Prof Steckler Talks Shop-- And Listens, Too

Last Thursday at the Campaign Academy, we had Paul Steckler come and speak to us. Mr. Steckler directed the documentary we viewed on Monday, Last Man Standing. We asked him what went into his decision to base his documentary on the Texas 2002 governor and state representative races. He discussed the potential change that could have occurred with the Sanchez and Kirk races (see my last post) and the chance some of us thought we had to bring the state back into Democratic control. As we all know now, that didn't happen. In covering these races, the Rose/Green campaign came to his attention, and well, aren't we all glad he did, because it resulted in a great documentary. He also made a film called Vote for Me, and has reformed the film academy at UT and teaches there. 

We asked him what the best way to get an important person to come and see us at the academy was, and he gave us the advice to ask simple questions to get the answers we want. At the end, he asked us what we would think was important in a campaign if all we had seen or heard about campaigns was what we viewed in Last Man Standing. Which I thought was really great, because he seemed genuinely interested in our views, and what we thought. We learned on one of the previous days, that in targeting for campaigns, the younger voters are generally overlooked, and efforts are more concentrated on swing voters, and other demographics. It really does speak a lot of the tide turning in politics today, that people really are listening to the opinions of the younger voters. Some of the things we mentioned were the importance of message and appearance, and connecting with voters and taking your opponent seriously.

It was great to have him here to speak to us, and we learned a great deal about what goes into documentary film making.