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.
lol!
His mouth was moving, wasn’t it? Proof enough to me that he was lying!
Oh.. My...God..., If you look really close, there appears to be a CHRISTMAS TREE in the video as well.
You see a cross in that ad? Strange. Which of the three Roman crosses at this link does it look like to you?
http://www.christiananswers.net/q-abr/abr-a013.html
To me, it looks like a bookshelf. Whoever designed the set might have been trying to give the impression of a symbolic cross, but the actual image is not a Roman cross.
In any event, none of what you’ve written provides any proof that the Huckster knew that was the design purpose. I’m not in favor of his candidacy, but this line of attack is petty and silly.
We can quibble about how long the “cross” was in view; in fact, there’s a symmetrical, Christian cross shape only very briefly - even less than the 8-9 seconds I estimated. Mostly, it’s either almost entirely obliterated or is just two asymmetrical lines of unequal length intersecting at right angles.
People see what they most want to be angry about, sometimes. This should get interesting...
P.S. - in the shelf next to the ornaments in the linked photo at the top, I think I see the shadowed face of the Virgin...
An artist knows that in any picture/painting, the color red as an accent will draw the eye to that focal point. The red Christmas ornament is very well placed to draw the eye back to the cross. The picture of the cross with the red Christmas ornament accenting it is artistically very professional. Art is my passion and I give kudos to the picture in an artistic sense. We artists use paitings/pictures like storytellers use parables. Visually painted/drawn/photographed symbols are intended to have meaning and convey a message as this subject picture most certainly does.
Does he have a history of lying? Do we have any evidence that he just impulsively lies when he doesn't quite know what to say? If not, then I'd assume that he was just genuinely ignorant about the production values of this ad.
Whether it’s a bookshelf as you think, or a window pane as I thought, I agree that there’s hardly conclusive proof that this was some kind of subliminal message to Christians. There has been nothing subliminal about Huckabee presenting himself as a Christian candidate, or even “the” Christian candidate, so I see no reason for him to enage in some kind of tricky subterfuge to make that point.
Sorry boys - the stripes didn’t work.
Would you say the cross-shapes in the windows at the left side of the pic in post #49 were deliberate attempts to put subliminal Christian crosses into the picture?
See my tagline.
Bookshelf? I am an idiot. I thought it was a shot of a window.
Thanks for the artist’s input. I agree.
In that case, I have you down for incompetence. Personally, I’m leaning toward obfuscation, but your mileage may vary.
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