This past Thursday afternoon I posted my first Youtube video...an animated satire that I wrote and enlisted some friends to bring to life. We sent the link to our friends. They sent it to theirs, and the view count started to climb...500...600. On Friday Andrew Sullivan got a hold of it and posted it on his blog, and it was off to the races. By Saturday morning it had 100,000 views, by Sunday evening almost a quarter million. It's been a whirlwind to say the least, and for me it's been a chance to experience, first hand, how passionate people are about this election. I wanted to share with you how it came about:
A few weeks ago my wife and I were driving some Obama volunteers back to New York after a day of canvassing in Philadelphia. We were all quite fired up. One of the volunteers announced, quite proudly, "I have a new nickname for John McCain and Sarah Palin – the vet and the unvetted!" Being a writer, I said, "Hey...do you mind if I use that?" So the next day I pushed aside my other writing deadlines and started crafting a little Dr. Seuss-esque poem. It was a cathartic exercise to say the least. I read it to my wife (Dkos's SkippyJones!) and she laughed, so I figured maybe I had something. I approached an artist friend and asked if he’d draw some pictures - maybe just four or five to go with the text?
But it seems like there’s no such thing as halfway when it comes to feelings about this election. The artist disappeared for a couple weeks, and when he emerged he had an incredible number of pictures...and they even moved! I contacted a voice-over artist friend, who has some serious street cred when it comes to children’s stories, and he jumped at the chance to narrate. I asked a musician I know to give me a simple music box melody – "It should take you 10 minutes." Two days later he delivered a detailed score. A video editor volunteered to move footage around. A sound mixer called and asked if his friend, a sound effects editor, could add some "explosions and stuff."
In the real world, nobody wants to work for free. But in a world where Sarah Palin could be president, good luck keeping Joe the Animator and Joe the Musician and Joe the Explosion Effect Specialist away from their tools of the trade.
I hope you enjoy it. And if you do, please help me Get Out The Vet! My goal is for as many voters to see it before the election as possible, so please share the link with your friends. If 4 debates, 2 conventions and constant news coverage can't make up people's minds, maybe a polar bear giving a raspberry will do the trick. Hey, you never know.
"The Vet Who Did Not Vet"
Words: Adam Peltzman
Pictures: Dave Palmer
Narration: Steve Burns
Music & Sound: Nick Balaban, Nathaniel Reichman, Larry Wineland
Editing: David Bouffard
And if you really enjoy it, the best way to show support is to donate to my wife's mybarackobama page.