ABC Bush Interview

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Politics/story?id=6354012&page=1

For this sequence and interview, I focused on the opening to one of the last interviews of President Bush, when ABC's Charles Gibson traveled with Bush to Camp David via Marine One:

Before they even step onto the helicopter, the interview seems to be seeking to "humanize" Bush. At 5:04 (the video time goes in reverse) a medium shot of Charlie, the President and his wife is included just for the sake of making the President look goofy, when he says "I'm glad to give you a ride on the magic carpet."

From here, ABC goes into the very awkward, but famous, presidential walk-from-the-lawn-to-the-helicopter scene for 10 excruciating seconds.

At 4:48, a poor excuse for a video interview begins with an image of the President waving out the window of what is assumed to be a lifting helicopter. One cannot tell whether that's what is actually happening -or if it is even from a recent date- because nothing in this shot is explained except that the President, at some point, felt it necessary to wave out of a window.

4:45 the helicopter lifts off, with the Washington Monument in the background, just in time for the President to stop waving.

At 4:40, our lives are again wasted as this elongated introduction brings us to Bush speaking about how "neat" the White House is, how nice the furniture is and how the Obamas would "fill that house with love."

Suddenly, the helicopter ride is over and we see a wide shot of Charlie, the President, Laura and one of the daughters (who they do not name) all making that awkward shuffle back into Camp David. Note how Charlie pats himself on the back at 4:16 by noting how ABC's exit interview with Bush was first.

Finally, at 4:12 the actual interview begins. All of the predictable settings are around, the Prez in more casual garb and a nice fire blazing in the background fireplace. From here we see the typical close head shots, wide interviewee/interviewer shots but I did notice that in the wide shots, the president appears strangely small on the end of that long yellow couch and my eyes were distracted by the awkward stance in which Bush keeps his legs.

All in all I found the introduction to this interview completely unnecessary. It would have been bearable if the sequencing was constructed more smoothly and made less of an eyesore. It seemed to me like Charlie was more excited about going on the helicopter than the actual interview itself so ABC's producers just gave him a camera and said "go shoot" while he was on board.