How I shot a national congressional write-in campaign on an iPhone 12 Pro.

R

Razz16mm

Veteran
I am not starting a political discussion, but how this campaign came to be is relevant to the story.

The candidate, Lee Turner, won the first round democratic primary race but lost the runoff to another candidate. The official candidate backed out of the race for personal reasons in July.
State election laws allow a party to replace a candidate on the ballot with the approval of the state election commission. The majority republican commission voted 3 to 2 to deny this remedy to the democrats leaving their incumbent with no opposition on the ballot.

Lee assembled a team of about 30 volunteers to explore the possibility of a write in campaign, a very long shot at best. We decided that it was worth a shot.
That began an 8 week zero budget whirlwind independent write in campaign. The democratic party provided no support.

I followed Lee around to public events, mostly street festivals of one kind or another, shooting her interactions with people on the street.
The iPhone proved ideal for this mounted on a collapsible monopod with a Small rig frame.
For audio I used my trusted Sennheiser AVX wireless lav mic system and a Shure MV1 USB preamp gaffer taped to the monopod.
I shot the video in Filmic Pro log 3K format with PCM audio for 1080p/720p finish in 16:9, Instagram square and TikTok vertical formats. The 4K option proved to be impractical due to limited recording time and the phone overheating.
We also set up a n 8' x 8' green screen background in my wife's art studio lit by two LED panels for some message ads.

The project was posted in Lightworks including graphics and Filmic delog luts. Harrison Mixbus was used for audio mix and sweetening. We produced and distributed typically about two or three ads a week for five weeks.
Another local video production company that specializes in fast turn ads for car dealers also donated two studio produced ads for TV broadcast during the final week of the campaign.
The entire campaign was done on a $20k small donation budget for business cards, yard signs, and other incidental expenses. In total the campaign distributed 5000 yard signs and 20,000 business cards with write in instructions.
I donated my services for an in kind donation value of $5k.

I'd like to report that David beat Goliath and we won the election, but that did not happen against an intrenched incumbent with a $300k war chest and a five month head start.
The campaign was a qualified success however, given that the typical write in campaign in SC garners between 1% and 2% of the vote. We won 15% in one county and 11% in the other that make up the district.

A sample ad from the campaign:

 
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IMO, quality's on par or better than most camcorders, and likely a reason they pretty much don't exist anymore.
 
Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality overall, especially the dynamic range shooting Filmic log. The phone made it possible to be very unobtrusive during filming and not take attention away from Lee.
 
NorBro said:
IMO, quality's on par or better than most camcorders,
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I have to disagree with that. This looks exactly like what it is -- just some ordinary cellphone video. There's no shot variation, no close-ups, no movement, just some static wide shots. There's no control over DoF to give it a "cinematic" look. The music is so loud I can barely hear what she is saying, let alone find out anything about her stand on the issues or why I should vote for her. The first three shots are basically just the same thing repeated "I'm Lee Turner, I'm running a write in campain". Okay, I get it. After that, the music comes up and drowns her out. Are we selling music or a candidate?

I don't mean to be too critical, but this just looks like a home movie anyone could shoot on their cell phone a dozen times a day. A camcorder would have been a much better choice.
 
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He had a different video up before, but nevertheless everything you described is production value and could be done with phones as well (for the most part), including editing the piece how you personally would like to see it arranged.

The original video that was posted was the typical static interview shot (no music) that you see on the news every day, and I was mostly commenting on that quality comparison.
 
Doug Jensen said:
I have to disagree with that. This looks exactly like what it is -- just some ordinary cellphone video. There's no shot variation, no close-ups, no movement, just some static wide shots. There's no control over DoF to give it a "cinematic" look. The music is so loud I can barely hear what she is saying, let alone find out anything about her stand on the issues or why I should vote for her. The first three shots are basically just the same thing repeated "I'm Lee Turner, I'm running a write in campain". Okay, I get it. After that, the music comes up and drowns her out. Are we selling music or a candidate?

I don't mean to be too critical, but this just looks like a home movie anyone could shoot on their cell phone a dozen times a day. A camcorder would have been a much better choice.
Click to expand...

I went back and forth on the audio mix between emphasizing the song or the dialog. In the end, since this is not a message video, but casual conversations where the content is not particularly important, I chose to bring the campaign theme song forward a little more. The dialog is still clearly audible.

