Mike Gravel, Rev. Al Sharpton or “Obama Girl” Amber Lee Ettinger.

Actually, he never found Obama Girl at the event - but made sure to ask lots of people where she could be tracked down.

It appears the conference organizers were a little nervous about Blumenthal’s artistry, as he explains in this excerpt from his personal blog:

With over a thousand people waiting to view my film, my videographer, Thomas Shomaker, and I were whisked backstage. There, conference organizers told us “technical” problems made our screening impossible. I was finally told that our film was too “edgy.” In it I interviewed participants at the conference, including Ralph Nader, Al Sharpton, Mike Gravel, bloggers from Atrios to Matt Stoller, and activists. I suspect that its good-natured humor failed to meet a threshold of dull earnestness. Judge for yourself. Watch the film now. (MaxBlumenthal.com)

Don’t worry Max. Like all great artists, people will appreciate this video after you’re dead.

For a refresher on Blumenthal’s history in political conference filmmaking, check out his piece from CPAC:

Spike Jonze + YouTube = Al Gore is President? (or How the Wooden VP Became a Real Boy)

Going through unlabeled tracks in my iTunes library, I came across “What’s Up Fatlip?” by Fatlip (formerly of The Pharcyde). It got me thinking of the song’s excellent video - directed by Spike Jonze (see below).

Around the same time he was making videos and documentaries with Fatip, Jonze created a piece for the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. It’s in the Brightcove player you see above. If I remember correctly, the video aired in the afternoon during one of the sessions early in the convention week. As such, it was relegated to that portion of the convention that only those of us in the hall and C-Span viewers witnessed. Count yourself among the few to have seen it.

Had there been a distribution channel like YouTube in 2000, this is the kind of video that could have been tremendously effective. Apart from being too long (remember it was for a the most partisan captive audience imaginable), this piece had the right stuff to spread far and chop down Gore’s wooden image - not so much by defying that image, but reveling in it.

Forget the fact that you see Al Gore shirtless and body surfing. Any candidate can take off their shirt. Gore strips off the trappings of a life in politics.

The scene of Gore Family Movie Night is great. You see all of the things people tended to not like about Gore, that he is cerebral and a bit nitpicky…but it’s about which movies to pop in the VCR - and even how they get watched! As his kids gang up on him - even mocking his voice and demeanor - you see those qualities that were off-putting in the first debate in an “everyday people” light. All of those male voters who “wanted to have a beer” with Bush could watch that scene and instantly identify with the dad getting ribbed by his wife and kids.

I know I can relate.

Watch the scenes with Tipper and think about all the contrived videos you’ve ever seen of candidates and their wives (I’m looking at you, Mitt Romney). Watch his confidence and comfort in talking about global warming (famously verboten from the campaign at large). It’s no surprise that people started to like Gore more after An Inconvenient Truth. Jonze got that same performance years earlier.

For all of Hillary Clinton’s meticulously crafted attempts at humor, her trilogy of Song Contest films pale next to the humanizing power of Jonze’s loose, disarming Gore film. Hillary’s videos are clever and well produced, but how many of the views are like gawkers at a car crash…

“Oh my God…is she dancing?” or “Is that Bill? I can’t believe it.”

It’s a shock to see the Clinton’s in that light. It’s effective, but clearly canned. Jonze escapes that with Gore. From the last scene, it is clear that Jonze has just been rolling tape after tape after tape. It’s really just Gore talking…being Gore - to fall into the cliche.

Long disappeared, this video found re-release in the inaugural issue of Wolphin, a DVD magazine of unreleased short films. This first issue also contains the great Soldier’s Pay, by David O. Russell - director of I Heart Huckabee’s, Three Kings, and indie classic Spanking the Monkey. You can subscribe to Wolphin, or buy back-issues on their website.

The page on the Gore film features an interview with Jonze:

Q: So you just spent one day with them? You started in Carthage, Tennessee?

SJ: Yeah, I went down there to Tennessee and it was supposed to be just an afternoon. I guess he had liked my movie Being John Malkovich and so from that had I don’t know why he gave me this sort of access. It was very intimate and personal in terms of letting a cameraman into your home, but I guess that after the afternoon, they felt comfortable with me, so they invited me to go on their vacation. They were leaving that day to go to North Carolina, so in the middle of the afternoon the helicopters came and landed in the Tennessee farmhouse and we went to the army base and got on Air Force Two and flew to North Carolina. (Wolphin @ McSweeney’s)

For your viewing pleasure, here is the Spike Jonze-directed video for What’s Up Fatlip:

Clintons = Sopranos? How long until this clip breaks 1,000,000 views?

