Images of War - BBC television series about wartime cameramen.

Discussion in 'Books, Films, TV, Radio' started by Ramiles, Oct 31, 2022.

  1. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

    IMAGES OF WAR: THE CAMERAMEN 1939-1945 [Main Title]

    IWM Film - IMAGES OF WAR: THE CAMERAMEN 1939-1945 [Main Title]

    Unfortunately not currently accessible via the above link, however it is described thus...

    Object description
    BBC television series about wartime cameramen. Production date : 1981.
    Content description
    Reel 1: Title sequence; still and film montage. Title: 'Images of War'. Introduction; German newsreel footage and footage of German combat cameramen; commentary stresses the preparedness of Germany to produce film propaganda at outbreak of war. Contrast between sedate British film of concert with Queen Elizabeth in attendance and German newsreel showing aerial footage of destruction in Warsaw 1939. David Macdonald introduced as being invited to form War Office Film Unit. Macdonald interviewed; initially parsimonious and ignorant War Office. Nine months later Macdonald recalled and commissioned on the spot as a major. Macdonald relates story of filming, with Walter Tennyson D'Eyncourt, the Blitz on London from St Paul's surrounded by fires. Roy Boulting relates story of joining the Army Film Unit and shooting raids on Norwegian island of Vaagso. Macdonald; Army Film Unit evolves into Army Film and Photographic Unit (AFPU). Boulting goes to War Office; expectation of decisive battle in Western Desert. Macdonald; filming General Alexander in discussion with other officers. Macdonald returns to London to begin work on Desert Victory. Boulting on the amount of raw footage for Desert Victory. Macdonald; Desert Victory put together in four weeks and shown at Odeon Leicester Square. Introduction to Desert Victory shown. More from Desert Victory. Commentary about Desert Victory and the reconstruction of certain scenes. Ken Rodwell introduced as cameraman; relates filming barrage by 25-pounders. Rodwell; limitations of equipment and use of reconstruction. Churchill's reaction to the film related by Boulting; wanted to end the film with the capture of great cities. Boulting describes his choice to end film with faces of multinational combatants; Churchill relents. Extract from close of Desert Victory. Commentary; David Macdonald despatched to America with the film. Exhibition at the White House. Impact of Desert Victory in United States. Macdonald with the Oscar for Desert Victory. [25:41]
    Content description
    Reel 2: Title sequence. Section from British Movietone News reporting the invasion of Normandy. Commentary; the Normandy landings and the presence of combat cameraman in early assault waves. Newsreel commentator names Sergeant O'Neill. O'Neill introduced as press and society photographer. Location; Pinewood Studios. Hugh Stewart introduced as responsible for training. Stewart interviewed; 'military virtues' prized over 'film virtues'. Personal qualities needed for cameramen; determination, responsibility. Importance of economy of shooting and consistency of movement across frame. Narrator introduces Desmond O'Neill who commentates over footage of preparations for invasion. O'Neill: cooperation received from 'all levels'. Tension in waiting for invasion. Embarking for invasion. O'Neill speaking to camera from a boat in the Channel; abundant rations for crossing. Sea conditions. Use of a 35mm DeVry camera; O'Neill demonstrates the camera. Approaching his landing beach (Sword); now more heavily built-up; O'Neill points out a house that stood in 1944. Smoke and anti-beaching obstacles. Describes coming ashore. Speaking from the beach; traffic pile-up. Attempting to exit the beach; blocked by knocked-out flail tank. Declines to film British dead. German prisoner. Troops landing from Landing Ship Infantry (LSI). Vehicles attempting to exit the beach; O'Neill describes being hit in the arm by a burst of machine gun fire. Goes to be dressed. Meets artillery captain with a horse. O'Neill hospitalised in Epping; Stewart arrives to collect film, appears in newsreel a few days later. O'Neill never took cine film or photographed a war again. Long shot O'Neill looking contemplatively out to sea from Sword beach. [21:19]
    Content description
