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(Photo by Sarah Silbiger-Pool/Getty Images)
There are many, many more important facets to the January 6 hearings. But can we take a second to talk about the video testimony shown in these hearings and the mostly atrocious cinematography?
This is the most newsworthy congressional hearing in decades and attorneys had every reason to believe that clips of this testimony would be broadcast to the world and run ad nauseum, so how are they letting their clients look… like this?
The witness is the one in the background… almost out of the picture. Almost half the image is taken up with his attorney’s Wizard of Oz floating head routine. It just looks goofy. And that low angle — a byproduct of just opening the laptop and calling it a day — is just amateurish framing. Stack it on some books and put the witness front and center!
On the subject of giant, terrifying heads:
GAHHHH!!! Put the lawyer back on!
Rudy testifies like he thinks his head must be over the keyboard to be heard.
Though to his credit he is enough of a professional to make sure he keeps himself just far enough over that the camera never loses the copy of his memoirs sitting face-out on his bookshelf. He probably took some time during the deposition to remind everyone that “Leadership” is still available on Amazon.
By way of contrast:
Say what you will about Bill Barr, he knows what he’s doing. By going in to meet in person he gets to sit at the SAME power conference table as the interviewers. He gets to be professionally shot from an angle centered on him. Because he’s used to being a public figure he takes this set up and runs with it, staging himself casually throughout most of the money clips. He’s leaning forward to give us the dirt, or leaning back in his chair to tell us how ridiculous he thought Trump’s claims were.
This is the package you want from the witness.
Pat Cipollone made the same choice.
But sometimes going for the power table look can backfire. For example, former Above the Law columnist and White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany:
Was this captured in the offices of Wolfram & Hart? She’s got terrible lighting and he’s draped in so many shadows I can’t tell if he’s her lawyer or about to start menacingly flipping a coin and telling the committee, “Nice little constitutional republic you’ve got here, shame if anything happened to it.” Nothing about this image looks right.
Moving on.
A friend of mine texted me this picture the other day with the words, “When this is Team Normal…”
Eric Herschmann’s testimony is perplexing. On the one hand, it’s clear and visually distinct. On the other hand, what in the ever living fuck is all of this? He’s pulling off some sort of Jungian “duality of lawyering” thing here with a cuddly panda bear over one shoulder and a “Baseball Bat Of Justice” over the other. While other people are framing themselves from a low angle because they have amateurish Zoom instincts, it seem like Herschmann is sacrificing looking normal for the purpose of getting the whole panda in there.
As for those metal fixtures… well, everyone has a plumbus in their home.
The image is so grainy it looks like Powell is broadcasting from the moon. Now, maybe the logic was that if they gave the committee a terrible image to work with they’d opt to use the audio over a still image, but that’s a tremendous gamble when the most prominent still out there shows the witness at a podium explaining that zombie dictators have risen from the grave to steal the election.
And what exactly is with the backdrop? It’s perfectly classy except for the way it looks like an oncoming train is about to bust through. I’d say she accidentally ordered Kool-Aid and he busted through the wall except we know she drinks Dr. Pepper.
(Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
Maybe don’t take a sip right after saying something juicy.
Speaking of product placement…
Coca-Cola should cut a check to campaign lawyer Matt Morgan and his team for making a point of showing a VARIETY of Coca-Cola products.
Jared used the same background and it’s so classically Trump. LOOK! IT’S MARBLE! MARBLE LOOKS RICH, RIGHT?
But it actually looks like she’s testifying from the lobby of a random office building. It’s a barren background that’s almost distracting in how vacant it is. Still, the image quality is solid and the camera is framed directly on the witness at eye-level. If she were slightly off-set it might look a bit less like a hostage video, but this is comparatively a win.
Let’s talk about the many looks of Cassidy Hutchinson:
Hutchinson would eventually testify in person, but this is a mostly great video testimony angle. She’s casual. She’s on a nice, old-timey couch like you’d see in the White House, unconsciously conveying that she used to work in the White House. She’s the most important thing in the frame but not the awkward center of the frame. That bottle of Purell is unfortunate though. Maybe it’s more product placement.
But the what the hell is this?
It’s like she’s been taped from a closed circuit camera high in the ceiling. Generally, the witness shouldn’t look like they’re getting captured by security footage. This looks like it’s the same day given the outfit so maybe the team realized this wasn’t working for them and switched it up to the much better set up above.
The following look is truly 5 by 5:
As in it’s a look made for taking the Fifth over and over. The fuzzy background thing is supposed to prevent distractions behind the subject but it always seems to make everyone look like a creepy floating head. The camera is set up in a way where Michael Flynn and his attorney are weirdly leaning into each other just to stay on camera.
Perfect. No notes. 10/10.
See, people, it is possible.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
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