Young Progressive Majority Hosts Obama In Los Angeles

Usually, I consider myself in the loop about the comings and goings of President Obama in Los Angeles.  After all, I work for the campaign’s State Director for California, Mitchell Schwartz.  People count on me to know this stuff.

But somehow I missed the President holding an LA Town Hall with Obama.

Oh.  Wait.  Never mind.

Watching it again, I figured out that they were just cutting footage from the President’s first press conference together with footage of actors faking questions to him.  It’s really a GOTV piece from Young Progressive Majority for the Los Angeles elections taking place on Tuesday, March 3, 2009.

So, check out Jordan Carlos, Lauren Weedman, Christopher Redman, Marguerite Moreau, Marty Dusig, Enuka Okuma, and Cara Pifko in a piece produced by Raul Gasteazoro & Luke Frydenger and directed by Bryan Carmel.

If you feel like reliving the magic of the real East Room press conference, here it is…

Watch This: The Gay Alphabet (HD)

You always knew there was something different about the alphabet.  Admit it.

We all had out suspicions, and now they can be put to rest.

The alphabet has come out of the closet in this new video: The Gay Alphabet.

Funny Money - Rick Jacobs’ Courage Campaign Passes Counterfeit “Arnold Bucks”

Here’s the latest creative effort from our good friends at the Courage Campaign Issues Committee, calling attention to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s sending Californinans IOU’s instead of much needed aid or tax refunds.

Many Californians are so overwhelmed by this paralyzing crisis that they’ve just tuned it out. As a result, Arnold is not being held accountable for his failure to lead.

That’s why we decided to try something a bit unorthodox — raise awareness by using humor to highlight the absurdity of these IOU’s, or what we are calling “Arnoldbucks.”

We asked one of our members to see what would happen if he tried to use “Arnoldbucks” as legal tender at a few businesses in the area. You won’t believe what happened. It’s all caught on camera — even a few security cams.

Know a friend who might need a laugh? Share this video with them, download your own Arnoldbucks below, then tell us your ideas.  (Courage Campaign: Arnold Bucks)

My favorite part: “The State of California would gladly pay you Tuesday for a cheeseburger today.”

Arnold can haz cheezburger?

Governor Schwarzenegger’s Hit Christmas Family Movie (but not Jingle All the Way)

The good folks at Courage Campaign Issues Committee (disclosure: I’ve done a bit of work for them) are making spirits bright…at the Governor’s expense.

Robert in Monterey talks about the piece at Calitics:

The Courage Campaign, in partnership with Donkey on the Edge and with the support of Cheri and Naren Shankar, put together this video of Arnold’s “California Carol” - Arnold is visited by the ghosts of California past, present and future, showing him the error of his ways.

Unfortunately, California’s Ebenezer Scrooge isn’t going to have a Christmas morning change of heart and suddenly decide to provide funding for schools and health care. Not unless we the people demand that he stop cutting and start saving California by signing the Democratic budget deal.  (Calitics - Arnold’s Nightmare: A California Carol)

Lest ye forget, this is not the Governor’s first foray into holiday entertainment.  As bad as the situation is in Sacramento, do we really want him going back to this…

What was Hillary Clinton up to while Barack Obama was palling around with Oprah?

Why…

Making an ad, of course!

So, there you have it. Hillary Clinton’s mom supports her.

This ad is should put to rest all the doubters that Hillary is not human. She has a mom, and a kid. What could be more regular than that? And for those who’d call her calculating and out for herself, her mom lets us know that she was never a jealous person and has always helped others. So, there.

And that last line, “she ought to be elected…even if she weren’t my daughter.” Sounds a lot like Bill’s endorsement language, that he’d supporter her even if they weren’t married. Of course, she is Hillary’s mom. And Bill and Hillary are married. So, it makes you wonder…

For the web, the Clinton campaign followed up on the commercial with this nice piece featuring Hillary, mom, and Chelsea - all grows up.

This well-made video is in the style of Hillary’s other road pieces. Peppy (though canned) music, a mix of fawning interviews and retail politics b-roll, a few carefully chosen lines from her rap.

Don’t get me wrong. The Clinton campaigns videos have all been very well done. My only complaint is that they just feel like longer versions of the same, old campaign commercials. Take a chance. Break down the walls. Let us see Hillary.

