Sunday, October 15, 2006

The Alan Schlesinger Interview

Meet Alan Schlesinger, Republican for US Senate in Connecticut. Mr. Schlesinger graciously allowed us an hour to discuss the issues with him. This interview runs about 24 minutes, and covers his views on Iraq, Iran, Social Security, the Republican Party, the Senate race in Connecticut, and the candidates he's running against. Here's his official campaign website: Schlesinger2006.



UPDATE: Spazeboy has a transcript of some of the interview on Spazeboy.net. Thanks, Spaze!

So far, we've interviewed Senate candidates Ned Lamont and Alan Schlesinger; we're still waiting to hear back from Senator Lieberman.

As an aside, this was the first two-camera shoot I've ever done. I used my camera and mic on a mic stand, and I set up my two China lamps to provide additional light, then set up Spazeboy's camera and mic stand, wired both mics into a dual jack then plugged them into my camera, and started both cameras and let Online Journalist Pat Carroll take it away. (And she did a fantastic job!)

I edited the two tapes for a good seven hours last night before uploading it to Youtube. It was a learning experience on how to edit a two camera shoot. The important thing was to run both mics into the same camera, and use the "B-camera" only for video. (I know that nobody except Spazeboy and CT Blogger will give a crap about these technical details, but these are the guys who's opinions matter most to me.)

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great Work Pat & CtBob, Thanks for this indepth look. Schlesinger would not be my candidate for several reasons, but he's a darn sight better than Joe. F*ck Lieberman anyway.

spazeboy said...

Great job, CTBob!

I transcribed one of the answers (they're long and transcribing does take awhile) so feel free to swipe it.

selise said...

great job, and an genuine public service. many thanks ctbob!

Anonymous said...

What software did you use to edit the video?

Anonymous said...

wow, this is pretty powerful stuff and Pat and Bob should feel very proud about this video. This is what democracy looks like!!!

There were so many great comments re. Lieberman that if Schlesinger is really given the opportunity to be heard Joe doesn't have a chance of winning the Republican vote.

I think the following two comments are pivotal in this debate:

"You should vote on the interest of the people you represent" -- which is why Joe had to face a primary!

and

re. Joe's “it’s all about me” voting record: "whatever I do it's so important that I remain in Washington"

I hope Schlesinger was appreciative of your efforts in helping to get out his message!

CT Bob said...

anonymous - I used Pinnacle Studio v9.43 for PC to edit it.

The technique for doing the two camera shoot is to put the main video with audio on the Overlay track, and the B-roll stuff on the Primary track (don't know their official names, that's what I call 'em) then lock the audio on the Overlay track, so when you snip the video out of that track for a cutaway to the B-roll, the audio is maintained.

Once I got the process down, it got easier. The main thing is to have the two cameras running non-stop, and use a clapper board (or clap your hands) to sync up the two tracks. I had to shave frames to get them perfectly aligned.

ctblogger said...

Bob,

I would have handles the audio a bit differently.

If I'm correct, you had to synch up the camera B video with the audio. I would have had both mics go to a small board, level the volume through the board, and plugged in both camera's to the boards audio out. That way, you won't have to dea with synching up the audio (which sucks) as both camera will have the same audio from the board.

Yeah, I'm a geek.

Anonymous said...

Great job here Bob and team. The real deal here is that "every vote Schlesinger picks up will come from Lieberman's column." The Hartford Courant 10/15.

Of the conservative that I know (yes, I know a few) , most tell me they plan on voting for Lieberman. When I ask why Lieberman and not Schlesinger the response I usually get is that they are independent thinkers and Joe has done a fine job. Most have never voted off party lines, ever. I try to explain that Schlesinger is more in line with their way of (odd) thinking to no avail. I fear Joe is going to be elected by Democrats that don't get it, Independents who agree with Bush's War and a landslide of Republican support.

CT Bob said...

anon, keep plugging away at your Republican friends. Have them watch the interview. There's no doubt that CT would be better served by Schlesinger than Lieberman (if Lamont doesn't win.)

