Reply #25: Conditions must have been miserable there yesterday

[PurityOfEssence]

You're right, this is an ongoing problem of his, and a lot of it can be summed up by an old analysis of casting: it's often better to cast someone of average looks than someone pretty, especially in a leading role. The reason is this: when you see someone who's quite good-looking, with continued viewing you see more and more defects (mole on the lip, speaking out of the side of his mouth, odd jutting lower-lip when thinking) and the net effect is a diminishing of the first impression.

Someone who's a bit odd-looking (like Kucinich) looks better with time: sparkling eyes, comfortable facial gestures, joyous smile and other traits make him look more appealing with time. (Hey, he's pretty appealing-looking to start with, unless one needs rawboned, chiseled macho looks...)

Back to my main point, though: that must have been horrible there yesterday. It was obviously hot, the wind was kicking up and the lighting looked terrible. (Was it all just natural light?) Everyone looked horrible; it was like "The Attack of the Seven Dorian Grays". What a mess; the only ones who didn't look certifiably horrible were Obama and (for some reason) Biden. The skin tones probably helped a great deal for those two: black skin fares better without fill lighting, and the desaturated pastiness of Biden's complexion seemed to keep wrinkles from showing. The rest looked dreadful. Shoot that Lighting Director (where the hell's the IATSE when you really need them?) if there was one, and if not, just stop the day exterior venues.

As for the facial tics, they're not going to help and I hope they don't become more of a problem.

The sound system was dreadful, too. Hell, IATSE is an AFL-CIO operation; what the hell's going on here? If there was one gathering that should have been technically competent, it should have been this one.