Due to the amount of candidate emails I get…I have to admit I often don’t read them. So, I guess I’m a little behind the times to post the Clinton campaign’s spoof of the last episode of the Sopranos.

As for her “winner” of the song contest…

The Greatest Singer in the World, Celine Dion! (I’d post an SNL clip on YouTube…but things are touchy between those camps!)

In general – and this is just my pet peeve – I have a problem with campaign songs by non-American acts. While this rule thankfully removes U2’s “Beautiful Day” from consideration – put it to bed, people! – it also strikes my personal choice, were I running for office…Elvis Costello’s “(What’s So Funny ‘bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding.” You take the good with the bad, I guess…

But – Canadian or not – Celine Dion is…

Just. Plain. Wrong.

That alone is enough to keep me away from any future Clinton rallies.

I was personally holding out for Show Me What You Got, by Jay-Z.

Edwards “Demand and Be Heard” Eventful.com Contest Video Reappears!

Yesterday, as a case for using systems other than YouTube as your primary web video outlet (post to all of them), I posted a disappearing video from the Edwards campaign about their contest on Eventful.com, called Demand and Be Heard. The video has been revived, and is posted above. I’ve cast my vote, and hope to see the former Senator on his way to Los Angeles - which is now in the lead. California’s newly minted “early” status has given me great chances to see more of these candidates than I have in past elections. I savor every visit!

In that same post, I also referenced a missing Edwards video featuring a call from the candidate to his wife Elizabeth. The video had popped up long enough to appear on PrezVid.com, and greetings to those of you finding your way here via that site’s generous link.

ReelPolitik notices that the Edwards campaign has taken down the video I wrote about the other day showing the candidate asking his wife permission to go to a basketball game under the proudly snarky headline, ‘Will he ask for permission to invade Iran?‘ Click on the video now and it’s “private.” Ah, but there is no private in a presidential campaign. ReelPolitik asks: “Did Jarvis’ snark drive this video into privacy?” Well, if so, that’d be silly. The Edwards video was the first spark I saw of a candidate being just a little loose on the little camera. If someone in the campaign tries to sanitize, script, and spin that, they’re missing the point of the medium. Put the video back up. What’s the harm in looking human? (PrezVid)

I don’t find Jeff Jarvis all that scary, and doubt Joe Trippi and the Edwards team do either. Yet Jarvis’ headline RE: Iran was an example of the “Gotcha Culture” Trippi has been taking to task in recent talks on candidate web videos.

Like many others, I hope for more of the behind the curtain looks like the Edwards campaign gave - however temporarily. But, it’s important for those of us who ask for them to not turn them into an opportunity to take pot shots…lest the access disappear.

In a way, I feel lucky to have seen the “Phone Call” clip…perhaps that is a potential strategy for campaign video creators such as myself. Put things up for just a limited time. Make interesting enough that when they disappear people post about it on their blogs…hmmmm….

While we’re talking Edwards the folks at the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights gave their big award of the year to Elizabeth Edwards. Here’s video of her speech (in two parts):

Obama & Edwards: Fathers and Sons

I work campaigns.

I have two sons - and a third on the way.

These two things are sometimes hard to reconcile. As I’m currently talking to various campaigns about what ship to set sail on next, I can hardly imagine what it’s like to be a candidate with two young children.

Off the top of my head, three Democratic contenders (Barack Obama, John Edwards and Chris Dodd) all have young children as they pursue the presidency.

In the following two videos, Senators Obama and Edwards talk about campaigning with children:

In the first episode of the new Barack Obama podcast, he discusses his children and his father in honor of the now-past Father’s Day weekend. Somehow, I can’t imagine another candidate discussing their family in the way that Senator Obama does in this clip. It’s the type of openness that made his books successful and acclaimed…and made me subscribe to the podcast through iTunes.

In this Edwards clip, Senator Edwards is a little lighter in his treatment of bringing kids on the campaign trail. A friend who worked advance for Senator Edwards four years ago had nothing but good things to say about the Senator’s plucky son, Jack. Jack and his sister, Emma Claire, appear in this piece but flee the room when it’s time for daddy to give yet another speech. His attention turns to his own father in the next clip - as he revisits the familiar setting of the textile mill where his father worked.

