Today was the first time I've watched a major league U.S. politician in person. Al Gore's stage presence was impressive, as you would expect from a man who used to be president of the USA. He neatly weaved comments that were appropriate for the audience with his standard stuff about the environment and U.S. politics. Questions were handled skillfully and tactfully, even the blunt 'Is George Bush as stupid as he seems?' (Answer: no, but he has a worrying lack of curiosity).

The new bit for me was how skillfully he worked the cameras. Red light on, then after a few seconds he made eye contact with the camera, just long enough to make the viewer feel like an appreciated audience member. Then his eyes move away, before the shot moved to a different camera. I've not seen British politicians doing it so well.

There was a special buzz for me when I bumped into Andy in the foyer. He was directing and vision mixing the Al Gore session, and confirmed that it was a joy to film. Andy started vision mixing while I was directing live shows on student television. He has come a long way from our three camera shows where all the cameras were different makes!