Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Barack Obama: "If You Believe..."
Obama's team has been posting a number of videos from the campaign trail to their YouTube account. They post fast, usually within 12 hours, and the videos are nicely edited and tightly focused.
It's in the cinema verite style of his better tv ads, shots from (and of) the crowds, complete with the documentary handheld camera and focus pulling aesthetic. The editor is particularly adept at finding shots of people looking up at the candidate with a thoughtful look on their face.
In general, the whole thing works. It plays like it's intended, as capturing a historic movement in progress. That's one advantage of the using the lexicon of historic documentary filmmaking, it sells the idea that history is happening before your eyes. It's an interesting "time capsule of the now" feel, to pin a phrase on it. Events are being recorded this way because they matter. Join now, don't miss your chance at being a part of it!
Nice work, and kudos to Obama and his team for finding a style and message that plays off his strengths and not the other way around.
Video of Obama giving the same speech in 3 locations on 1 day. Good idea, and smart to do it with a piece that gains a lot of its power from the repetition of a phrase- "If you believe..." (which, of course, also sells the idea that you have a role to play in this).
Really, Obama's people are turning out the best work out there.
It's in the cinema verite style of his better tv ads, shots from (and of) the crowds, complete with the documentary handheld camera and focus pulling aesthetic. The editor is particularly adept at finding shots of people looking up at the candidate with a thoughtful look on their face.
In general, the whole thing works. It plays like it's intended, as capturing a historic movement in progress. That's one advantage of the using the lexicon of historic documentary filmmaking, it sells the idea that history is happening before your eyes. It's an interesting "time capsule of the now" feel, to pin a phrase on it. Events are being recorded this way because they matter. Join now, don't miss your chance at being a part of it!
Nice work, and kudos to Obama and his team for finding a style and message that plays off his strengths and not the other way around.
Video of Obama giving the same speech in 3 locations on 1 day. Good idea, and smart to do it with a piece that gains a lot of its power from the repetition of a phrase- "If you believe..." (which, of course, also sells the idea that you have a role to play in this).
Really, Obama's people are turning out the best work out there.
# posted @ 2:35 PM 
