Now this, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win some hearts and minds. Powerful, smart, beautiful, and compelling. Can we get this on the televisions, please?
Nate Maydole created the video in response to all the anti-gay rhetoric flying around right now in Minnesota. He had some powerful inspiration: his close friend Madeline Koch, the Republican Minneapolan whose powerful pro-equality testimony moved many of us to tears a few weeks ago.
After Madeline’s testimony, Nate turned to his trusty After Effects and Final Cut Pro to create one of the most compelling commercials for equality we’ve ever seen.
In fact, we were so impressed that we tracked Nate down to ask him a couple of questions. And as it turns out, he’s got quite a few awesome video projects under his belt.
Check out the details after the jump — and here’s hoping that his excellent work will inspire more videos to come.
QUEERTY: Was there a specific incident or person that prompted you to create the video?
NATE: Madeline Koch’s testimony in front of the Senate really motivated me on the topic at hand. The video came about because I wanted to help out while using the skills and resources I have.
Q: Have you ever made a video like this before?
N: I create a lot of videos across many platforms. I’ve done quite a bit of kinetic typography in the past but this is my first politically influenced video. One of my daily video projects is Nate’s Word — you can see it here:
Q: Why doesn’t the video identify any of the speakers?
N: I wanted it to feel like it was one voice without any other distractions. The goals were to make is simple, powerful, and short. The respect to the speakers, I did add all of their credentials and links to their videos within the description.
Q: What did you use to create the spot — are these tools that are available to anyone with a computer?
N: I created the spot with After Effects and Final Cut Pro. Unfortunately you need to purchase these programs.
Q: We noticed you have another video with Madeline Koch — are you and she acquainted?
N: Madeline is a very close friend of mine and we’ve done a lot of work together. She is also part of Project 515 which is an organization that I’m very supportive of.
jeff4justice
Former Governor Minnesota Ventura Supports Marriage Equality.
Look up the video: Jesse Ventura Supports Gays’? Equal Rights
jeff4justice
Former Governor Minnesota Ventura Supports Marriage Equality.
Look up the video: Jesse Ventura Supports Gays? Equal Rights
jeff4justice
@jeff4justice: I don’t know why the computer added the question mark.
TheRealAdam
Wonderful. We need a serious tone to this debate. The kind of light-hearted, celebrity-filled ads against Prop 8 in California didn’t really do the seriousness of the issue much justice.
TMikel
This should appear on national TV, not Fox – they obviously would not run it – they are all about dividing us. As people, most importantly politicians, age and die, the younger Americans will support marriage equality.
DLA
Not bad, but it needed to show the faces of the people who were talking and not just words across a white screen. Plus cut it down to a minute or so and more people would watch it.
Cam
Finally! An ad that isn’t people submissively begging to be liked with the overall tone of “See, we aren’t too scary.”
Very nice ad. Is there a place collecting donations to help them run it we can contribute to?
Mike in Asheville
Really, this is the best?
Its eyeopening to me that those like Queerty blanket all the efforts of the many people and organizations that have come to support same-sex marriage as big “fail” yet they fail to recognize that those efforts are making the difference as percentage after percentage of Americans move from anti-same-sex marriage to pro-same-sex marriage.
For me, I will simply add Nate’s video to all the other efforts, the multi-faceted efforts of different ideas and personal efforts to fight the fight. Its always good to have more and more support and I greatly appreciate that along with all the other sincere efforts.
No need to denounce others’ efforts; be happy for all those who actually make the effort to make the difference.
Giselle
This is very good. I wish more people got to see it.
Rob Moore
It is a good ad for radio, but maybe not so much for television. One of the best videos for opposing this amendment is the speech by a Republican representative and veteran of Iraq in opposition to this amendment. I liked his speech as much or more than the speech given by a Democratic representative; the one who said how many gay people does god have to create before we realise he really wants them here.
anser ijaz
i want to add for marriage