The White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800 whe ...

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

Presidency of Barack Obama Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, took office following his victory over Republican nomine ...

Office of Digital Strategy The Office of Digital Strategy (ODS) is an Executive Branch agency that promotes the U.S. President's messaging through digital and social media. It is part of the White House Office and is led by the Assistant to the President and Director of Digi ...

Josh Earnest Joshua Ryan Henry Earnest
''

Arun Chaudhary Arun Chaudhary (born November 6, 1975) is an American political operative and filmmaker. After serving on President Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, he was asked to become the first official videographer of the White House, a position h ...

, who created the series.

Background and key people

West Wing Week - Arun Chaudhary and Josh Earnest

''West Wing Week'' was created in 2010 during the 2nd year of the

Presidency of Barack Obama Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, took office following his victory over Republican nomine ...

. The weekly shows were first proposed by Arun Chaudhary, who served as the Obama presidential campaign's New Media Road Director; to this end, he created an un-aired pilot of the proposed series for his seniors. The series is narrated by Josh Earnest, Josh Earnest said that Arun Chaudhary "is the creative force behind ''West Wing Week''". Chaudhary was the first official White House videographer in history. The West Wing Week Project was part of President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

's commitment to transparent government. The two individuals who have held the position of official videographer both worked for the 2008 Obama presidential campaign; additionally the White House has declined to provide any information about the costs, salary or budget lines for the project.

Production

The show is shot with a Sony EX3 and a 1980s-era 416

Sennheiser Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG (, ) is a German audio equipment manufacturer headquartered in Wedemark. Sennheiser specializes in equipment for both the consumer and professional audio markets, including microphones, headphones, and loudsp ...

shotgun microphone, and subsequently edited on

Final Cut Pro Final Cut Pro (often abbreviated FCP or FCPX) is a professional non-linear video-editing application initially developed by Macromedia, and, since 1998, by Apple as part of its pro apps collection. Final Cut Pro allows users to import, edit, a ...

. Video footage is recorded throughout the week by the White House videographer. The material is then usually edited on a Thursday and released the next day (usually on Friday at 12:00 AM EDT). According to the Presidential Record Act all footage must be archived. It is stored in the presidential records. The episodes titles are decided by Arun Chaudhary. The music used in ''West Wing Week'' is performed by the

United States Marine Band The United States Marine Band is the premier band of the United States Marine Corps. Established by act of Congress on July 11, 1798, it is the oldest of the United States military bands and the oldest professional musical organization in the ...

. At the end of each episode there is usually a "sting", or unscripted twist.

Critical reception

Everything that is posted in ''West Wing Week'' is vetted and must be approved for release by The White House Press Office. This has caused some critics to argue that the webcast videos are "nothing more than press releases" some saying it "borders on propaganda". David Almacy, former White House internet director during President George W Bush's administration, argues that while the idea of ''West Wing Week'' is "intriguing", it is an unnecessary expense. Almacy says "It is taxpayer funded and the videographer has the ability to take scenes and edit them the way they wish, and when you have a White House press corps that's a hundred of feet away from the Oval Office," he continues, "The videographer is a federal employee, the power of editing could cause some concerns about perceived propaganda." ... "With average views between 5,000 and 10,000 for most ''West Wing Weeks'' (with a few exceptions), one could argue that the costs associated with producing the weekly installments aren't providing much value to citizens, especially in tough economic times when Congress and the White House are looking for ways to cut the budget," adds Mr Almacy. One unnamed journalist, interviewed by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, said some members of the White House press corps "resent" the access Chaudhary gets, adding that sometimes events appear on ''West Wing Week'' that were closed to the press.

Episodes

''West Wing Week'' is a weekly released (usually on Fridays at 12:00 am EDT) web-episode by

The White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800 whe ...

of the weeks events concerning the

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

. Episodes are also available via

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

,

The White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800 whe ...

website and through

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

. There are also special episodes, such as Mailbag and Dispatch episodes. Usually before a dispatch episodes is released the White House will release a preview trailer. Dispatches episodes are devoted to a specific topic, for example, in 2011 there was a special "Dispatches from Sudan". Mailbag episodes are released 2–3 times a year and focus on answering questions sent to the President. :

2010

2011

2016

References

;Attribution *

The above article incorporates text from the United State
White House
website, which is in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

.

External links

* {{Barack Obama History of the White House American non-fiction web series Presidency of Barack Obama

Background and key people

Production

Critical reception

Episodes

2010

2011

2016

See also

References

External links