Ham Nation

Ham Nation

This is one in a series of video blogs I edited and directed for blogger Mary Katharine Ham.  This particular video series ran on Townhall [1] during the fall of the 2006 election cycle.  An irreverent series, it's a perfect example of high quality video blogging.  Most of the episodes were shot using a green-screen technique. Episodes would break 10,000 YouTube views within a week of their release.  The series won the Institute for Politics Democracy and the Internet's Golden Dot award for best video blog. [1] http://www.townhall.com

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Tied Up

Tied Up

No other ad in the Republican primary got as much attention as Tied Up.  Immediately after John McCain got off the great zinger in the debate I began piecing together the spot on my laptop.  Most of the ad was edited with Final Cut Studio on a MacBook pro.  The end result was a spot that was able to extend the Senator's debate momentum and score a good round of earned media.

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Obama’s Secret Berlin Ad

Obama’s Secret Berlin Ad

This high concept web video was released through the RNC.  When Obama went overseas and planned to give a speech to hundreds of thousands in Berlin, the campaign knew it had to get reactions from Berliners.  A London based film crew shot interviews with Germans, Europeans and travelers alike, amassing a healthy collection of absurd sound-bites.  Since speed was the ultimate concern, the crew in Berlin compressed the files into cell phone sized quicktimes that I downloaded on my end.  The goal was to make the most absurd video possible.  The concept: what would Obama's secret Berlin ad look like? The answer:  disco like visuals, euro-trash music, an assortment of odd european characters and of course a German favorite - David Hasselhoff.   The video got heavy airplay on MSNBC, including being shown on Morning Joe.  It was the RNC's most viewed YouTube video of all time with over 184,000 views.  If you want to know what a viral video looks like, this is it.

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Stop. Think.

Stop. Think.

This is a concept 30-second ad.  It wasn't released.  Good example of how powerful an ad can be without a voice-over and instead  just a compelling soundtrack with words on screen.

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BC’04 Rally Video

BC’04 Rally Video

A 5-minute long film created to play at President George W. Bush's re-election rallies.  The footage was shot cinema verite style over the course of a couple of months on the campaign trail.  Shot and edited in a style owing more to MTV than standard presidential presentation, the video was featured in a New York Times article [1] stating that "the video stands out…edgy, unpresidential style, with grainy pictures, speeded-up-action and off kilter camera angles shouting out “You got a problem with this?” to anyone under 25.”  It won a Pollie award for best non-broadcast video. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/06/politics/campaign/06letter.html

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Swann Rally Video

Swann Rally Video

In 2006 I travelled extensively with Lynn Swann as he ran for Governor.  I produced a series of video blogs for his Web site as well as a slew of additional Web videos.  This video highlights Swann's announcement and was purposed as a rally video.  All video was shot in 720 24p HD.

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NFIB

NFIB

One of a series of videos produced for NFIB profiling small business owners.  All the videos were shot in 720 24p HD.

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Lipstick

Lipstick

This controversial Web video had to be pulled less than a day after it was released.  But before it was pulled it had rocketed past 500,000 views on YouTube and received heavy earned media play on the cable news networks.  The video effectively got Obama off message for a couple of days.  Not bad for a video that only took about four hours to put together.  We pulled together clips of Obama's lipstick on a pig joke, the original Palin lipstick on a Pit Bull joke and a Katie Couric sound-bite on the sexism inherent in the 2008 campaign.   The video was only pulled down only after Katie Couric personally complained to the campaign.

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