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Obama Upgrades His You Tube Studio
The evolution of the transition continues. in his first Saturday morning video address last week, Obama appeared to be speaking from a set inspired by the storefront law office style you might see somewhere on Western Avenue in his hometown Chicago:
His address last Tuesday to the Governor's Climate Summit used the same shabby set--although given that he's wearing an identical tie, odds are he taped both addresses at the same time:
Today's address is little more snazzy. The gratuitous law books are still there, albeit a bit hidden by the flag. But now he's situated in front of a window, he has better lighting overall, a nice lamp with a picture (of his kids?) substituted for the brown orb (basketball?), and a more prominent placement of the plant:
Definitely an upgrade. The first two videos seemed to be anomalous when compared to the staging deployed during the campaign. It seems like they're getting back on track.
His address last Tuesday to the Governor's Climate Summit used the same shabby set--although given that he's wearing an identical tie, odds are he taped both addresses at the same time:
Today's address is little more snazzy. The gratuitous law books are still there, albeit a bit hidden by the flag. But now he's situated in front of a window, he has better lighting overall, a nice lamp with a picture (of his kids?) substituted for the brown orb (basketball?), and a more prominent placement of the plant:
Definitely an upgrade. The first two videos seemed to be anomalous when compared to the staging deployed during the campaign. It seems like they're getting back on track.
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Lordy, it's about time. That light brown panelled background was making me ill.
Now, they need to get rid of that intrusive flag in the foreground. Yeah, yeah, we get it, the dude's patriotic and loves his country and all. Whatever.
November 23, 2008 10:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Agree with you about the flag.
Keep it in the background, but maybe move it back, closer to the window.
November 23, 2008 11:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, the brown was bad--but at least they didn't pick up McCain's surplus "green screen"!
November 23, 2008 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
To expand on my previous comments, this was a much better set layout than in Obama's first chat. He was more on center, and the large bright flag stage right was balanced by the brightness of the window, greenery and table lamp. Even though his hands were only half-visible while gesturing, I thought they brought emphasis to his measured delivery. He seemed less hunched over, too.
But his eyes were shifting to read cue cards just off to the side, which made him look shifty-eyed (of course). His flag pin picked up some glare from the lighting. On stage, set builders soap mirrors and other bright surfaces to avoid glare; I assume TV set guys have some tricks to control glare.
As far as the content, we do need work on infrastructure, and I can attest that there are a lot of idle contractors out there that could really use the work, but 2011 is a long way out there. Also a lot of that work has historically been riddled with corruption, and we have too many roads as it is. Does modernizing schools mean money for public or charter schools?
November 23, 2008 1:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
The schools thing puzzled me too.
On the infrastructure plan, I am hoping that he sticks to his support for the Dodd-Hegel bill establishing a National Infrastructure Bank.
Basically the bank would set up a set of objective criteria for financing infrastructure. If environmental and carbon issues are part of the criteria, there is some hope.
The one problem with the Dodd-Hegel bill is that it is likely very politically sensitive and will be difficult to get passed.
David Leonhardt from the Times had a good column this week on just how screwy the current system is for allocating infrastructure dollars: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/business/economy/19leonhardt.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
November 23, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why it's enough to make one go back to radio addresses -- no distractions for the audience from the scenery and a focus on the message.
November 23, 2008 5:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Both sets are distracting.
In the first one I couldn't stop thinking about the lack of contrast between Obama and the paneling. I couldn't decide whether it was mahogany on mahogany or walnut on walnut.
The second one is too busy. I can't decide if that is a window or widescreen tv behind him. Tacky lamp and is that a philodendron? peace lily? looks like some ivy as well.
Why not just a simple solid background. Gold would be nice.
November 23, 2008 7:13 PM | Reply | Permalink