Political Spots

[Walter Biscardi]

[Tim Wilson] “I couldn’t disagree more. Lawyers and agents are just like you and me – paid to work for clients. All part of the process…and I trust the process. The worst lawyers and agents know that there are limits. They have to ask a favor tomorrow from their opponent today. If they break the process, it’s broken for them too. The wheel of karma rolls.
“

Yep, have to agree here. I have had very good experiences with lawyers and have an excellent right now. It’s Producers and Executive Producers who I have had the most trouble with during my years in business. There is absolutely no ethical fiber in some of these people and they will simply steal anything at the drop of a hat.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
Credits include multiple Emmy, Telly, Aurora and Peabody Awards.
Owner, Biscardi Creative Media featuring HD Post
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[Tim Wilson]

[walter biscardi] “[Tim Wilson] “I couldn’t disagree more. Lawyers and agents are just like you and me – paid to work for clients…”

Yep, have to agree here”

Upon further review, I wouldn’t be surprised if David’s note about the evils of lawyers and agents isn’t a little Hollywood humor, in which case mine was an even more hair-triggered response than usual.

In the context of business and working in the field of political spots, I want to also underscore Nick’s point: candidates have always come to me with money in the bank, ready to pay on the spot. They NEED to spend that money.

Even the ones who have their pitches already in hand, handlers with strong opinions, etc. have typically been very open to my suggestions for “looking better” — much more so than commercial clients. So as a producer, I found them very, very easy to work with.

It can be especially rewarding to work for people that you strongly believe in…but to my point about the wheel of karma, I had to be honest with myself about all this:

1) The hospitals I worked COULD have killed a lot of people in short order, let them die from negigence, crippled them with bad drug interactions, and a host of other real-world, right-now mistakes that could never be corrected.

2) The resorts I worked with surely served underage drinkers now and again. They were probably mostly fine with letting impaired drivers get back in their care.

3)Restaurants I worked with almost surely passed along virulent pathogens, just because they paid too little for their fish or didn’t make sure their staff washed their hands before they washed the lettuce.

See what I’m saying? I could easily have checked this stuff – but I didn’t. Those businesses had ethical responsibilities that they did not have lived up to – but I didn’t feel it was MY ethical responsibility to check them out.

Maybe I was taking the easy way out, but seriously, I didn’t have time to apply this level of scrutiny to ever potential job. It just wasn’t worth it to me.

So for clients of every stripe, I set up a general sniff test. Since my first sniff test involves whether they’re going to pay me, and candidates ALWAYS did, 100% up front, I was able to move through a lot of the other sniff tests with candidates in pretty short order — with no more or less effort than I put into every other kind of client.

THAT’s my point. Set whatever standards you want, but my recommendation, like Todd’s, is not to overthink this.

FWIW, the only kind of work that I categorically turned down was weddings, and it had nothing to do with my feelings about marriage. It turns out that some of them folks would have been just GREAT for repeat business. 🙂

Tim Wilson
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My Blog: “Is this thing on? Oh it’s on!”

[Bill Davis]

What ever label you put on them, pols, lawyers, agents, candidates, etc, etc.

At the end of things they’re people. Which means you’ll face a RANGE of human behavior when dealing with them.

Personally, I expect EVERYONE to have reasonable ethics – consistent with my personal standards – if I’m going to agree to work with them.

Cause I’ve learned the following in life.

If they’ll lie in a spot – they’ll lie to my face.
Even if they just “mislead” in their copy – you can be sure they’ll be just fine in “misleading” you at the drop of a hat, too.

I’m too old and have worked too hard for too many years to accept associating myself with people I can’t trust.

It’s too damn stressful.

There ARE fine people out there. Some are redish, some are bluish and some are actually grown ups who’ve learned not give a rats behind about anyone’s color (in any sense) – but in their personal qualities as a whole human being.

Those are the people I enjoy spending my time with the most.

Ideologues of ANY stripe are boring – and today, too damn many politicos are ideologues. People who have disengaged their brains in order to feel better about what others tell them they should feel, think and do.

That said, a smart “life fact” is that figuring out who you’re willing to hang with ALWAYS matters.
I can earn more money. I can’t get my self-respect back if my work helps get a married “Mr. Morality” elected and he subsequently gets caught red-handed with a hooker in Vegas.

Like they say – Integrity is acting properly when nobody’s looking.

And it doesn’t matter if nobody ELSE ever discovers my VO helped elect Senator idiot. I KNOW.

Integrity in politicians is important. And uncommon enough that I think its critical for all of us to think about it, value it, and practice it.

So, NO. I don’t and won’t put my talent and efforts behind anything political I don’t feel fits my personal standards and ideals.

Period.

[Charlie Bregg]

Last year I shot and directed a number of and a creative direcor that I have been familiar with for a number of years and have great respect for. While I had a few minor differences with regard to the content and stated goal of the spots, I was generally in line with the spots’ point of view and political position. I would not consider working on a political campaign for a cause or a candidate that I felt had no worthwhile agenda and was polar opposite with what I thought was a right minded position.

[Warrick Heever]

I am from South Africa and do political, I have no choice. I am morally opposed to it but have to feed my family. In one of the most corrupt countries in the world I see where our stolen tax money goes. On one side I see the very poor struggling to eat and dying of aids then I see politicians in $150 000 cars living it up. I unfortunately have to document them living it up and live amongst those that can’t afford to eat.

I say if you have a choice and have other projects that can pay the bills,go with your gut. you are the one that has to sleep at night. I know I battle with it everyday.