You might well think that producing a video for your group is going to be a difficult, expensive task. Yet, if the Canadian Liberal opposition are to be believed, you can do it in five minutes on a mobile phone! Take a look at this effort by Stephane Dion, trying to undermine the fledgling Canadian Conservative-led government.

It’s a dismal failure. You might not have access to an expensive camera, or post-production facilities, but you can at least avoid all of the elementary failures that Dion’s team didn’t. One has to wonder how much they spent on that video, let alone who thought it would be okay to broadcast it. Canada.com quickly dissected it for all its flaws:

“Some said the amateur-looking tape that aired Wednesday night looked like video from a camera phone. Others joked it was taped by people holding Dion hostage.

“But what’s dead serious is that the Liberal leader’s message – a defence of his coalition with the NDP, and a rebuttal to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s earlier address about the political crisis on Parliament Hill – was nearly eclipsed by the medium.

“While Dion’s face was out of focus, the books in the background were not – including the book, Hot Air. It was shot from an uncomfortably tight angle. And on the French version of the address, Dion’s face was an unnatural shade of pink.

“The tape was meant to air one minute after Harper’s address ended, at about 7:10 p.m. Instead, the Liberals showed up more than half an hour late, according to an official at the National Press Gallery. Meanwhile, TV anchors were forced to kill time while they waited for the tape…

“The video went to air 20 minutes after it was supposed to -and after CTV gave up waiting and resumed regular programming, likely costing Dion a couple of hundred thousand viewers.“

So there you have it – remember what you’re posing in front of. Be in focus and comfortable. Don’t let the production of your media piece distract views from what you’re actually trying to communicate, and if you have a deadline with the media outlet you want to run your piece, stick to it. None of that is beyond an amateur to achieve; but it seems it is beyond Liberals.

And whilst we’re trawling through political video mess ups, Shane Greer highlights this piece with Sarah Palin at Thanksgiving, where turkeys appear to be being minced behind her. Nothing wrong with farmers killing animals, of course, but probably not what you want for a political  backdrop – and I say that as a Palin-tologist!