John Edwards, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson are Making Sense

Last week videos from the Edwards, Obama and Richardson campaigns showed some of the different looks you can turn to when making a video for the same purpose – in this case, seeking an endorsement.

John Edwards’ take on sensible priorities:

Barack Obama’s take on sensible priorities:

Bill Richardson’s take on sensible priorities:

All three of these videos had the same purpose: winning the endorsement of Iowans for Sensible Priorities. What interests me are the differences between the three.

Edwards obviously sat down for a few minutes to record a greeting just for this purpose. His team also worked in footage from the road and went to graphics to make his take on sensible priorities perfectly clear. The Edwards video also wisely ends with a web link that takes you to a page on his site dedicated to this effort. There’s text of his remarks, an embedded video player, and even a snapshot of Edwards with someone wearing the group’s t-shirt.

The BarackTV team wins on picture quality. Like most everything they put up, the video is beautiful. Of course, that could be my aesthetic prejudice in favor of the Panasonic 24P cameras they (and I) shoot on! Because the Edwards videos went out to B-Roll and graphics, you can’t tell if there are cuts in his remarks. With Obama, there is no question. The entire minute and a half clip is in one continuous take – with fairly dense material in there. The uninterrupted roll makes for a very strong performance.

Richardson goes grassroots in his clip, grabbing his remarks on the fly while at the Harkin Steakfry. He starts off informal, with a “tell me when” (always a favorite of mine) and surrounds himself with cheering members of the group whose endorsement he seeks – including their Executive Director. Nice move. The last few seconds of the clip have him turning back to the activists for some good old fashioned hand shakin’.

There are useful elements in all three videos.

If I were putting this clip together, the hard part would be the decision between the Richardson-style piece or the Edwards/Obama-style piece. Given the opportunity to surround yourself with a group’s members when making an endorsement ask video can’t be underestimated.

Either way, I’d reinforce my priorities with graphics. I wouldn’t have them over black like Edwards, but would superimpose them along with the candidate giving the remarks. Edwards was also right to give a call to action link at the end. Every video should have one. If the candidate can get it in one like Obama, use as much of that as possible. But, mix in some B-Roll if you’re not standing with the members.

And for God’s sake, if you’re sitting down and making this clip for a few minutes: USE A TRIPOD. Loose, handheld footage is fine grabbing things off the cuff, but if you’re going to the trouble of lights, flags, or signs to make the shot nice, take the extra minute to stabilize your shot.

Clips like these are what campaign videos should be all about. They’re easy enough to crank out, and talk directly to an interested group of people. Twist your scheduler’s arm, grab a few hours of the candidates time one day and pound out one after the other for the many groups whose support you seek. Press them to DVD and drop them in the mail, or – if you can – get their email addresses and send them that way. This is a much better use of production resources than shooting the stump speech for the umpteenth time.