Given the size of the war chests created to purchase air time, the number of political consultants who double as filmmakers, and the proliferation of in-house editing systems, no candidate is apt to make good on this promise. In addition to being bombarded with broadcast spots, the US electorate is now subject to Internet-related communications, like enriched banner ads, designed to calculate voter savings under a candidate's proposed tax plan.

"The importance of television advertising to a campaign is the difference between winning and losing," says director/cameraman, Marius Penczner whose primary responsibility is to create conceptual cinematography and assist in post production on the Gore 2000 campaign.

Penczner has shot commercials and music videos through New York's Flashframe Films as well as through his own production company, Penczner Productions currently based in Maryland. His most recent commercial projects include spots for Americtech, Florida Sugar Growers and the "Tennessee: Sounds Good to Me" 2000 campaign for the state's Department of Tourist Development.

Penczner entered the political arena in 1984. While writing and producing television spots for Tennessee Governor Don Sundquist (R), he was approached by consultant Dick Morris to work on President Bill Clinton's re-election campaign in 1996.

"Penczner brought us ideas that were well outside the mainstream of political advertising," writes Morris in Behind the Oval Office. No doubt, Morris is referring to Penczner's varied background, which includes playing keyboards for '70s rock band Black Oak Arkansas.

In the early '80s with the birth of MTV, Penczner began making country music videos at the legendary Ardent Studios. Today he works alongside Democratic media consultants Bob Shrum, Carter Eskew, Tad Devine, Mike Donilon, and Bill Knapp in an effort to win the presidency for Al Gore.

Penczner says that while the process of producing mainsteam commercials and political spots is similar, the pressures are anything but. "You just have to look at political production as traditional advertising on steroids. The adrenaline intensity is exponentially higher and the stress level is substantially higher. What I found, and it continues to be surprising to me, is you don't have much time with the candidate, particularly somebody running for president."

Penczer recalls a recent incident in which he had just 12 minutes to film Al Gore, which in the making of political spots is par for the course. "There's no time to tweak the lights or do much of anything," explains Penczer. "This was also true of Bill Clinton in 1996. They basically sit down and the words you never hear are: 'Would you like to run through that Mr. President?' He sits down and it's like: 'Go, roll.' You've got to get it right the first time. Where in traditional advertising you get to do a lot of takes and retakes. None of that is present in political spot-making."

Time spent prepping and approving materials is also limited. "The dynamic is totally different," says Penczner. "In politics you have very little time to get something written, approved and up on the air."