The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Page 378 The Educational Screen »i.f'*-' ;- iiaiiiiiiii'yi'»''^-ii iiii" ■. ■vtli Top: A combat photographic group training for filming actual battle scenes. Center: Two members of a camera combat unit go aloft for their first aerial photographic flight. Bottom: A combat cameraman, flanked by a protect- ing guard, takes advantage of a natural obstacle to photograph battle scenes, enacted by members of the First Motion Picture Unit in Culver City. top-heavy military movie schedule, the production of films dealing directly with the Army Air Forces would be turned over exclusively to a newly created Air Force organization. Thus, on August 1. 1942, the Army Air Forces, First Motion Picture Unit, was activated. In the beginning, there were only two officers in the Unit—Captain Owen Crump and Major William Keighley now both Lieutenant-Colonels. Private Oren Haglund. the only enlisted man, had been an ex-director at Warners and was finally commissioned a First Lieutenant. From the beginning every eiifort was made to ferret out top-notch motion picture technicians who would also be top-notch soldiers. First move was to enlist Lieutenant-Colonel A. Paul Mantz as Commanding Officer. Mantz, with 8,000 hours in the air over two decades, had been technical advi.ser to Amelia Earhart, had held the world's outside loop record, had been the most sought-after aerial cinematographer in Holly- wood. He was the ideal combination of Army and Hollywood. With this as a beginning notices were sent to all large Air Bases in the United States requesting any soldiers with experience in motion picture production. Soon they began arriving—sound men, drill sergeants, mechanics, airplane experts, combat photographers, cut- ters, cameramen, writers. Today, these men are as- signed to turning out training films for the personnel of the Ami)' Air Forces. At the First Motion Picture Unit training films are produced on low budgets, at great speed. The men in Culver City attempt to make training films more efl^ective by injecting brief shots of humor, drama, suspense. Thus, modern training films manage to keep their audiences alert and manage to impress in- struction through dramatization. A notable example is Wings Up, a film so compelling that it was released to the general public. It deals with the Army Air Forces Officers Candidate School. The First Motion Picture Unit had Lieutenant Norman Krasna write the script, borrowed Captain Clark Gable to read the nar- ration, sent camera crews to Miami, Florida, to shoot the action. Mood of this short is established in the opening scenes when Captain Gable discusses the diffi- culty of weeding out the right men in the army to be- come the army's leaders: "There's an X-ray machine that looks into men's minds, and hearts, and souls, and finds them either adequate—or wanting. It's called the Officers Candidate School of the Army Air Forces .. ." Typical of the many films dealing technically with airplanes is the First Motion Picture Unit's production of Hoxv To Fly The 5-26 Airplane. A large motion jjicture crew, supervised by the writer-director of the short. Captain Robert Carson, went to Barksdale Field. Louisiana to make this training subject. Instead of a dull Sunday School lesson, the film comes to life with drama and real characters. Month after month now, as the demand grows, the First Motion Picture Unit is grinding out these train- ing subjects. One of them. Recognition of the Japanese Zero, is an exciting, hair-lifting combat drama. But it also drives home, with a force that no pilot will ever forget, recognition of the deadly Japanese Zero fighter.