Inside NBC’s “Inside the Obama White House”
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 5th 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?
