Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers (1930-1949)

large and small. This association has been singularly marked by a fine spirit of mutual cooperation. Conclusion This has been a general view of the Navy's training film production program. It is a big program: 6091 films have been produced since the program was started back in 1941. It is an important program: the films have helped train thousands of officers and men. It has made at least a small imprint on civilian education and training: over 600 titles have been released to the public through the Office of Education, some of them selling as many as 1000 prints. The program owes much to the reserve officers who got it under way. It also owes much to the film industry. We are constantly trying to make it better — not for the sake of being better, but so that through training films more men can be trained better and faster to do jobs that have to be done. Supplement The Naval Photographic Center's film depository and its service to the film and television industry are apparent to everyone who is familiar with the Navy's cooperation and assistance in the production of such feature pictures as Frogmen, Submarine Command, You're in the Navy Now, the television documentary serials Crusade in Europe and Crusade in the Pacific, and in other current television shows and weekly newsreels. The film depository at NPC contains over 30 million feet of historical stock footage shot by Navy and Marine cameramen. In many instances there is duplicate material from other services. Nonclassified sections of this storehouse of film and certain other services are available to commercial producers. The Navy, with the other services, has extended military cooperation or has collaborated on the production of commercial motion pictures for both theatrical and television release. Included under cooperation is the search for, and use of, official stock motion picture footage in connection with commercial pictures. The clearinghouse for all requests for cooperation from any of the services, including the use of Navy-owned stock footage, is the Commercial Cooperation Unit, Pictorial Branch, Office of Public Information, Department of Defense. The wait for such help is not as long as the address mentioned, for the government understands that motion pictures, whether full-length features, documentaries or short subjects, and whether intended for theatrical or television release, are a vitally important and farreaching means of sustaining public understanding of the military. The Commercial Cooperation Unit is geared to get applicants the help they need, and coordinates it through the Office of the Chief of Information — Department of Navy, which handles all further details. At this point, NPC enters the picture. The time lapse is surprisingly short. For instance, a request was made and filled within 48 hours for eight minutes of stock footage to accompany the TV appearance of CDR Gray, USN, on the program "We the People." The Naval Photographic Center film depository will arrange a convenient time for you or your representative to screen selected stock footage, or if the requirement is small will choose the material you need and forward it to you. It is understandable that the amount of cooperation for stock footage or other services is directly proportional to the reach or scope of the production and its potential informational value. Requests for small lots of stock footage are filled as a public service. Either a fine -grain or a Kodachrome printing master is supplied. In the instances 01 stock footage for Hollywood major productions, arrangements are made to reimburse the Navy with a like amount of raw stock. Cronenwett and Timmons: Navy Training Film Production 55