Film star Suresh Gopi's vehicle sped through the busy lanes of Thrissur on Thursday morning. Four men donning black T-Shirts followed him in a white car in what looked like a chase. When the actor’s car stopped at Lenin Lane in Poonkunnam, the men in black jumped out and got themselves ready for action.
The actor headed to a meeting venue where 50 youngsters were anxiously waiting for him. Cameras rolled and the men captured his movements from different angles. The shoot continued until Suresh Gopi completed his speech and returned to his vehicle.
No, that was not a Suresh Gopi movie shoot. The lensmen were part of his election campaign team. Suresh Gopi is contesting the assembly election from Thrissur as Bharatiya Janata Party candidate, where he is taking on Communist Party of India’s P Balachandran and Congress’s Padmaja Venugopal. The camerapersons quickly transferred the videos to the editors and continued following the candidate. Within 15 minutes, the latest video was uploaded on his party’s social media pages.
Videos rule the roost
Poll campaign videos are not news to Kerala. Political parties and candidates have used them to complement their on-field activities in the past. But this assembly election saw a complete makeover with videos occupying pride of place among poll campaign tools.
Little wonder, then, that mainstream political parties and their candidates have been splurging money to produce high quality videos.
“Candidates of all political parties have utilised the potential of videos to the fullest in this election. Dependency on videos will increase in the coming elections,” opined Favour Francis, founder of OBW India, a leading advertising and public relations agency in Kerala. The Thrissur-based agency is the go-to place for political parties and candidates for campaign videos.
The videos, according to Favour, help candidates build an image among the electorate. “Candidates can easily communicate their achievements and future plans with the voters by circulating them on social media pages and WhatsApp groups,” he said.
The campaign videos mainly harp on development issues. Incumbent lawmakers boast of the new roads, bridges, bus waiting shelters and public amenities built during their tenure, while their rivals list out their plans for the constituency in the next five years.
A campaign strategist in Kochi, who preferred anonymity, said some candidates produced 600 videos of varied duration during the month-long assembly election campaign in Kerala. Thirty-second videos are produced for WhatsApp circulation while one-minute videos are made for social media pages.
The making process
Candidates set the video production process rolling in the second week of February itself - many days before the parties officially nominated them - by hiring advertising agencies and video production houses.
"The process kicked off with the production of a 30-second appeal video in which candidates requested voters’ support,” Favour dwelled into the video-making process.
Many candidates were uncertain about the nomination when the appeal videos were produced. “Confusion reigned supreme during those days. Only a few senior leaders were assured of tickets. Young leaders looked desperate. Some of the leaders were in contention for multiple seats. So we produced two videos for each candidate,” he said.
The appeal videos were shot in secret locations. Only close confidants of the potential candidates were present during filming. “The videos were released only after the political parties finalised their candidates. Not all seat aspirants got tickets this time. We released only 60 per cent of the appeal videos as many leaders lost out in the nomination race,” he said.
Types of videos
Different types of videos were produced to engage with voters from different strata of society and to break monotony.
Vox populi videos featured soundbites and close-up shots of local people. Emotional videos showcased comments from senior citizens. They talked about the efforts taken by their representatives to provide medicines during the pandemic and praised the government for providing them free ration kits. Videos from the football turf is another draw this time. “We made turf videos for all of our clients. The turf videos look great because of its settings and the presence of players. Videos of the candidate attempting a free-kick or a shot from the penalty spot became a big draw among youngsters and sports lovers,” Favour said.
Election a blessing
The huge reliance on videos in the election campaign came as a blessing in disguise for cinematographers and wedding videographers who couldn’t get work because of COVID-19.
A cinematographer, who worked with many prominent directors and preferred anonymity, said he could make good money during this election.
“I worked for Congress, BJP, Twenty20, and CPM candidates in various constituencies during the last one month. It was hectic, but financially rewarding. I charge Rs 10,000 for a day,” he said.
He said he used to begin work early in the morning “I shot specialised cinematic videos for Suresh Gopi in Thrissur. His forenoon schedule begins at 6am and ends at 1pm. The afternoon schedule begins at 4pm and continues till 9:30pm. The 12-hour schedule during summer is draining,” he said.
Shajith, a wedding videographer in Kannur, said election videos helped him offset the financial losses incurred due to COVID-19. “Wedding videographers were in huge trouble, but the election videos gave us a new lease of life,” he said.
Thank you video
The production team will pack up only after shooting a video in which the candidates thank the voters for electing him to the assembly.
“We will hand over the master file of the thank you video to the campaign manager of the candidate. We tell them to keep the video safe and release it only if the candidate wins. Political opponents may use it to tarnish the image of the defeated candidates by releasing the video. Such an incident happened in Palakkad after the Lok Sabha election in 2019,” said Favour.
