POLITICS COMES TO MOODY STREET
You might think the distance between Moody Street in Waltham and the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington D.C. is far apart, but not at Moody Street Pictures. Known for producing independent feature films, documentaries, content for television, commercials, and corporate films - folks there take politics seriously. So when Larry Rasky of Rasky/Baerlein Strategic Communications, and Communications Director of Senator Joe Biden's Presidential campaign (joebiden.com) contacted MSP last fall to build media support for Senator Biden's run, MSP Founder and Executive Producer John MacNeil - a longtime Biden supporter - jumped at the chance.
What Rasky didn't realize when MacNeil gave his support, was he got the whole Moody team. MSP takes political and social activism seriously. Producer and V.P Erich Mettler, formerly of WLVI-TV and WCWN-TV, is on the Boards of Clean Power Now and the National Youth Film Festival. Director John Stimpson produced work for the Anti-Defamation League. Public Affairs Producer Steve Atlas, former Executive Producer at WGBH, produces work for Acción International, and commented, "For me one of the appeals of this place is their commitment to using video in the service of public interest. The people here are more than supportive of the work I do: they get it and they work hard to produce results for worthy causes."
When Rasky offered an opportunity to participate in the Biden campaign, MSP saw the chance to display their political understanding. Producer Tim Egan was NJ publicist for Jerry Brown's '92 presidential campaign and, during his tenure at The Rendon Group, a key member of Boston's Democratic National Convention Committee Bid efforts in 2000 and win in 2004. Egan immediately saw some ways MSP's cause related clients could help each other.
He worked his alchemy by producing an interview with Joe Biden for Citizens for Rail Safety (citizensfor railsafety.org). With Citizens for Rail Safety on Senator Biden's radar, Egan produced an effective educational video on rail safety, and Biden gained increased support of a natural constituency. "Our approach is to find ways to help our clients with strategic relationships by figuring out how they can help each other," says Egan. "We devise ideas that connect them, make good communication content, and give them effective tools to accomplish their goals."
MSP also helped Biden's visibility on Darfur - a cause about which he feels passionately - by obtaining the keynote presentation for him at Boston Night for Darfur (bostonnightfordarfur.com), and aligning him with Atlas's client Save Darfur, making Biden the first presidential candidate to tape statements on his position for savedarfur.org.
MSP's efforts had an effect on Rasky, "Moody Street takes the work to heart - they sweat for their clients, and that is in a world where profit and the limits of professionalism is sometimes overemphasized and quality and passion are lost in the process." He asked them to produce Biden's 2008 presidential campaign announcement speech, which became an adventure in timing when Biden's observations about his opponents where quoted out of context by the press. Delivery of the announcement and companion speech by the candidate's wife, Jill Biden, was pushed up in an effort to quell the press.
Rasky then asked MSP to devise a low-cost production tool the campaign could use to promote Biden's appearances and protect him from the kind of distorted press reporting of his campaign appearances that had torpedoed his presidential aspirations in '87. Rasky explains, "The whole idea behind Digital Joe, since the campaign couldn't afford a professional film crew to follow the candidate all the time ...the idea was to figure out if we could create this production ability using campaign staff. We wanted to capture the Senator in real-time at all of his events and be ready to share the events with people who weren't there as soon as the event was over. I hired Moody Street to develop and design the system, then test it and train us to give us the capability to collect video at all of Biden's events. And they made it possible."
MacNeil and Moody Creative Director Ted Resnikoff - no stranger to the world of political reporting having interviewed President Jaques Chirac of France, French Cabinet ministers, and ambassadors of several European countries for French television - went on the trail with the candidate to perfect a system of shooting, editing, and delivering for broadcast from campaign events via a fully portable camera and editing rig. Last April they traveled to Biden campaign headquarters in Wilmington, DE, to train Biden's staff to produce and post video from remote locations. Says Rasky, "In the You Tube era, when campaigns attack with video on a daily basis we want to make sure the media sees the actual video as opposed to our opponents' edited version so the truth gets out. That was the concept, executed perfectly by Moody Street Pictures."
Although Biden does not get the same visibility in the press as some of the other candidates, MSP continues to work for the candidate they believe in - behind the camera at events and behind the scenes as well. Mary Liz Kane, of the Liberty Square Group, who directs fundraising efforts for the Biden Campaign in the North East, and is former deputy finance director for Senator Ted Kennedy said, "Moody Street has been incredibly helpful to our efforts on the campaign. They have gone above and beyond the call of
duty to support the candidate, and helped spread his message across New England and beyond. On the fundraising side, John has been able to introduce new friends and supporters to our campaign. We are so grateful for all the good work that he does and will continue to do on our behalf." She added, "Those guys have been awesome."
Rasky concluded, "What impressed me about Moody Street is they work in real-time. Political campaigns need people who can produce at the highest quality in the shortest timeframe. There are no more difficult circumstances for working producers than in a political campaign where schedules and events never stop changing. Production has to respond to all circumstances, and it is hard to find quality support in this business. They are the easiest, most supportive pros I've worked with in this industry."