We Are Republican

We Are Republican

This is a mini-documentary that I produced in tandem with Brian Donahue of Jamestown Associates [1].  It's a short piece meant to remind politicos in the beltway what it means to be a real Republican.   It's an excellent example of powerful web video produced for very little cost.  Brian directed and I shot the piece relying on a very small volunteer crew.  The film was shot in 1080 24p and edited in Final Cut Studio.   The video premiered at a Rebuild the Party [2] movement event to packed house.  It got buzz in the Politico and the Weekly Standard. [1] http://www.jamestownassociates.com/ [2] http://www.rebuildtheparty.com/

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The One

The One

New York Magazine named "the One" the most effective ad [1] of the entire presidential campaign.  It was in the Politco's top 5 McCain [2] campaign ads.   Maybe it was because it was viewed more than 1.7 million times online.  Or maybe it was because it was featured as the headline on the DrudgeReport.  It might even be because it was played almost non-stop on every news broadcast.  The combination of "the One" and "Celeb" (created by Fred Davis) changed the entire frame of the race for the month of August.  No longer was Jay Leno cracking jokes about how old John McCain was; instead he was a wiseacre about Obama being a messianic, cult like celebrity figure.  It signaled a more aggressive TV and Web video campaign that had the Obama campaign reeling until the Republican convention.  The video itself was a fairly simple spot, with footage mostly culled from YouTube.  But it was the footage of Charlton Heston as Moses parting the Red Sea to reveal Obama's fake presidential seal - that made it a classic. [1] http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/10/campaign_ads.html#photo=13 [2] http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/15096.html

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Reagan Memorial

Reagan Memorial

This video was created for the Bush campaign as a memorial to President Ronald Reagan upon his passing.  It uses photos of President Reagan as well as sound-bites and sound-bites from President George W. Bush.  It was featured on the homepage of GeorgeWBush.com as part of the campaign's remembrance and celebration of the life of President Reagan.  The video won both a Pollie award and the Golden Dot award for best online video.

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I am Joe

I am Joe

This 90-second spot was created using the video testimonials of McCain supporters.  In the waning weeks of the campaign, Joe the Plumber became a central and controversial figure in the campaign.  He was a symbol of the workingman whose taxes were in danger of being raised by Barack Obama.  The campaign held an online contest asking supporters to send in their own video explaining why they were Joe the Plumber.  This ad was edited from those varied submissions.  It earned high praise in the blogosphere and went viral, earning more than 300,000 views on YouTube.

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Courageous Service

Courageous Service

Courageous Service was one of the most important videos or ads produced for the McCain campaign.  In the late summer/early fall of 2007 the McCain campaign had very little money and had been beaten up in the press.  It was time to get back to basics -- blocking and tackling -- and that meant it was time to tell John McCain's story.  Previously the campaign had shied away from fully embracing the Senator's amazing story, but starting in the fall of 2007 that was no longer the case; his courageous service would become the cornerstone theme of the campaign moving forward.   With almost no budget, I managed to be a one man band: interviewing, shooting and editing.  The result was a 12-minute bio film that cost the campaign $5,000, whereas a similar project on Bush-Cheney '04 cost $100,000 to make. Courageous Service became a central feature of our Web site for not just the primary but the whole campaign.  It also became part of the field program with DVDs made available at events in Iowa and New Hampshire.   The video was viewed over 800,000 times and generated a great deal of earned media including this article [1] in the Concord Monitor. [1] http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=4864449149&h=4vcYy&u=srcBc

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Sights and Sounds

Sights and Sounds

Compiled in October of 2004, Sights and Sounds of the Campaign Trail featured many of the great still images I was able to capture as the videographer for Bush-Cheney '04.  Many of the shots in the video were enhanced through movement or special effects.  Sound-bites from audio recorded of the President on the road complimented the visuals.  The video was featured on the campaign Web site as well as played on election night.

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Man in the Arena

Man in the Arena

Man in the Arena was created more with a feeling in mind rather than a definitive script or concrete theme.  It's an abstract visual and audio celebration of what it means to be a leader.  It took a full week to complete.  The backbone of the video started with the music, selected after listening to hundreds of tracks.  From there inspirational sound-bites were gathered of Winston Churchill, Teddy Roosevelt and of course John McCain.  Celestial imagery was added to bring an expansive, larger than life ethereal quality to the video.   Man in the Arena went viral once it was released, and remained the number one most viewed McCain video for several months.  It was picked up in thousands of blogs, many of which tried to decode the meaning behind the piece, including Time [1] and Ann Althouse [2].  The video had over half a million views. [1] http://swampland.blogs.time.com/ [2] http://althouse.blogspot.com/2008/03/lets-talk-about-new-mccain-ad.html

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Please Don’t Touch

Please Don’t Touch

This isn't a video in the traditional sense.  It's comprised of all still shots from a Nikon D300 digital SLR.  It was shot over 3 days in Seattle, and I used two lenses, a 50mm 1.4f and a 20 mm 2.8f lens.  Those lenses let me shoot in low light conditions and obtain great depth of field.  You'll notice that there's an audio clip of Jimi Hendrix overlayed on the images I shot in the Experience Music Project.  That audio is from the last interview he ever gave.  To replicate video movement I shot sequences of many of the scenes.  All in all I shot close to 1,000 photographs in order to construct a video of this length.

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