Contrived, as expected.

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) — Modern day political conventions are choreographed to the minutest detail — but the key to organizers is to make it all look effortless and natural. One of the tools used to do that are the signs delegates hold throughout the evening.

Each party decides in advance which signs to show which evening, when to show them during a session, and at what moment they will appear.

The overwhelming majority of the signs were professional ones with "McCain-Palin" on one side and "Prosperity" on the other. In Denver, Democrats displayed a greater variety of signs, with some coinciding with individual speakers, such as Sen. Edward Kennedy.

But there were also far less formal signs that appeared to be hand-painted, including one with the slogan "Hockey Moms 4 Palin." These were not necessarily made by die-hard delegates: convention aides could be seen handing them the same exact one throughout the arena.

Organizers assigned to various sections of the convention floor not only mapped out where different signs should be shown, but when. One worker instructed delegates with signs for Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin: "don't raise them until Sarah talks."

Later in the evening a convention whip — one of the party operatives working throughout the convention to help manage the event — was shouting "no video — signs up!" after a video regarding Palin was pulled from the program for time. Delegates are also instructed which way to point a sign.

Signs obviously are not the only part of the action on the floor being orchestrated. There was an order for the order of pre-arranged chants: "Country First, Country First" followed by "John McCain, John McCain" followed by "USA USA USA USA."

After John McCain came on stage with the Palin family and people were cheering a whip could be heard saying "keep going." A more unconventional chant was "Drill Baby Drill" — playing off both McCain and Palin's support for offshore oil drilling.