Candleblog

Eagle-eyed Candleblog reader Lia has offered up the embedded clip from last night’s Rachel Maddow show featuring Vermont’s own Steve Benen…

The comments that I’ve seen on Steve’s blog seem to agree that Steve’s performance was great but they were largely critical of A: the fake bookshelf background, and B: Steve’s make-up. I was in the room with Steve last night when this was broadcast and while I completely agree that the fake books are pretty cheesy (seriously WCAX, a bare white wall would be better), the make-up was little more than some powder to cut the forehead sheen (that we all have and that cameras can see very well), and a tiny bit of color. The rest was all Steve.

I’d like to suggest to WCAX that they invest in a Burlington skyline backdrop. In fact, if Steve is going to continue to be a guest on Rachel’s show, perhaps we Vermonters could pitch-in and pay for a real backdrop so us woodchucks don’t look quite so silly in national media. We need a good, hi-res still of the Burlington skyline at night — preferably taken from the lake. Then we need to find out who the backdrop manufacturers are and price it out. We could gift it to WCAX and not only improve Steve’s appearances on MSNBC, but Chairman Dean’s and Senators Leahy and Sanders’ satellite uplinks too.

As an aside, the WCAX technical crew are first rate from what I’ve seen, but as a cinematographer, I’d recommend putting some distance between Steve and the backdrop. The visible shadows on the background are not good.