The Human Rights Campaign / Gay Rights in DC

This was the weekend when gay rights would march on Washington and be heard - first, on Saturday, President Obama would appear at a fundraising dinner for the Human Rights Campaign, and recommit to his campaign promises to the LGBT community; second, on Sunday, tens of thousands would march to the Capitol, where they would voice their adament impatience with their slow-moving cause in Washington.

I was booth producer at the White House for both days, Mike Viqueira was my correspondent, and there was really an enormous amount of coverage to draw from for this piece below that aired on Sunday evening – a recap of the weekend:

On Saturday, my unilateral crew and I were instructed to keep watch outside the White House gates for protestors in Lafayette Park – protestors who would urge Obama to act more quickly on his promises to the gay community.  By the time Travel Pool was called for the Human Rights Campaign dinner, there were no protestors in sight.  It turned out they had all diverted their route towards the Washington Convention Center, where the dinner would take place.  My unilateral cameraman and I were sprung from the grounds, and we headed to the Center to shoot some very late-night b-roll.  (None of it wound up being used, however, because WRC – the NBC local affiliate – had shot some of the protestors during the day).

On Sunday, I had to use all of my White House cameramen to cover all of the gay rights marchers around the White House.  One cameraman and his producer were outside the White House gates, and I had both a unilateral crew to shoot the crowds from inside the grounds, and I also had my North Lawn live shot cameraman angle his camera to see over the fence.  Combined, we all grabbed a slew of elements that got used in the piece shown above.