    Reel 3: Titles. Commentary; England in 1930s equally unprepared to fight propaganda battles as military battles. Introduces Gerry Massey Collier as one of the original War Office Film Unit. Massey Collier speaking; working as assistant cameraman at Denham (?) Studios. Joins Territorials. Contacted by Harry Rignold. Being made a sergeant; certain practical difficulties. Demonstrates a Newman Sinclair camera (speaking from garden shed); 200ft capacity and inadequate compared to German Arriflex. Describes turret Eyemo and loading. Work of War Office Film Unit; early film jobs largely ceremonial. Recollection of King George VI amused by Rignold and his Newman. Massey Collier commissioned. Narrator; Phoney War and bitter winter of 1939-40; Massey Collier contracts pneumonia and then sent to Middle East. Massey Collier on filming in Egypt with Paramount cameraman Ted Genock. Navigational skills. Describing Wavell's offensive with limited resources. Filming Australian mobile anti-tank unit; shelled by Italians. Capture of Bardia; filming Italian prisoners. Shot of Massey Collier posing with Eyemo at Bardia; seen by parents in Tunbridge Wells. Filming at Tobruk; surprised at presence of women. Difficulty of filming tank battles; unrealistic War Office expectations. Recalls Randolph Churchill suggesting setting knocked-out tanks on fire with hand grenades to improve visual impact. Filming a captured Panzer III; REME engineers scoff at blowing up tank for filming. March 1941; Massey Collier in Greece. Filming troops landing, recalls one-eyed commanding officer nicknamed 'Cyclops'. Narrator; Greece a fiasco. Massey Collier on Richard MacMillan (war correspondent) attempting to evacuate a Greek woman ('Angela') who had spied for British. Describes their ship Ulster Prince being stuck on sandbank; 'Cyclops' gives pep talk just before falling into the sea. Massey Collier gets away on landing barge. Story of escape of Greek woman appears in local paper. Filming on Crete; destroying British equipment before evacuation. Back in desert; vehicle hit by British mine. Spent night sleeping in minefield. Job in Cairo; meets Colonel J V MacCormack. Sent home after four years' work. Narrator; Angela survived the war, Massey Collier now (1981) retired but still freelancing as documentary cameraman. [21:30]
    Content description
    Reel 4: Titles. Footage from German newsreel of battle of Arnhem; superiority of German camera equipment. Burning assault gliders. Mike Lewis introduced as cameraman at Arnhem. Interview with Lewis; expectation of German invasion of Britain. Mike Lewis responds to call for volunteers for Parachute Regiment. Parachute training with great variety of men. Qualifying jumps from balloon at Ringway. North African campaign; fought as land forces. Interested in photography; need for airborne-qualified cameramen. Jumped into Arnhem with 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment. Importance of surprise in parachute operations; flawed plan in deploying over two days 'a blunder'. Attempts to get into Arnhem; realisation of 'cock-up'. Watching supply drops. Position at Oosterbeek; noise and confusion. Destruction of Oosterbeek. Lewis evacuating Dutch family to Hartenstein hotel. German footage of British prisoners. Narrator; a German military and propaganda victory. Lewis able to escape. Lewis; tempted to discard his camera and film. Eventually able to cross river by boat to Nijmegen. Narrator; April 1945. Outbreak of typhus leads to discovery of Belsen. Lewis; scene at Belsen. Naked corpses, pits of dead, starvation. Narrator; 'anachronistic chivalry of the truce' observed despite 'obscenity' of Belsen. Lewis on the escort of German column from camp. Narrator; Lewis attached to a flying column driving on Copenhagen under truce. Crossing Kiel Canal. Story of German sentry attempting to stop Lewis' column. Entry to Denmark 'like coming out of a tunnel…as if the sun had come out'. Cheering crowds. Narrator; Lewis meets future wife in Denmark. [20:56]
    Content description
    Reel 5: Titles. Extract from British Movietone newsreel; 'Libya Successes and Shocks'. Narrator; British war covered by civilian newsreel cameramen, coverage pooled and distributed. War in desert. Phoney War in France filmed by Ronnie Noble of Universal News from 1939 onwards. Noble speaking; being cameraman preferable to being in infantry. Noble appointed captain. Question of propaganda; cameraman not really aware of shooting propaganda. Attempt to convey mood and location. Never instructed to shoot propaganda. Gracie Fields. Weekly conferences with Director of Military Intelligence. Presence of Kim Philby. Phoney War; filming exercise by canal with assault boats which promptly sank. Attempt by conducting officer to prevent return of film. Filming British troops garrisoning