Simple point: Alan is in favor of getting out of Iraq, and even 50% in one year is way better than "stay the course" Joe.

CT Blogger, yes that would work, but I don't have a board, all the cables you'd need, and you STILL have to sync up the sound, or you might have one person speaking then cutaway to the other person for a reaction and you want them to be reacting in "real time". Syncing it up wasn't that hard, it took me about 5 minutes.

It helped that once I started both cameras, I let them both run non-stop for 55 minutes. Once it was synced on the editor, it stayed synced for the entire length.

Anonymous said...

I already voted for Lamont on my absentee ballot, but Alan Schlesinger talks a lot more common sense than Joe.

In my opinion, Schlesinger is going to expose Lieberman for being the Bush tool he is right now. Alan makes it clear that Joe has been in Washington way too long to be an effective senator. Go Allen for hammering one of the Lamont's major points.

This race should be between Schlesinger and Lamont because Lieberman looks like an angry-desperate politican.

Anonymous said...

Congrats to everyone involved in this vodeo.I don't agree with Mr.Schlesinger on almost any issue but this was the first interview in which he was given an oportunity to express his views. He is,without a doubt,more genuine than Joe Lieberman and proved throughout his carreer he is a better Republican than Jodi (see,hear and speek no evil)Rell.


You've shown your brand of citizen journalism far superior to the garbage we got from Chris Mathews on MSNBC when he interviewed Mr. Schlesinger.

Schlesingers answers and the way he handled himself in this innterview proved beyond any doubt that he's brighter than the woman the Republicans chose as their candidate for Governor.

Unlike the debate I attended for Governor last week it should be fun to attend tomorrows Senatorial Debate where the Republican candidate isn't an idiot.

CT Bob said...

Um...I don't really understand what it is you're saying here 227fia, or what I'm supposed to do about it. Obviously you're kind of wound up about something, but using TPM Cafe as a source of info on Lieberman confuses me in light of the hatchet job they just performed on Lamont a few days ago.

I don't even know who Rabbi Eckstein is or what you may be implying here. My tendency is to delete your comments, but I'm willing to leave them up for now, and maybe someone can explain them to me.

Please do try to stay on-topic here.

And I didn't trust or vote for Joe Lieberman in 2000, and I don't trust him today.

Anonymous said...

id like to point out the shelesinger called lieberman a liberal

CT Bob said...

I wasn't going to argue with him. :)

Anonymous said...

Manger is not Mrs. Lieberman's maiden name. Manger Electric was (and maybe still is) an electrical company in Stamford. I think my grandfather might have worked there... I know lots of people were employed at Manger Electric when I was a kid, and I can still see the building in my mind's eye.

The Lieberman family probably knew the Manger family back in the day in Stamford. It wouldn't be odd for Bernard Manger to give Joe the position of executor (or whatever he is) because he probably knew Joe when he was a kid.

I don't know whether Joe's involvement with the Manger Foundation has been ethical -- but I wonder exactly what's driving 277fia here. I dislike Joe with the best of them, but something about 277fia's rant smells bad to me.

CT Bob said...

I tend to agree, because this story is so complex and I'm not entirely sure what it is she's getting at. I'll leave it for now.

But I'm not a fan of rants in general, and bizarre, convoluted, elaborate rants in particular.

Anonymous said...

financial malfeasance tends to be rather complex. If Lamont is looking for dirt on Joe, they should take a look.

Maybe this would be more along Schlesinger's line, this wouldn't likely seem too comples to him.

CT Bob said...

277fia, I don't have time to look into all of this right now.

I'd really prefer for you to write up a simple paragraph introducing what you want to say, and then put up a link for people to go and read the rest.

Otherwise, you're just thread-jacking and detracting from the topic at hand.

Kirby said...

Here at CTBob, we don't believe in censorship of comments unless they are way over the line. We don't censor ideas.