DGA Monthly

4 I D G A M O N T H L Y Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris and the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, engaged in their debate on September 10, DGA Sixth Vice President Lily Olszewski, a Director at ABC News, directing Good Morning America as well as special event news coverage, was the hand at the helm guiding the worldwide audiences to ABC's coverage of the event. "I have always wanted to direct a presidential debate," said Olszewski, who is currently in preproduction to direct ABC News' live election coverage on November 5. "Getting to do this debate in particular, with seemingly so much at stake, made it all the more fulfilling. My parents, immigrants to the United States, would have been so proud." "The biggest technical challenge is to make sure we get things right. An event like a debate becomes part of historical record and gets a great deal of scrutiny. In terms of production and transmission, we need to make sure we have backups and backups to backups for every technical system. We even had to get special clearance from Secret Service to allow a truck to come into a secure perimeter to gas up the generator day of air." "The small size of the stage, the closeness of the moderators relative to the two candidates, the absence of an audience and the dark blue tones in the set design created a very intimate setting, nodding to the high stakes of this event. I relied heavily on small, robotic cameras, primarily because of the space constraints — we were shooting in the round, on a small stage, in a venue with a steep audience grade. We were able to mount cameras around the room and tightly group the cameras shooting the moderators and the candidates to give us the coverage we needed." "Every Director is different and requires different things,' said Associate Director Liz Sobel, who was part of Olszewski's team. "This being Lily's first debate, I wanted to take away as much from her as I could so she could concentrate on her cameras, lighting and audio. We have worked together before, and we have a great relationship. She's so talented and great at communicating to the crew how best we can support her. "This was obviously a very high-profile event. There's a lot of tension, pressure, and nerves in the room. As the AD, I often try to lighten people up a bit before we go to air. Remind them how good they are, maybe crack a silly joke to make them laugh. All while, my nerves are kicking in and my heart starts racing, because my top priority is to get whatever production I'm working on, on and off the air cleanly." Stage Manager Anne Marie Kuehling, who also worked the RNC debate in December 2023 in addition to the September 10th Debate, recalled her role in making certain Olszewski had what she needed when she needed it. "I feel it's important for the Stage Manager to anticipate potential issues, knowing the Director counts on that level of detail," said Kuehling. "My goal is to make her job go as smoothly as possible so she can do her best work. Until I get in the room I feel there's nothing to prepare. The venue and Director will dictate how things move. I also like to be familiar with names and titles of those I'm dealing with, so I'll do my homework I was very aware of the heightened security of the Presidential Debate so I familiarized myself with the space and was sure to discuss my plans on dealing with the candidate, with her team and the Secret Service. Otherwise, it was like any other live event." Covering the 2024 Presidential Elections — continued L-R: Associate Director Liz Sobel, ABC News Special Events Senior Executive Producer Marc Burstein, Director Lily Olszewski and Technical Director Richard Ehrenberg pose for a behind- the-scenes photo during the Presidential Candidates Debate. L-R: Stage Managers Isaiah James and Alfonso "Fonzie" Pena, Director Lily Olszewski, Stage Manager Anne Marie Kuehling and Associate Director Liz Sobel at the ABC News Presidential Debate on September 10th, 2024. Please remember to vote on November 5, 2024. The Presidential Candidates Debate

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