TV Campaign : Live, From Muir Woods, It’s--Zschau?

Put a California politician in a grove of redwoods and television cameras appear.

“This will be sync footage of the candidate and his family walking through the woods,” announces a technician.

Ed Zschau, Republican U.S. Senate candidate, knows why he’s here. An obscure congressman from Los Altos, Zschau (pronounced like “shout” without the “t”) has no chance to win the June primary if he does not become better known.

That calls for a lot of television commercials. Zschau began taping them over the weekend, and he could have them on the air by the middle of next month. The first was shot in Muir Woods, the redwood sanctuary across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.

Zschau clasps the hand of his wife, Jo. Son Ed Jr. and daughters Liz and Cameron crowd in and smile. Family walks slowly forward. Cameraman pans the towering redwoods and rolls down to focus on the humans.

A tiny microphone on Zschau’s lapel picks up what the commercial’s producer calls “the ambiance of the walk”--in other words, sound of the wind in the redwoods, the gurgle of the nearby trout stream.

Zschau does not say anything into the microphone. He will record his “message” later in a studio and add it to the videotape.

As the taping in the redwoods ends, Liz cracks, “ ‘Muir Woods,’ a new soap opera.”

“Did you get what you want?” Zschau asks producer Ian Weinschel.

“Yes,” replies Weinschel. “Let’s pack up and go to the bridge.”

The next setting overlooks the Golden Gate Bridge, but it does not work out because fog obscures the San Francisco skyline. The entourage heads for the airport and a flight to Orange County, where the Zschaus will be photographed on the beach at sunset.

Taper Is Taped

Weinschel seemed self-conscious in the redwood grove. While he was taping the Zschaus, KRON-TV of San Francisco was taping him for a possible documentary conceived by political editor Rollin Post.

“It’s going to be called, ‘The Making of a Senator,’ ” Zschau says.

That is a rather ambitious title in the eyes of Zschau’s many opponents for the Republican nomination--not to mention the man they would like to beat, Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston.

What do shots of the Zschau family in redwoods say about the kind of senator Ed Zschau would be?

Weinschel seems at a loss for a moment, then answers, “Well, this setting shows a perspective on time. Also, you want to know that a politician has had certain experiences, like raising a family.”

Zschau says: “All of this will be part of a biography to introduce me to Californians. It doesn’t pay for me to talk about issues if people don’t know who I am.”