Yesterday, I covered a debate among the five Republicans running for U.S. Senate in Indiana. The candidates – Marlin Stutzman, Don Bates Jr., Richard Behney, Dan Coats and John Hostettler – are competing for Sen. Evan Bayh’s seat.
The debate was held at the Moose Lodge in New Castle, IN. Because of the relatively small venue, tickets to the event sold out almost immediately. It was a full house.
I had the difficult juggling act of shooting stills while simultaneously shooting video.
Audio at this event was less than desirable. I had a shotgun mic on my video camera but there was a lot of space between the debaters and myself. I also set my portable audio recorder up close to the debaters as a backup. That came in very handy. At one point, the audio on their mics went haywire. My portable unit picked up a lot less of the buzzing noise for some reason.
The debate was rather tame. The candidates agreed on many points, or only had slightly varying positions.
The one thing that stood out during the debate was when former U.S. Senator Dan Coats and former U.S. Rep. John Hostettler went back and forth on their differing opinions of the war in Iraq.
When I edit a video, I try to keep it short and to the point. This argument between Coats and Hostettler seemed to be a good key difference between the candidates.
I added some photographs to the video to offer more visually appealing imagery.
For those of you that enjoy the tech specs of all of this, I was using a Canon FS-100 camcorder with an Audio-Technica ATR55 Telemike attached. My secondary audio recorder was a M-Audio MicroTrack II.
Here are a few still images from the day.
State Sen. Marlin Stutzman, far right, speaks during the debate on Saturday, From left to right are Don Bates Jr., Richard Behney, Dan Coats and John Hostettler. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010
Former U.S. Senator Dan Coats speaks during the debate. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010
Former U.S. Senator Dan Coats speaks during the debate. Also pictured are (left to right) Don Bates Jr., Richard Behney, John Hostettler, Marlin Stutzman and Nate LaMar.Former U.S. Senator Dan Coats speaks during the debate. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010
Former U.S. Rep. John Hostettler speaks during the debate. (C-T photo Max Gersh) ©2010