I’ve met her a few times and found her very pleasant. Surprisingly so, after the decades of Right-Wing smearing directed at her. Though not the charmer her husband is, she was a real pleasure to talk to for the few minutes at a time when our paths crossed. Yet, in the extremely personal medium that is web video, the Clinton campaign’s pieces are still just incredibly guarded.

Instead of making Sopranos spoofs to try and show that she has a sense of humor. Let the cameras follow her, and keep rolling, and actually capture her sense of humor.

Even Rudy Giuliani’s “YouTube-Style” Video Is About Tall Buildings Being Terrorized

Still clearing out a number of videos I have wanted to post about. This one is Rudy Giuliani’s “YouTube-style” clip from the GOP’s CNN/YouTube Debate.

It’s got a nice mix of humor, information and attacks on Hillary Clinton. If I were a Republican, I’m guessing that’d be a web video trifecta.

But did anyone else notice that even his “YouTube-style” clip managed to include skyscrapers in peril? Joe Biden was right.

PWNED! What Gravel was up to during the Vegas debate

Former Senator Mike Gravel was excluded from last week’s debate in Las Vegas. The video above shows how he handled the situation - by holding an event where he yells at the television. Thanks to Tivo, you don’t even have to miss any of the debate while he gives his responses.

Actually, this event was a nice way to deal with the situation.

Now, it wasn’t a surprise to the Alaskan that he was being left out of the party at UNLV. So, ahead of the debate his campaign also produced the video below, which takes a humorous look at what he’d be doing. To wit, he’d be pwning people at Halo III.

If This Race Were About Hair, We’d Elect Jonathan Antin President

The 2008 Democratic Primaries have often seemed as devoted to the hair on top of candidates’ heads as the ideas inside. In the Chris Dodd ad above, he re-enlists his white mane for humor - citing it as evidence of decades of fighting the good fight in the Senate. He also works in a poke at John Edwards in the process.

Opponents and critics have been going upside John Edwards well-coiffed head with these follicly-charged strikes for month - but I figured it’d end after the excellent (if late) rebuttal he brought along to the CNN/YouTube debate:




In a media-obsessed society like America has become, it drives me nuts that the biggest criticism many can hurl at Edwards is that he didn’t want messy hair on television. Lord only knows what people would say, had he gone on with a cowlick - God forbid!

But it doesn’t stop with Dodd and Edwards. In the two videos below, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama spend a little time with the striped-pole brigade.







There was a stretch in 2005 when I was looking for my next project. From time to time, I found myself watching a reality series on Bravo featuring uber-stylist-to-the-stars Jonathan Antin. If we’re going to spend this much time talking about hair, why not just run him? Or at least a cabinet position? Anything?

ALSO: On a more serious note, look at the video below. It’s a teaser that the Obama put out ahead of their barbershop clip. This is a great technique. The rumbling belly of the web video beast is soothed by appetizers such as these. One thing I’d add: a push at the end of the clip telling people to tune back in for the longer piece. An eye-catching glimpse of a compelling story (like the Army Ranger’s meeting with Obama) can be the hook that brings viewers with only a little time (in this case :45 seconds) back for something more substantial, if they see that it’s something with human appeal.

My Dinner With Andre…actually, Barack

Last quarter the Obama campaign went through stories sent in by their grassroots contributors to form a quartet that would sit down with the Senator over dinner to discuss the race and our nation.

I sometimes want to doubt these things - that it may have been part gimmick, part list-building tool, or part fund-raising ploy - and I don’t know how much of Obama’s massive grassroots financing effort came through the Dinner With Barack contest. In the end the intent and the numbers don’t matter, as it made for great online viewing.

It became a unique time all of us got to spend with the Senator.

Before releasing the clip of the actual dinner, the BarackTV team released a series of pieces talking to the dinner guests. We got a chance to meet them, to actually see their lives, to hear their stories, and to get a feel for what draws them to Obama.

Knowing a bit about the guests made the dinner video more effective, featuring the supporters as characters rather than props in the story.

The dinner itself went very well. This experience was quite different from what you usually get from campaign videos. It was quiet, personal, humorous, and conversational.

If there was anything I’d have done differently, it would have been to combine the guest footage with the dinner into a slightly larger piece, and to talk to Obama separately from the dinner, not unlike the talks with the guests. Get his point of view on what it takes to run a campaign from the bottom up.

Maybe a clip like that is still in the pipeline. Who knows?

But, bravo to the BarackTV folks! Bully for you for a cool project.

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:

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