Marie: Yeah, he does seem natural.

Sandy: He looks like the mayor.

Marie: Looks very comfortable with the camera.

Virginian-Pilot: Come at this from a presentation standpoint, what they're actually wearing. Stripes versus solids or makeup or things that I would never think about...

Marie: (Turns to Sandy) Now what do you think? Because I'm looking at (Fraim's) tie and I think the stripes ... but you're the dress consultant.

Sandy: Well, the darker the color, the higher the authority. They're always in a dark suit and a white shirt, and white's the most formal. So if you're the mayor, I wouldn't want you to wear a blue shirt unless it was off of the air.

Marie: No, no, I'm talking about the stripes against the wood paneling ...

Sandy: Well, stripes are more friendly than those Ivy League patterns, which is what he wears often, or the solid colors, like the burgundy tie.

Marie: I'm thinking of the whole overall picture.

Virginian-Pilot: You're saying the striped tie next to the striped wall, it's busy?

Marie: It's kind of busy. It's drawing my attention to other things .

Fraim makes a proclamation about Norfolk Public Schools winning a national award.

Sandy: They could do a bit of branding, if they did it in a real classy way.

Virginian-Pilot: How so?

Doug: It'd be an interesting experiment, if they could change the backdrop, instead of having the brown wall, and put a Norfolk skyline up there and make it like a news set...

Sandy: They could change that background. It's notoriously bad to have anything near flesh tone that's behind you.

Fraim is still speaking about the prize. As he does, he plays with his cuffs and twiddles his fingers.

Virginian-Pilot: Is he nervous?

Sandy: Yes.

Doug: He always does that.

The thing about Mayor Fraim is, he's spoken publicly so many times but he never totally seems to feel that comfortable or as charismatic as other mayors. But that's just who he is. I think he's a nice guy, a very competent public official, but he's always seemed a bit ill at ease when it comes to public events.

Sandy: I think he's an introvert. It's probably hard for him.

Virginian-Pilot: Tell me more of what you're saying about the hands.

Sandy: He's just having to do something. It takes a lot of confidence to just stand there and have your hands do nothing. When you get up and you speak, the first thing you'll do is you'll put your hands in your pocket. It gives you something to do with your hands.

So, in basic presentation skills class, they're going to tell you to mind your hands and they tell you to never let your hands touch... Your hands will start being the center of attention if you're moving them around too much, so the idea is just to not do anything with your hands.

Fraim announces the first public hearing item, and City Clerk Breck Daughtrey reads the item into the minutes.

Virginian-Pilot: Part of council business is reading the agenda items, which often roll by like the disclaimers at the end of radio ads. Watching City Council, are you interested in that?

Doug: What is the objective here? Is the objective just to document something? Or is the objective to put watchable television together so people are going to switch over from ABC, CBS and NBC to watch Channel 48? I mean, is that realistic? Of course not. I mean, what's it going to be, "Desperate Council Members?" (All laugh.)

I think that you're never going to make it must-see TV because the topics aren't compelling enough. I mean most people just don't care about these things. Now as I said, they're not out for ratings. They're not out to sell advertising time. It's a public service that they're providing, so it can be as bland and boring as it has to be on a minimal shoestring budget.

Virginian-Pilot: Once you're sitting at home and you know it's on television, do you want to take the time to understand it all? Do you want it to be presented in a way so it's like you were there?

Marie: Actually, I would look at it, because I don't read the paper on a regular basis. I don't have time. Sometimes I'm just in the bed, flipping channels, and if I see Norfolk City Council come on, this is a good way for me to know what's going on. I used to work at Dillard's as a nail tech. (Vice Mayor) Daun Hester came in. I didn't know who she was....So I would watch it. I would like them to read the information so I know what's going on.

Sandy: And I'm glad it doesn't look hokey, I must say. I live in Norfolk, and I'm proud to see that it looks professional.

A man addresses the council on a disagreement over a pending street closure. In his close-ups, Fraim appears agitated. They exchange words, civilly but tensely, and reach a compromise.

Doug: The bigger issue is going to be if these guys are really going to be themselves when they really feel that, or are they going to be conscious that this is on television, so I've got to scale back a bit. In other televised city council meetings that I've seen, I think they pretty much are just themselves, and they're letting people see how they normally would react if there were no cameras there, and it just happens as cinema verite.

Virginian-Pilot: But that takes awhile, doesn't it?

Doug: I think it doesn't if you're not always conscious that there's a television camera on. I think eventually you get used to it, but I mean they shouldn't let the TV dictate how they act. They should just pretend there are no cameras there at all. I mean, that's the real, true public service, is saying, look, this is just us being a fly on the wall, just sort of there, and you're not supposed to change or modify your behavior just because there are cameras present.

Virginian-Pilot: What I think we're talking about is they're public figures, so I think they expect a certain amount of scrutiny, the more public a figure you are. I think about how the presidents get beat up on. But does this make you even more public a public official? Because this gives you a bigger audience now, right?

Doug: Of three more. (laughs) This is the real reality TV. This shows you that reality TV in its purest form is downright boring. You don't have hot babes in the audience. It is what it is. You're not going to have any sort of sexual subplot.

Marie: Maybe not yet. (All laugh.)

Doug: I will tell you this, about whether people are distracted. I mean, they might be more distracted if your tie is askew, and then that's where it becomes problematic because you want them to listen to what you're saying. And if they're focusing in on something else ...

Sandy: Big, dangly earrings.

Doug: Right. Then you've lost the message.

Virginian-Pilot: If we're talking about people who don't come to council meetings, and here now they have the chance to see the mayor and company in action, should council say, we have a bigger audience now and we should do something with it? Take it to the next level on how we present ourselves?

Sandy: Well, they better look credible. They better look professional. If you never saw the pilot on that flight you were taking, but when you got ready to take off, the door opened and you saw him in Bermuda shorts, you wouldn't feel too good about him flying that plane, would you?

Marie: Or his clothes wrinkled. His tie not put together. You would think that he was either tired or sleepy or stressed or, you know, just incompetent.

Virginian-Pilot: And why is that? Because that may not have anything to do with their actual competency level. Why is it that the way you look, the way you present yourself... how does that work psychologically?

Sandy: It says, "I'm a professional. And I wear a uniform." Uniforms make people happy. They make you feel like you’re in the hands of an expert .

Marie: And when you dress professional, you act professional.... Image is very, very important.

And I've gained a sense of respect for them because I've seen them where I'd never seen the majority of them before. I'm listening to them talk. Listening to how they carry themselves, how they're dressed, and I've gained a bit more respect for them. And people don't know you... They judge you. They say the average person can size you up in like 3 seconds, or 30 seconds, something like that.

Sandy: Two.

Virginian-Pilot: So how'd the mayor do in his 2 seconds?

Sandy: He acted like a mayor, I thought. He was in control and was polished and professional-looking.

Virginian-Pilot: And what about Daun Hester?

Marie: She was well put together. She was natural, neutral. She didn't bring any attention to the way she looked. She just looked good. Polished and well put together.

Sandy: No distractions.

The meeting adjourns.

Virginian-Pilot: Well, what do you think then, your overall impression?

Marie: I thought it was very informative, and overall I think it was pretty well put together. I learned some things today that I didn't know about what's going on, right downtown, that they don't cover on the news because some people might think it's boring.

Reach Matthew Jones at (757) 446-2949 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Source: Virginia Pilot
Visit here to read the original article