Citizen Wausau

Powers for Assembly Ad

by Erik Cieslewicz on September 20th, 2008

Per Dino’s request I’m checking back in and occasionally reposting something from El Video de Wausau, my new home on the web. And I guess it fits seeing as how proud of my heritage I am and that at heart I’ll always be a kid from Wisconsin.

Quick personal note: I’m in Maryland! The van survived after being taken completely apart and being put back together by a place called Murray’s Autocare. If you’re in the Dayton area they are really great guys, do good work and treat you very well.

So with that out of the way I buckled back into work and finished off a webmercial for John Powers. Powers is running for State Assembly in Wisconsin for the 6th District. We wanted to make something that stood out a bit in local election ads, even though I did suggest doing a safe, candidate talking to the camera type ad as well.

I’m glad John decided to go with something else.

The result was “The Grand Experiment.” An idea he pitched to me and I loved it. I ran away with it and started searching Archive.org for public domain footage to match it and quickly came away with some great stuff. For those of you unaware, Archive.org is a depository of public domain and otherwise open use moving images, stills and sound on the web. Check the copyright information just to be certain, but almost all of it is open for public use.

After that, I shot some footage of Powers talking to a crowd about his policies to mix it up and then had the voice over done by Milwaukee actor Luke Cieslewicz (of Microcosm fame). I could’ve done a couple of things better, most notably a very more longer lens shots of him with the crowd would have been a good idea. But overall I’m quite pleased with how my first political ad came out.

This guy was edited in Final Cut Pro HD, both sound and video. It really feels good to be back on an Apple editing after spending a year and a half cutting news packages on an Avid machine that crashed multiple times a day.

Tell me what you think of The Grand Experiment.

And of course if this looks like the type of ad, video or production you think could help your business, ad company or other need for video just drop me a a line at erik [dot] cieslewicz [at] gmail [dot] com!