ABC News puts focus on candidates with elegant, dark debate stage design

ABC News‘ coverage of the Sept. 10, 2024, debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump originated from a self-proclaimed “intimate” setting using a deeper, more subtle stage design than many past debates.

Like a COVID-era town hall it produced in 2020, ABC took over the central hall of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, a space that normally hosts a multimedia introduction to the museum that visitors see before visiting the exhibits. The space is, without any modification, an “in the round” setup, but for both the 2020 and 2024 events, ABC opted to bring in additional scenic and treat it as a traditional stage layout.

The Sept. 10 debate did not have any audience members, so the tiers of seating ringing the space were mainly covered from appearing on-air.

Viewers typically saw the candidates standing behind custom concave lecterns with illuminated script accents inspired by the text of the U.S. Constitution.

A similar pattern was used for the backgrounds behind each candidate, with a blank black space left in the middle to help disguise the camera blind and double as a teleprompter for the moderators when needed.

The use of the constitution as a background behind candidates during a debate actually has connections to the days when the Commission on Presidential Debates still handled these types of matchups. The CPD added light blue backgrounds with white text of the constitution as early as the 2008 cycle (before that, candidates typically stood in front of a deep blue background with some red accent lines visible).

ABC’s design team took the text a step further and carefully adjusted the scale, textures, and lighting on the words of the famous document. A blurred effect was added to help make it less about the words and more about the candidate, while the background still added some depth and texture to the look.

Advertisement

The design also smartly tilted the text slightly, another move that subtly communicated the words were not actually meant to be read as bona fide text.

Additional ribbon segments accented the space to the far left and right, and a large jigsaw puzzle array was installed behind moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis, though most of their shots focused solely on the background graphic.

ABC also brought in some additional panels for a practical reason — to create a giant countdown clock that was glaringly obvious to the candidates. 

This screen was suspended from the ceiling and flanked by smaller digital readouts showing the current time. The graphic used on screen was not designed to be seen by viewers, though it was briefly shown while the rules were explained. It featured color-coded bars to help candidates gauge the time remaining.

The blocky look of the wall behind the moderators also allowed ABC to sneak in another camera blind location.

Muir and Davis sat at a small curved desk with an LED front for ABC News branding. It was stocked with chin fills as well as small return monitors and their own view of the countdown clock as well as a readout showing total time elapsed.

Much of the rest of the space was kept largely cloaked in either shadow or washed of blue light, a strategy that gave the event a serious, even somber feel.

The deep, rich colors accented with subtle graphical patterns went a long way in keeping the focus on the candidates, rather than the scenery, while also scoring that thin line of still adding the visual presentation.

ABC notably did not opt to plaster its logo behind the candidates, as if often done with debate sponsors or networks. The backgrounds were also not animated (CNN did not animate them during the bulk of its Aug. 27, 2024, debate between Trump and then-candidate President Joe Biden).

Project credits

• Production and set design: Seth Easter
• Associate designer: Michael Moore for ABC News
• Art direction: Michael Ross Petersen
• Associate art directors: Richard Nocera and Sarah Brownstein
• Screen graphics Brandon Bell and Amanda Kmett-Pendry for ABC News
• Screen server control: Brandon Epperson for Fuse Technical Group
• Mobile stages: Filmwerks
• Rigging and additional platforming: United Staging
• Greenroom and additional furniture: Cort Rentals
• LED integration: Fuse Technical Group
• Lighting design: Dennis Size for The Lighting Design Group
• Exterior lighting by Dale Knoth for The Lighting Design Group
• Fabrication: Allsorts

Photos courtesy ABC News, Michael Le Brecht II

Advertisement