  
|
| |||||||||
|
"Scam" ads the norm Trail Mix: Hillary haters spam cyberspace Gunning for the center Democrats make Hillary legit The blundering pundit Don Giuliani Campaign video: |
McCain's own Mozart
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Feb. 24, 2000 | WASHINGTON -- "Courage" is one of those gauzy ads that presents McCain in the soft, sentimental light that has helped his insurgent candidacy flourish. But when I first saw "Courage," at a Virginia post-production house a couple of weeks ago, it was lifeless. The images and the words were there, but the emotion was missing. That's because Todd Hahn, a man most voters have never heard of, hadn't gotten his hands on "Courage" yet. Hahn, who was watching the spot for the first time that day, too, is a Juilliard-trained composer who is considered a genius for his ability to inject emotion into political advertising. Recently, he's been working to make McCain's advertisements look and feel like 30-second Hollywood epics. "I know when Todd has hit a home run," says John Marcus, who has produced some of McCain's ads, "because I walk out with a tear in my eye."
Music has been a staple of television political advertisements for a long time, but until recently most of it has been, as Hahn calls it, "needle drop" stuff, canned ditties imported from a music library. But with the rise of digital sampling, a professional composer can produce an original score with a computer and a keyboard that can fit comfortably inside campaign budget constraints. Hahn can deliver a score in 30 minutes. That speed and his creativity have made him one of the hottest political composers in the business. He isn't hired for his political acumen, however -- he flunked his government course in high school, and he hasn't made much of an effort to understand politics since then. Hahn is 36, has a trim red goatee that matches his red face and bright blue eyes. He was born in Akron, Ohio, and is one of those hopelessly sincere Midwesterners who drifts across the Appalachians and ends up on the East Coast. Most imports start talking like city folks soon enough, but 10 years after arriving in Washington, Hahn still makes exclamations like "gosh" and "dawgonnit" without a hint of irony. He was calling me "buddy" before he ever set eyes on me. When I caught up with him, Hahn was watching "Courage" in a cramped temporary studio while his main space is fitted for a grand piano. As a narrator recites the highlights of McCain's biography, the viewer sees grainy black-and-white images of McCain as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. That footage dissolves into video of a vigorous handshake with Ronald Reagan in front of the White House. Then we see candidate McCain talking with real folks at his town hall meetings this year. Hahn is staring up at the monitor intently, hands resting on the keyboard. Twice through the ad and he's done. He won't listen to the scripted ad closely again until he's finished with a rough cut of his score. Hahn begins by laying down a pad of strings from the synthesizer -- it's an electronic hodgepodge of violins, violas and cellos -- that he uses to create the emotional glue of his piece. "Courage" will be scored in the key of D flat. D flat is a strong, powerful chord that Hahn used a lot when he did work for Bob Dole in 1996. As for the tempo, Hahn wants it as slow as possible. The main goal in scoring a short advertisement, says Hahn, is to make it feel longer than it is. Hahn says he has met the candidate only once, but that as a composer he is drawn to the latent drama of McCain's story. "For a guy like McCain," he says, "I can't help but write something that has a heroic theme."
|
|||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||
More news on 
Next page |