Filming Senator Patrick Leahy
I had the honor to meet Senator Patrick Leahy who was being interviewed for King Abdullah II’s Silver Jubilee.
Since COVID, it has become commonplace for clients to hire local video production companies to film interviews but have the producers themselves remain remote using Zoom to conduct the actual interview.
I was hired several times to do this during COVID when it was not possible to travel or to be in the same room with the person being interviewed. With the maturation of video conferencing tools such as Zoom, what used to require tens of thousands of dollars of equipment can now be performed with an ordinary laptop or tablet and a WiFi connection.
Such was the case this week when I was hired to set up a two-camera interview with Senator Patrick Leahy. The Vermont Senator served for 48 years – the third-longest serving Senator ever. He also was the president pro tempore of the United States Senate from 2012 to 2015 and from 2021 to 2023.
The Senator couldn’t have been nicer. He was so happy to chat about his relationship with both King Hussein and his son, King Abdullah II, of Jordan. He was very proud to show me the photo taken at King Hussein’s funeral that caught him with four U.S. Presidents – Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and George Bush. He was quick to point out the irony in the photo. Carter defeated Ford. Bush/Reagan defeated Carter, and Clinton defeated Bush.
The client requested two Sony A7r-iv cameras – one medium and the other wide – for the interview. They also wanted it against a green screen. This actually turned out to be great because we only needed a simple, large conference room to set up the interview. Typically we would scout out and locate a space with nice depth and visual interest, then light the entire space to compliment the interviewee.
I also connected the iPad used for the Zoom call to an external speaker (a Beats Pill) to get a louder, clearer audio feed for the interviewer. This worked out great since the Senator did have hearing aids. He had no trouble hearing the questions.
After the interview concluded, Senator Leahy continued with more stories about him and King Abdullah II and was most gracious to pose for a picture with me.
It was quite an honor to be able to spend some personal, one-on-one time with the Senator and have him share stories from his celebrated career.
