How They Did It

NBC News VP Mark Lukasiewicz briefs camera crews during a pre-production meeting in the Old Executive Office Building on Thursday, May 28.

Mark Lukasiewicz (a.k.a. “Luk”) was the Executive Producer behind one of NBC’s most revealing portraits: “Inside the Obama White House, Brian Williams Reports.” WHC Insider reported Luk’s production plan to create the most personal look yet at the White House and this President. Today, we go behind the scenes with Luk as he tells us how they got the “get of the year.”

Linda Rozett:  How long did it take to get the administration to agree to appear under this sort of microscope? How did you convince them to cooperate?

Mark Lukasiewicz:  We began that conversation very early with Robert Gibbs and other Obama advisers. The conversations got more serious in February, and then got even more serious after the White House Correspondents Dinner in May. NBC has done this kind of show with virtually every administration since Nixon; it’s a very long tradition. President Ford was the only exception, since he wasn’t in office long enough. It’s been our practice to approach each new administration to participate, because it’s an opportunity to introduce the nation to them and how they work.

After that, we had a number of meetings on the details: the number of people involved, equipment to be moved in, where we would have cameras, and work space. We had a space in the Old Executive Office Building. Finally it became a matter of finding a date that worked.

From the outset I had the strong impression it really was only a matter of when, not if. The White House understood the value of this project in terms of introducing this administration to the country, to their key players. I didn’t sense any hesitation on their part.

Were there any restrictions on what you could shoot (rooms off limits, security, etc.)?

There were conversations with the Secret Service to make sure we weren’t doing anything inadvertently to compromise the President’s protection. And there were definitely areas we would have been happy to shoot, but were told no. Not the residence floors of the White House where the Obamas live. Not the Situation Room, for example, and limited opportunity to shoot in the areas occupied by the National Security people.

But the restrictions were really minimal in terms of where we could shoot; and almost all of them had to do with security.

How about the staff — any restrictions there?

No.  But there were some logistical issues — making sure we could carve time out of the day to have access to the key players.  Once we had agreement, we needed to make sure Brian Williams could stop in on certain people, that they’d have a free 15 to 20 minutes on their calendar.

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Obama captures prime time

Obama Walks to Oval Office -- courtesy Antoine Sanfuentes

Mark Lukasiewicz (a.k.a. “Luk”) is one of the biggest names in TV news, yet he operates behind the cameras and lights — and notoriety — as a Vice President of NBC News.

He has been leading NBC News’ digital efforts and on the side (ahem) over the years he has created and produced some of NBC News biggest events, the most recent: NBC’s “Inside the Obama White House, Brian Williams Reports.” With amazing access and resources, he and his team shot 150 hours of tape and created two primetime network hours, which also appeared on NBC’s cable channel MSNBC.

WHCInsider talked to Luk about the two-night special report, both of which captured a “top 10″ TV ranking for that week. about how the NBC the program came together.

Linda Rozett: Did you plan what everybody would be shooting beforehand, or did you just show up with lots of people and start shooting … and sort it out in the edit room?

Mark Lukasiewicz: The White House puts out a public schedule each day, so we certainly knew in advance some of what would be on President Obama’s schedule.  But in terms of exactly how it would unfold, there’s no way to know that.  You just roll with it. In the end, the broadcast included an entire chapter on how the White House managed the Sonia Sotomayor story — and that episode completely unfolded before our eyes. No one could have predicted it.

Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest and NBC News VP Mark Lukasiewicz on the South Lawn of the White House, consider camera locations for "Inside the Obama White House: Brian Williams Reports" – courtesy Subrata De

In the process we followed, every producer submitted an outline of their best material, what they saw what was noteworthy, what unfolded. Each submitted the outline by midnight on Friday, a few hours after they left the White House.

Before leaving the White House Brian, Subrata De and I were also able to compare notes — and overnight I put together a 12-act outline of the two hours incorporating all the best material from the producers, and laying it out and structuring it into a rough narrative.

By noon Saturday everyone was back in New York and the entire team went to work on that 11-page outline, in a two-hour meeting.  We moved some things around, added some things, took some others out.  And at the end of that meeting, a producer/editor team was assigned to begin producing each act.

Sunday was another full day in a “war room” on the 5^th floor of 30 Rock, where Brian worked with each producer/editor team and scripted each act in sequence.  Brian recorded his scripts for those acts Sunday evening.  By Monday morning, we were screening a largely completed version of the two-hour special.  It was an incredible process.

In addition to the NBC Special, didn’t you have time on MSNBC?

On NBC, we had one hour on Tuesday, June 2, and one hour Wednesday, June 3.  We combined those into a single, two-hour program on Friday, which also ran on MSNBC on the weekend.  And very soon, it will be a DVD.

And had our own website for the broadcast: www.whitehouse.msnbc.com.  Pieces of video that we let run longer and stuff that didn’t make the broadcast, we put that on the website. We also had web-exclusive elements — our web producers were involved from day one; and msnbc.com had its own editorial team with us at the White House.  They had access to everything.  The website also has the full two-hour video, as well as all the previous “Inside the White House” broadcasts going back several years

With that much material, you must have had some good stuff that got left on the cutting room floor … what were your favorites that just didn’t quite make the cut?

There is. We had 150 hours of material. One thing we couldn’t get into the Monday, Tuesday broadcasts, but got in on Friday was a section about White House photographer Pete Souza. The producer who shot that material made the case for a great segment; a lovely and fascinating little glimpse of how the White House photographer works, how he works with the President. The segment told the story behind a particular photo, hanging in the West Wing, of a young boy in the Oval Office. The picture shows a 4-year old standing in front of the President’s desk and Obama is leaving over so the young boy can touch his hair. Souza told us the little boy had recently had his hair cut and wondered if their heads felt the same. In the photo, Obama is leaning over so the boy can feel his head.

How would you describe Obama’s comfort level with cameras following him that closely for an extended period?

I can’t speak for the President on this, but it appeared that he was very comfortable. We certainly had extraordinary access to him all day long in different settings: casual interactions with immediate staff members, casual interactions with the First Lady, walking from place to place, backstage, meetings in the Oval Office, in the Roosevelt Room, in the limousine, getting off the elevator in the morning and getting on the elevator in the evening. He seemed very comfortable.

Any surprises during shooting?

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