Interviewing President Bush
August 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment
On May 6th at 11am I found myself face to face with one of the most controversial figures in modern history and the leader of the free world, as part of Yahoo! News’ in-house crew conducting the first exclusively online interview with a siting president at the White House. President Bush (aka dubya) was the guest of honor. Mike Allen from Politico asked the questions. Our Yahoo! News camera crew included Geoff Nelson, Brad Williams, Jon Brick, and myself.
We started with a short walk and talk in the oval office and then finished the interview in the Roosevelt room. Lots of local and national media (TV, print, and online) picked up the story. David Letterman used it in his monologue and Jon Stewart ran with it on his Daily Show.
As far as shoots go it was pretty routine; set up the cameras, lights, mics, etc…. What wasn’t routine was the opportunity to roll the cameras on something that had the potential to make national or even worldwide news. And sure enough “the boss”, as his staff affectionately call him, did not disappoint. Portions of the interview were picked up by all the major networks, but the highlight was the controversy that erupted over his seemingly benign comment about why he stopped golfing which caused MSNBC’s Keith Oberman to go ballistic.
Why he stopped golfing
http://tinyurl.com/697paf
MSNBC’s Keith Oberman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RlD8FEwe2k
After the interview was over, our crew hunkered down in a conference room in Washington DC, chopped the footage in snackable clips, which were published immediately. Very little editing was actually done other than adding some photos and b-roll here and there. We did not touch Bush’s answers. We did not edit for brevity. What you see is exactly how it went down.
Here are all the clips. Bush’s “Dr. Evil” impression is getting some great play around the net (some might say it went viral).
Bush does ‘Dr. Evil’
http://tinyurl.com/6xzfyw
“I’ll consider” gas tax holiday
http://tinyurl.com/5mcods
Global warming “is real”
http://tinyurl.com/6l7svb
“America doesn’t torture”
http://tinyurl.com/68tmqd
Why not pull out of Iraq?
http://tinyurl.com/5z8a6p
Was Bush misled on Iraq?
http://tinyurl.com/5gca2r
Why he stopped golfing
http://tinyurl.com/697paf
The Middle East: What’s at stake
http://tinyurl.com/5qp4ue
Father of the bride
http://tinyurl.com/6l5m6c
Bush’s Dream Team
http://tinyurl.com/62z3hq
‘Assure fans like me’
http://tinyurl.com/3ryrug
Who will win on ‘Idol’?
http://tinyurl.com/69wvz8
The full interview
http://tinyurl.com/4sp2ve
Popularity: 13% [?]
Climbing Everest with Blind Climber Erik Weihenmayer
December 10, 2007 | Leave a Comment
On May 25, 2001 I stood on the summit of Mt. Everest with Erik Weihenmayer and 9 other of my good friends. As everyone was high-fiving all I could think about was my job. I had a seemingly simple job; shoot some publicity photos of Erik and the team on top with the sponsor banners. There was one problem. I had arrived on the summit later than everyone else and as I was gearing up for the fastest shoot of my life my climbing partners were ready to head back to Camp 4. Generally speaking, the top of Mt. Everest is not a place where you chill out and have a tea party (although I’m sure it’s been done by now). You get up, check out the view, shed a few tears if you can muster up the emotion through the altitude induced narcosis, and then get the f$@k down.
For the full report check out the near daily dispatches with photos from the expedition at http://www.2001everest.com/
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Popularity: 100% [?]