"Cinematiic" quality is irrelevant to the style of the campaign.
 
Razz16mm said:
The dialog is still clearly audible..
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No it's not. As a viewer, I can tell you that you made the wrong choice.
It leaves the impression there is a band playing at a state fair just out of the frame.

Razz16mm said:
"Cinematiic" quality is irrelevant to the style of the campaign.
Click to expand...

Absolutely false. If you want to be president, look presidential. Building a politician's image to make them appear important, professional, interesting, and compelling begins with the choice of camera and shooting techniques. This home video is basically equivalent to a casual Zoom call from the user's desktop. A candidate for any office needs to be portrayed in a more cinematic and serious style. Meaningful soundbites would have also helped immensely. There's no meat here.

YOU ARE SELLING A PRODUCT. This video does not do that.

Too much ephasis seems to have been placed on jumping through hoops and overcoming challenges in order to shoot with a phone. Using a real camera might have freed people up to concentrate more on the substance and look of the video.
 
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NorBro said:
He had a different video up before, but nevertheless everything you described is production value and could be done with phones as well (for the most part), including editing the piece how you personally would like to see it arranged.

The original video that was posted was the typical static interview shot (no music) that you see on the news every day, and I was mostly commenting on that quality comparison.
Click to expand...

There's no video up, now. Just a "Can't Find Server" message.
 
Doug Jensen said:
No it's not. As a viewer, I can tell you that you made the wrong choice.
It leaves the impression there is a band playing at a state fair just out of the frame.



Absolutely false. If you want to be president, look presidential. Building a politician's image to make them appear important, professional, interesting, and compelling begins with the choice of camera and shooting techniques. This home video is basically equivalent to a casual Zoom call from the user's desktop. A candidate for any office needs to be portrayed in a more cinematic and serious style. Meaningful soundbites would have also helped immensely. There's no meat here.

YOU ARE SELLING A PRODUCT. This video does not do that.

Too much ephasis seems to have been placed on jumping through hoops and overcoming challenges in order to shoot with a phone. Using a real camera might have freed people up to concentrate more on the substance and look of the video.
Click to expand...

The style here is a deliberate choice to look like typical social media video posts, not like slick broadcast production. We did get positive feedback from younger Gen Z voters who quite frankly are turned off by typical "professional" political ads and partisan politics in general. There was no crew, just me. One man band chasing Lee down the street as she moved through crowds. Frankly I would not have been able to physically keep up with her dealing with a camcorder. These were not staged. All handheld, I used the monopod collapsed as a counter balance to a floating thumb and forefinger grip as kind of a hand gimbal. Image stabilization was set to the minimum on level.

I still have a Digital Bolex 2k DCI raw digital cinema camera I use for personal creative projects, but that rig in handheld configuration on the same monopod weighs 8lbs and has no automatic features at all, so would not have worked for this project.
 
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While I get that this was a pro bono project so you presumably needed to use the tools you already owned, it also sounds like you feel it was the right package due to weight and size. Given that, would perhaps something like a Sony ZV-1 have hit those markers and been better in many other respects? No need for that bulky USB converter for the mike so probably weight and size equivalent to your phone setup, improved specs all around, larger sensor than your Digital Bolex, plus a modest zoom so you can opt for longer focal lengths if needed. The optional handgrip would be a good choice to improve the ergonomics.
 
CharlesPapert said:
While I get that this was a pro bono project so you presumably needed to use the tools you already owned, it also sounds like you feel it was the right package due to weight and size. Given that, would perhaps something like a Sony ZV-1 have hit those markers and been better in many other respects? No need for that bulky USB converter for the mike so probably weight and size equivalent to your phone setup, improved specs all around, larger sensor than your Digital Bolex, plus a modest zoom so you can opt for longer focal lengths if needed. The optional handgrip would be a good choice to improve the ergonomics.
Click to expand...

I plan to sell the BOLEX soon and move to a hybrid for both stills and video. Looking at the new LUMIX S5-2X.
 
I think the phone makes it (the footage) look 'genuine' but the audio is off.

I was listening and thinking.. "phone + decent mic" then the music lifted and I thought... "im lost"
 
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