Visual Conventions

by digby

Here’s an interesting little piece on the producer of the Democratic convention. He sounds like he knows what he’s doing. But I have to say that I completely disagree with this:

At heart, a political convention is “a big corporate meeting,” he said, which his company also routinely produces.

I don’t think that’s true. At heart it’s a TV advertisement, which seems to me to be a completely different thing.

He’s just the technical producer, so he’s not responsible for the content of the convention, but the selling of the party and candidate need to be seamless with the production. I’m not trying to criticize in advance. It sounds like they are doing some exciting technological things that will make for a very impressive TV visual and I have an open mind. I hope it looks incredible.

Speaking of pictures, Michael Shaw and his crew of photo journalists from BagNewsNotes will be doing their thing at the convention, analyzing the story the visuals are telling. Keep your eyes on this. The story the TV gasbags tell will very likely be completely irrelevant.

Clarification: When I say the story the gasbags tell will be irrelevant, I meant to say irrelevant to what the pictures are telling people. Their stories will be very relevant to those who hear them. Unfortunately.

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