Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1953)

16 8mm. AIDS THE AIR FORCE WILLIAM T. ROHDE, ACL H I EY, Bill! Are you crazy? Spending all that money on 8mm.! That's nothing but a toy." That's what T had to put up with. All my arguments in defense of 8mm. went unheard, and without proof my cause was lost. But I did find proof — and here's my story. I spent the last year before my recent discharge from the Air Force in the training and operations section of a radio-operator student squadron. One of my main jobs was to orient new men as to what to expect in the school and in the squadron, and what they might do with their free time. One day it occurred to me that a training film would aid this orientation greatly. A search of the base's film library failed to turn up any films suitable for this purpose; so-o-o. it seemed that if we were going to use such a film someone would bave to make it. I had been working with 8mm. movies for quite some time and had recently invested in a new Bolex H-8. So I offered my camera and services for the production of this "get-acquainted" film. The squadron commander agreed to go along with the idea and offered full cooperation, as did the school officials. After procuring the necessary lighting equipment and film stock, we were ready for production — or so I thought. But it wasn't long before we realized that a great deal of planning was needed before the camera could actually roll. We decided to divide the production into three parts: the first part to show the functions of the squadron; the second to show the operations of the school, and the third to survey local recreation facilities. Since this picture was not sponsored by the Air Force, money for the film had to come from a limited squadron fund used for various extras. We decided to use black and white stock for the first two parts and to reserve our supply of color film for the final reel on recreation. Two days were spent in making a shooting plan. Limitations as far as military security were concerned had to be considered, of course. The base security regulations, however, were very definite; so it was not difficult to determine what we could and what we could not shoot. To give the film a running continuity it was decided to follow the progress of one man from his entry into the squadron, through school to graduation and final shipping out. It was not hard to find a student in the squadron with some acting experience to play the part of "George," the potential airman. We began to shoot our film on a day when a group of new men actually came into the squadron. George was placed with them and our film began with the actual processing of the men. The scenes were planned for the addition of taperecorded narration to help explain just what goes on and why. Closeups of some of the forms and papers being filled out were included. In the barracks much footage was exposed explaining the proper care of clothing and bedding, as well as precautions for safeguarding personal property. The importance of the latter was illustrated by a sequence showing a billfold being stolen from George. We felt that the second part of our film was the most important. Most of this school sequence was produced in one day, although the training actually lasts thirty one weeks in real life. General classroom scenes were taken, as well as closeups of blackboard illustrations, charts, mock-up equipment and textbooks. The cooperation of the instructors was very helpful in making this section of the film both informative and interesting for new students. Part two ended with the graduation of our planted student. The graduation ceremonies were acted out for the camera, along with speeches and handshakes, and George emerged with his diploma in hand. As mentioned before, we changed over to color film for part three. Recreation at the Air Force base was covered in two sections — one about on-base recreation, the other about off-base activi BILL ROHDE, ACL, then a sergeant in the United States Air Force, makes a dolly shot at Keesler Air Base, in Mississippi ties. The base itself offered a great deal in the way of entertainment, and the men in charge of each activity were happy to have their phase of recreation included in the film. We made a map of the base on a 3 by 4 foot sheet of illustrator's board and placed a piece of plexiglass over it. By using readily removable grease pencil on the plexiglass, we were able to make titles and animated lines indicating the routes to the various recreational areas. As far as possible, the clubs, PXs and the like were filmed while real activities were in progress. Variety of entertainment was emphasized to catch the interest of all new men. George was seen in all of these places, of course, and, in a serviceman's dream, seemed never to have any trouble getting a pretty girl companion! Considerable film was used on the base's extensive sports program too, since sports play an important part in the young soldier's life. The off-base section presented a more difficult production problem. For we had to be careful not to advertise any particular business in the town out of fairness to all the others — and we couldn't show them all. Our problem was solved by filming the bathing beaches, water sports and the many types of free entertainment which could be had in a resort town such as the one near our base. We also included an active USO unit in town. Before the sound was added to the edited and titled film, we showed it to a few students to get their opinions and suggestions. This resulted in quite a few changes and in the addition of some cartoon humor to help explain parts of the training. We made a jointed cartoon character about twelve inches high, drawn with black ink on lightweight cardboard. Backgrounds were drawn on a long roll of wrapping paper. Our character and his friends were moved about on the backgrounds as we exposed single frames. We used the cartoon character as a "wrong-way" airman who helped point up safety practices, correct study habits and healthy recreation by the troubles he experienced. It took a lot of experimenting to get our sound tape properly recorded and timed. But perseverance gets results and we finally got satisfactory sync with our tape recorder and an adjustable speed projector. Although I'm no longer with the outfit, our 8mm. film entitled Now What? is still being used to help orient all new men entering that air base. So-o-o, I say I've proved that film size has little to do with effective filming results!