Posted on 12/20/2007 8:59:16 AM PST by Travis McGee
"THE TODAY SHOW"
MEREDITH VIEIRA: Let's talk about this Christmas ad, because it comes after you have taken some hits from the critics, first for calling yourself a Christian leader, then for questioning whether Mormons believe Christ and the devil were brothers, something you did apologize for.
Now in this ad you are say people should be celebrating the birth of Christ while the shape of a cross appears to take shape behind you. And that has led some to say that this is another overt religious appeal to voters. What do you say about this ad and about those criticisms?
MIKE HUCKABEE: That floating cross is a bookshelf, Meredith. We were all amused -- the production crew I think probably more than anyone, who put the spot together.
VIEIRA: So you didn't see that image when you put the spot together, that it might be confused?
HUCKABEE: Absolutely not.
These are movie camera "tracking dollies."
There are two reasons to use tracking dollies when directing a film. The most basic use is when following a moving subject and keeping them in the same plane. The classic use is to follow a walking actor in profile.
The other use of the tracking dolly is to move the background in a controlled way, while keeping the foreground subject in one place by simultaneiously tracking and panning the camera.
That is how the Huckabee team contrived and executed the shot, in order to move the glowing white (spotlighted) shelf/cross from the left side of the shot to behind Huckabee's head, in exactly the 30 seconds of the ad.
The use of the tracking dolly is the smoking gun, the proof that the moving cross effect was deliberate, and that Huckabee is lying about it being an unnoticed coincidence.
They didn't just come out and "find" that a tracking dolly had magically appeared on the set, and decide, "Aw shucks, why don't we stick the camera on this here funny contraption, and slide it from left to right while aiming at Mike's head, just for the heck of it."
Every aspect of this political advertisement was deliberate, down to the placement of the three ornaments on the glowing white spotlighted empty shelf.
The proof that the moving cross effect was deliberate, is the use of the tracking dolly to move the cross in the background in a perfectly controlled way.
Have you watched the video? It's linked at about reply 20-something.
I think the video REFUTES your point. As the camera moves, the widow pane/cross DISAPPEARS behind Huckabee’s head.
By the way, I am not necessarily a Huckabee supporter - the Republicans have done such a good job bashing each other, I don’t know WHO I’m for, if anyone. But the flap about this alleged cross reminds me of the Dem allegations in 2000 that the Republicans deliberately flashed the subliminal word RATS in a campaign video.
For 100% sure, the cross effect was deliberate. They added the entire background scene! So obviously, it was filmed, cut and cropped with perfect deliberation of every element of composition.
They picked exactly when the cross emerges, at the opening, and when it ends, in "eclipse" behind Huck's head.
How does the cross/shelf disappearing behind Huck’s head refute the point?
To finish my comment in #202, before I saw the video, the critical comments had led me to believe that the camera dolly was used to keep the cross in view all the time, despite Huckabee’s movements. In fact, the camera just panned to add a little movement to the background, to show the Christmas tree, etc, while Huckabee remained motionless. And the panning of the camera made the “cross” vanish behind Huckabee, the opposite of what I had been led to expect. I thought I was going to see the “cross” remaining in full view despite Huckabee’s movements.
This isn’t single frame image capture like “rats” that you have to literally freeze to see.
The shelf/cross is the entire ad, during all 30 seconds it is in the open.
Until the image of the cross merges with the image of Saint Huckleberry the Annointed.
Read 161 and 204: it wasn’t a tracking dolly, it was a blue-screen shot with a completely different added background, scrolled behing Huckleberry.
IOW, every inch of the background was designed and included, second by second, for a deliberate effect.
Mostly agree.
However, if they really didn’t notice it, someone should be fired. After all look how big a thing they missed while proofing it.
It's like the California Citrus Marketing Board putting out a TV commercial featuring lemon groves, orange juice, grapefruit desserts and lime pies, and then sharp-eyed analyists get disgusted and crying "unfair advertising" because it has a coded message that says, "Buy Citrus."
The “cross” shape is visible for only about 8-9 seconds of the video. At the end of the video, it does not “frame” Huckabee. It is almost totally obstructed, and the vertical pane is about to re-emerge to Huckabee’s left (to the right, from the viewer’s perspective).
But I have a big problem with an ex-preacher doing it, for all the world to see, and then LYING about it being done intentionally.
If a former preacher will lie about using the cross, what won't he lie about?
“But I have a big problem with an ex-preacher doing it, for all the world to see, and then LYING about it being done intentionally.”
Why would he say Christ (something I never hear *any* politician say and then lie about the cross?
Then its left side lingers a few more seconds as it slowly merges with the Holy Head of Saint Huckleberry.
My theory is that it was not a cross of Christ that he was displaying. It was a cross of the Romans - an instrument of excruciatingly painful execution. It was a coded message that he believes in the use of torture.
What the heck? Some people will believe anything.
I think that he didn't want to admit to intentionally using a semi-subliminal cross in a political ad in a manipulative but deliberate way.
It would have been better for him to just admit it, and then it's a "so what?" story.
Now it's a story about his tendency to lie, when a question is uncomfortable.
And if a preacher will lie about using the cross, he'll lie about ANYTHING.
IF you believe it was "just an accident" and that none of the production team noticed it, then I have a few bridges to sell you.
It's not a story about using the cross in an ad.
It's a story about LYING ABOUT using the cross in an ad.
Semi-Subliminal... oh jeez the huckabee hatred has blinded some...
It would have been better for him to just admit it, and then it's a "so what?" story.
Except its a *book shelf*
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.