Emily and I went to the Jon Stewart / Stephen Colbert rally yesterday to shoot some behind the scenes footage for Comedy Central and FutureView, the event's production company. We arrived at 9:00am and the National Mall was already starting to fill up. Because we were there to shoot behind the scenes footage, we had all-access passes, which allowed us to go backstage and hang out with all of the celebrities. When we first arrived, we heard a band rehearsing. I though they were doing a cover of a Black Sabbath song, but when they were done, Ozzy Osbourne walked out of the trailer! Everywhere we looked there were famous people. We saw all the Daily Show correspondents, Stephen Colbert, Kid Rock, Cat Stevens, John Legend, The Roots, Sheryl Crow, and Tony Bennett. But the ones I was most excited about were the Mythbusters! When I saw Adam Savage walking toward the VIP tent, I made Emily wait with me while he walked past. I was so nervous, I almost peed myself. Jamie was already in the tent. I wanted to go say hi, but I decided it would be better not to bother them.

We spent the first few hours before the event started shooting footage of the production staff - the director, audio mixer, lighting director, etc. Then when it was about to begin, Emily, Ted and I got strapped in and took a ride on the scissor lift. Most of the big overhead pictures above are from the top of the lift. I got some great shots, but the stupid still photographer up there with us wouldn't stand still, so most of the shots are shaky.

During the event, we were just a few feet from the stage and went back to the VIP tent a few times to see what everyone was up to. Overall, the event was amazing. The performers were great and everyone seemed to have fun. But most importantly, there were three times as many people there than at the Glenn Beck rally.