By Lenny Beckerman-Rodau
Everything is a little bit different this week at the University. The changes range from newly planted red, white and blue flowers to increased levels of security surrounding the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex-or for this week only, what is known as the Debate Site.
But while students walk by MSNBC setting up a television stage outside the Student Center, and mingle with the CNN Election Express in the parking lot, many more interesting changes are also taking place nearby at the debate site.
Since most students are not able to see this part themselves, I want to do my best to take you on a virtual tour. There are a lot of rumors about what exactly is happening on the other side of the security fences.
To start, there are three main venues at the Debate Site. The first is the media risers and satellite truck area in the parking lot across from the front of the Mack Sports Complex. As far as you can see there are television production trucks, double and triple parked, with camera crews staking out any small piece of unoccupied pavement. Anyone who watched news broadcasts Tuesday or Wednesday will have also seen the view from the risers here. In fact, I remember watching CNN on Tuesday night after a long day of work and that is exactly where they were broadcasting from, with the front entrance to the Mack Sports Complex in the backgrounds.
The second venue is the cavernous Media Filing Center, which is housed in what was the Physical Fitness Center (PFC) many athletes knew all too well. It is an enormous open hall with brand new carpet laid end-to-end. At the back are dozens of neatly spaced rows of tables and chairs for the media to sit at and file their news stories. Even though the media positioned here cannot see the debate itself, there are flat-screen televisions erected every few seats to keep them up to speed.
Spin Alley occupies the front area of the Media Filing Center and this is where everything post-debate happens. Right now it is just wide-open space. But as soon as the debate ends, surrogates from both campaigns descend on it and a mash with hundreds of members of the media to provide countless interviews in an attempt to get their respective campaigns’ perspective out. In getting this site ready, the University spared no details. The ceiling of the Media Filing Center has almost thirty giant debate ’08 banners hanging down and in the center of the room is an enormous red, white and blue flag which is larger than a few yellow school busses parked side-by-side.
If you know where you are going, then just through a small set of nondescript doors which are hidden off to the side behind black drapes is a passageway to the third and most important venue, the Debate Hall. While no more than a few hundred yards away, to actually get there requires navigating a confusing set of hallways, turns and stairways. When you finally emerge onto the floor however, you are met with nothing but a wall of black. Since the Debate is really a television event, the Commission on Presidential Debates has essentially built a giant television sound-stage. And to give it a more intimate feel, the entire area is surrounded by giant black drapes hanging down all the way from the rafters to the floor. White tape markers indicate where openings exist and as soon as you step through the stage is visible. The first thing you notice is just how small the whole thing is-especially for all the hype that surrounds it. Squeezed between the television network risers and the stage are less than 1,000 chairs for the audience. Early on Tuesday morning a crew was specifically tasked with lining up every single chair. Using levels, tape measures and string, they moved every chair forward and backwards mere centimeters until they were perfectly straight and spaced. The precision is evident. Because the whole space is so small, the basketball scoreboard was also taken down-and stored safely on its side out of sight next to the stage. The stage is practically on top of the audience, the only real separation being that it is raised and has two sets of a few stairs leading up from the floor. Surprisingly, the stage was not completed until Tuesday afternoon.
When I left Sunday night only a skeleton of a stage had been erected and light rigging and other construction equipment was spread out all over the floor By Monday afternoon you could get a feel for what the layout was and by Tuesday you could actually see the finished made-for-television product. After major construction finished on Tuesday, it was time for sound checks, which meant that stand-ins were needed. A few lucky students were chosen to take the places of Senators McCain and Obama and moderator Bob Schieffer and they held short mock-debates to test camera angles and sound levels.
While the lucky few in attendance will have an amazing view of the stage, they will not see what goes on behind the scenes at the Debate Hall. Behind the omnipresent piping and black draping are various campaign offices, holding rooms, production booths and media workrooms. The Mack Sports Complex was transformed temporarily to suit all of these needs. Temporary walls were erected to close and create new hallways and rooms. Even for those students who frequent basketball games they would be easily lost.
For those students lucky enough to receive tickets to the debate it will be an experience of a lifetime and for those who watch the debate on television, it will still be something immensely important that you will never forget.