[Teen/VVP] The Art Behind Political Campaigning
Thursday, Chris and Meredith gave us a little taste of digital media and political campaigning. I think they did a great job because I found the lesson very interesting—and probably one of the most interesting days at Machinima ^___^~. They began the day off with showing us a commercial developed by the republicans for the 2004 elections; they emphasized terrorism and how much national security is at risk. They emphasized certain lines like, “these are the stakes” by making all the other text disappear while that remained the only visible text. The one thing I loved was that the text was a little thick and bold that emphasized its importance and it was white text with a black background; in my opinion, I have always liked the impact that white text has on a black background…its just that white is just the normal blank color, but black just sticks out a little more. Plus, seeing black text on white background is just casual but seeing the inverted effect is so much more appealing.
Anyway, the term, “these are the stakes” goes back to an advertisement that Johnson used during his campaign (correct me if I am mistaken) called “Daisy Girl”. I found that ad very much like the first one we watched based on terrorism ironically similar. I think the only difference is that back then it was fear of communists and the Soviet Union growing nuclear power, and now it’s the fear of the Middle East growing power. It is without a doubt that the United States fears the growing powers of the Middle East; it is no coincidence that United States troops or allies now almost surround most of Iran and Syria. Nuclear proliferation has become a major world issue at the moment because no one can really know how much nuclear power countries have and that is just a very dangerous thought. Also, since oil is something we should try to avoid using as an energy source (or should have already done so a long time ago) there is the substitute of nuclear energy. Personally, I can't say I know much about nuclear energy but the question does come up to how much of a gap is there between nuclear energy resources and nuclear power as in bombs. And then raising the question is nuclear energy safe to even have?
In the commercial with the girl is playing with the petals of the flower and miscounting her numbers, she’s depicted as this innocent little girl, with freckles, who looks sweet and naïve. And when she finishes counting taking off all the petals, the camera zooms into her eyes and a countdown is heard in the background and then there is an explosion (most likely a nuclear one). For an ad made so long ago, I found this ad to be very effective because all the factors fit in together so well. The girl picking the petals off kind of reminded me of one of those situations where someone picks the petals off because they are indecisive on a particular situation—like a “I will, I wont”~ kind of situation. And when the countdown begins and the bomb detonates—it’s like an “it’s happened!” kind of moment, or rather for the American public a “this is what’s going to happen to you, your country, and your children.” So, I think that the ad was very effective and it did a great job at making a point. For me, I think I’m so used to seeing those normal ads where the president is seen doing great things and helping so many people and there is a voice over saying “Vote for so-and-so, he will give you -----, and ----,” and that’s really not an edgy strategy, because it’s really not that interesting. So I found that not using a voice over immediately was more appealing towards me. But I’m sure that others may disagree.
Anyway, we also watched a remix of a commercial. Like…a commercial was used to attack democrats, and then a democrat took that ad and re-edited it so that the exact opposite message was being sent out. I can’t remember the name of the ad, but in the original ad it showed some very angry democrats talking about Bush and how they are against the war. Basically, the original ad, they just showed segments or portions of speeches that democrats were giving, and John Kerry was shown as a pretty unsophisticated person who was using profanity. What supporters of the Democratic Party did, I’m presuming that they supported democrats, was that they used that ad and added Bush as a sensitive and insecure person at the end. They basically made him seem as though he was a crybaby—and it seems funny but I think it is a good tactic (although it may make many angry) because the last thing a President wants to seem is weak. I think that is one of the reasons that FDR was never seen in his wheelchair because that might make him look weak. So, seeming weak and sensitive is a very bad appeal for a President to have. I think that was one of the concerns of having a woman president; there is a fear that she will choose her country over the country—which is basically sensitivity in a way.
So for our activity we were broken up into groups and each group was assigned an advertisement for a political campaign. For my group, we had the commercial that was pretty controversial. It was a commercial called “Tank Ride” and it was a commercial that took place in 1988—and it was an ad made by the first George Bush to go against his opponent Dukakis. The ad made his opponent look like a hypocrite and I think it did a good job of that because he was in a tank in a military uniform and they were saying facts that would show that he did not want to support the military when he became president. I would have believed all of those facts if Chris had not told us that they were all lies—and that caused quiet a controversy. Anyway, Dukakis was depicted like he was reckless because he was just driving the tank around and in a meaningless direction, and when they do his final close-up, he’s smirking kind of giving off this mischievous feeling to him. And what’s even better is that they say all the national security measures that Dukakis opposed—and then they say, “and now he wants to be our Commander in Chief” and I find that to be the perfect line. Personally, I didn’t find the ad very interesting, but I have to say that the strategy is very well thought-out. I guess, I am bored used to listening to some kind of music playing in the background, I don’t really like the voice over much, and I think the lighting/coloring could have been better, and the text was just hideous!~ I didn’t like the fact that they had the text running like bullet points over the image throughout the entire thing—I found it to be a little annoying, although I do understand the strategy behind it. I think it would look nicer if the text was flashed on the bottom of the running video and the bullet points were…centered. But, I think, if you think about getting your point across in a short amount of time—this is pretty effective. I think breaking down the commercials really helped me understand different strategies that politicians use and also people who make film use to attract people.
Anyway, overall, this was a very interesting lesson. One reason that I was so interested in the lesson was because Meredith and Chris were both so knowledgeable and they were well prepared to discuss the topic. Well, I can’t say I am surprised because Tabitha and Sam are usually prepared for the topic discussed as well…I guess, it’s just that I haven’t had the opportunity to be taught by either Meredith or Chris before, so I never really got the chance to see how intellectual they are. I think, this is the kind of experience I had expected when I first came into Machinima. I’m not saying this to undermine Tabitha or Sam; they are great teachers, and they are both also very intellectual and well-informed individuals. I guess, this was a little of a new experience for me, since Chris and Meredith only worked on some activities with us and never really acted as the facilitators. Or…perhaps I just like politics (…well…I'm not too sure about that…) ^-^.