Disappearing Edwards Videos - One Case for Brightcove

On Technology Evangelist, Benjamin J. Higginbotham…

…which reminds me of a story - my only known encounter with the CIA!…

…but anyway…

Higginbotham writes on the value of using Brightcove as opposed to YouTube for your campaign’s primary video outlet. While rightly suggesting the use ofall of the social video sites (including Blip.tv, Revver and Ustream.TV), he sites one major strength of Brightcove…the ability to post your videos on a time-delayed basis:

Being able to pre-record a message and schedule it to go live at an exact time can give your campaign the extra edge it may need vs waiting for YouTube to convert your video whenever it darn well pleases. (Technology Evangelist)

He is absolutely right. Brightcove has better control and quality - and the simple convenience of choosing your own thumbnail (long overdue from YouTube). But, in a world where timing is so critical imagine the stress relief of uploading on Monday, knowing that the video will appear - as if by magic! - at a predetermined time on Thursday!

One campaign wishing it had this ability may be the Edwards campaign - who have been cranking out videos lately…with some of them disappearing after they pop to those of us using RSS to monitor their feeds.

If you click on the player above, you find that the video has been turned private. But not before it turned up in my feed reader - and on the blog of Jeff Jarvis, PrezVid. Did Jarvis’ snark drive this video into privacy?

Another example popped up in my reader not long ago, going hand in hand with a push email the Edwards camp is making today urging people to demand him on Eventful.com.

The video has now been removed, but the cat is out of the bag. When will the clip reappear?

I suppose the moral of the story is that while YouTube is the biggest microphone in the online video world it has it’s drawbacks. So, consider Brightcove (or Blip.tv - which the Obama campaign has recently added…you can get Obama on iTunes now!). You’ll get better quality, more control, the ability to choose your still - YouTube really needs to fix this! - and the restful knowledge that you will control when people see your clips…not the unreliable speed of YouTube’s upload system.

Biden on a Roll - YouTube Response Videos

A moment ago, I posted a nice clip from the Biden campaign on the importance of the Iowa Caucuses that defies their M.O. of posting clips from news shows and debate performances.

Now, they follow up with a quartet of video responses through YouTube.

I’ve pulled them into the playlist below. I would have like to put the original YouTuber’s videos in here, but the campaign has not yet attached these clips as “video responses” to the questions they respond to. From the looks of things, they may all be directed at folks who issued typed - rather than taped - comments.

Biden Iowa Video

No one can say that Senator Joe Biden’s campaign has failed to be prolific in their posting to YouTube. Hitting the 100 videos mark on their YouTube account today, the Biden campaign has relied far too much - for my liking - on television news and debate clips.

There is certainly room for clips like these (Republican consultant David All suggests a whole YouTube channel for them), but (without actually counting) they look to be the majority of what the Biden campaign has posted.

Today, the Biden campaign breaks away from that trend with a nice piece on the increased importance of the Iowa caucuses in the new front-loaded Democratic Primary calendar.

Walk for Change: San Fernando Valley

Here’s a little piece (the first of two) from the San Fernando Valley “Walk for Change” canvassing event for the Obama’08 campaign. For other pieces from the Walk for Change, check out PrezVid or BarackTV.

The New Hampshire Debate - Hitting the Angle Button

At the Democratic debate on Tuesday night, the CNN/WMUR crews weren’t the only ones toting video gear. In the midst of the YouTube primary, the campaigns were sporting crews of their own.

Throughout the day, the Dodd campaign was rolling tape in their signature cinéma vérité style. As a “pre-game show” they hosted a live video chat via ustream.tv. Even days before the debate they were generating debate-related clips, such as this one:

The Edwards campaign immediately followed the debate with a quick clip of the former Senator being marched into the hall by a drumline. Today they have a new release with an interesting film showing the Senator as he is given a walk-through of how the event will go down.

There’s a great deal to like here. I love the gentlemanly and impromptu meeting with Governor Richardson at the end. I would like to have seen footage from the debate worked into the piece - especially since CNN went to all the trouble of freeing up use of it for vLoggers and the ‘net.

Maybe it goes like this…

Open on the debate.

Show a great line from the candidate.

Then cut out.

TITLE: X Hours Earlier

Flashback to the walk through.

During the explanation of the first half, show a great line from the first half.

At the rundown on the second half, show a great line from the second half.

Wrap it up with the great hallway meeting, and a suggestion of where to find more substantive clips (captured from TV?).

I love the novelty of the piece, which taps into the exclusivity of having a campaign-controlled camera. It gives viewers a reason to watch. But, while you have them it is important to also deliver the message.