Maginot Line. German invasion; total change in way of life. Refugees fleeing Belgium; bombed by Stukas. Still concerned by technical considerations even when being bombed. Suspicion of nuns as fifth columnists. Narrator; Belgians once again confronted by invading German Army. British retreat. State of the British Army after Dunkirk. Noble; filming Churchill. Status as cameraman alters social relationship to subjects; able to speak to King and request him to stand in a particular place for composition. Film from Middle East of Italian prisoners. Filming in Syria. Talking to naval officer responsible for directing gunfire; bought donkey to carry equipment. Donkey bolts but is caught. Filming the observation post and naval gunfire with very long lens. Filming armistice with French in Acre; worry about lighting. Collecting reading lights to light the scene; light bulbs burst. Attempt to use motorcycle headlight instead. Western Desert; use of new Grant tanks and shooting them in the desert. Being shelled along with Freddy (Bayliss?); shells thought to be duds but turn out to be armour-piercing ammunition. Effect of anti-tank fire on tanks. Narrator; Noble at Tobruk before fall. Noble; cameras destroyed, attempt to use raft along coast. Caught by Italians and taken back to Tobruk. Meets German cameraman with Arriflex; attempts to make conversation. Escapes Italian prisoner of war camp, eventually reaches Switzerland and France. Contacts French resistance. Threatened by British agent. Hope to have camera and film sent by parachute; none available from Universal. Noble makes way to Paris after D-Day, then to UK. Later sent to Far East to film Japanese surrender. Mountbatten announces Japanese surrender. [21:17]
    Content description
    Reel 6: Titles. Newsreel extract; naval convoy under air attack. Narrator; relatively little naval warfare filmed. Reluctance of Royal Navy to accept cameramen. Mid-war; Admiralty sets up NILDIV. Paul Beeson shooting secret record film, sometimes without being told what he was shooting. Secrecy of Mulberry harbours. Two naval photographers. Shooting the invasion from HMS Jarvis. No sense of danger. Shooting general activity at Ver-sur-Mer and return of German prisoners. Narrator; many spectacular sea battles before D-Day. Extract Movietone News: 'Ships and Wings in Mediterranean'. Footage from HMS Ark Royal. Newsreel cameramen working aboard naval ships. Submarine attacks in north Atlantic. Air and submarine attack on Malta convoys. John Turner (Gaumont British News) filming on Malta convoys. Turner interviewed; not allowed to wear naval uniform. Posted to HMS Valiant; some confusion. Sortie to Norway. Newsreel extract showing defence against air attack. Narrator; most film taken from capital ships. Turner aboard HMS Barham. Later aboard Valiant in company with Barham. Footage of Barham listing severely, capsizing and exploding. Narrator; Turner worked with David Prosser of Movietone News to shoot 'Submarine Patrol'. Prosser on difficulties of making Submarine Patrol. Standing on an improvised platform above conning tower to get difficult shot of submarine submerging. Prosser on Malta convoys; extremely dangerous. March 1944, convoy with HMS Dido, HMS Euryalus and HMS Cleopatra. Shooting battle with Italian Navy. Narrator; (second) Battle of Sirte Gulf. Turner; battle 'hell' from a filming point of view. Difficulties of heavy cameras, small film capacity, limited choice of lens, constant subject and ship movement. Newsreel extract with footage of ships in heavy seas. [20:02]
     
    Last edited: Oct 31, 2022
  2. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

    Images of War (1981)

    32 seconds showing the series titles...

    Concept and creative process
    Titles for a series of programmes about the images and memories of war cameramen, a number of whom were or became accomplished artists with the paintbrush as well as with the camera. Filmed high speed in a transparent tank, the title sequence used the action of wetting a paintbrush, swirling it about and withdrawing it from the water to cause the previously calm surface to erupt in slow-motion, simulating the effect of depth charges. These were seen against the background of the programme logo attached to the outside of the glass tank. A swirl of blood red colour in the water was visible through a part of the logo and created a transition to the final shot of the paintbrush, on which the series subtitle had been applied with Letraset transfer lettering.
     

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