Phil de Vellis = John Mark Karr?

by Patrick Ruffini :: March 22nd, 2007 3:04 pm

Did Phil de Vellis just cop to a “crime” he didn’t commit, or had only a minor part in committing, to advance his career (it’s working) or cover for the real perps?

Buckeye State Blog, a lefty Ohio outfit, is doubtful that de Vellis is the auteur of “Vote Different.” They have clashed in the past so there clearly is no love lost between the two:

Also, where was De Vellis’ “Big Sister” ad of the Brown campaign. Where’s that one piece that hinted at Phil’s creativity? Where is something - anything - that shows a high level of technical skill with video editing/manipulation. If you’re still looking, stop. I couldn’t find anything either. In fact, there’s nothing, I repeat NOTHING, from Phil’s work on that campaign (or any other work he’s done elsewhere that I’ve tracked down) that even leaves one to hope that he is capable of the pure genius that is “Big Sister”. I remain skeptical.

David All pays close attention and doesn’t buy it either:

I took a closer examination of the video today, and there’s one scene which really jumps out at me which leads me to believe that there could, in fact, be more to the story.

Watch the video again and look for this scene. Look how perfectly edited the series of videos are in the video. Now look at the admittedly amateur video which the Lamont folks made using this same idea. No one noticed those scenes.

This is precision editing. Not some kid, in his apartment, on a Sunday, with some editing equipment.

He’s referring to an early scene in the spot, where the drones are marching to Hillary video placed perfectly in a series of TV screens above. That shows a remarkable attention to detail in the production.

It also conflicts with ParkRidge47’s email to Micah Sifry, which clumsily claimed that the ad was a response to the David Geffen spat. Which happened on February 21st. And if so, that’s revealing, because it suggests “Vote Different” was in the works for two weeks or more. Chances are there’s more to de Vellis’ claim that it was done on his apartment on a Sunday afternoon.

I’m not a video editor. I don’t own a Mac or Final Cut Pro. But I’ve worked with video editors. And my strong sense is, like David’s, that there is no way this ad was thrown together in six hours. Maybe the cheap responses were, or the Lamont-Lieberman version was, but not this.

UPDATE: Bryan Preston sleuths it out, and his word is as conclusive as you’ll probably get on this. Conclusion: It could have been done in a day, if the editor knew exactly what he was doing and what the end product should look like.

Tagged: barack obama blue state digital philip de vellis video

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