Leon Rodriguez Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 My Father is in his 80's and is also a cinematographer. My earliest memories are of dad analysing shots in the station wagon at the drive-in movies with the rest of the family snoring. I remember every shot that blew him away in the 50's and 60's. He was a combat cinematographer in the Pacific during WWII. He shot Iwa Jima, Okinawa, Midway and a lot of other battles that I don't remember the names to. Back then, they had to turn in the footage right after they processed it. Dad recalls usually loading it up on the projector for the officers still wet. They shot, processed, printed and projected 35mm film themselves. Dad shot a Mitchell. That would be the only viewing he got of his work. Lately he has been really wishing he could see some of the footage he shot in the War. Apparently he shot a lot of it and he shot it from land, sea and air. I told him I would check around for information on existing archives. If I could get ANY information about where to go to view archival footage, Dad and I would be eternally indebted to you. Although it seems 'needle in a haystack', Dad says the cinemagraphic corps was rather small and every one knew each other. His boss was Capt. Fred McMurray(My three sons). Somewhere there is a government stock footage archive. If I could find that and locate Pacific footage, we might find a few clips that Dad shot. If you'd like to help a veteran and fellow cinematograher get a second viewing of his combat footage, please help me track down where these archives are. I want to get Dad to those places to view footage. He says he knows every shot by heart. I believe him. Thanx guys, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member John Pytlak RIP Posted March 23, 2005 Premium Member Share Posted March 23, 2005 I told him I would check around for information on existing archives. If I could get ANY information about where to go to view archival footage, Dad and I would be eternally indebted to you. Although it seems 'needle in a haystack', Dad says the cinemagraphic corps was rather small and every one knew each other. His boss was Capt. Fred McMurray(My three sons). Somewhere there is a government stock footage archive. If I could find that and locate Pacific footage, we might find a few clips that Dad shot. If you'd like to help a veteran and fellow cinematograher get a second viewing of his combat footage, please help me track down where these archives are. I want to get Dad to those places to view footage. He says he knows every shot by heart. I believe him. Thanx guys, <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Several places to start: http://www.amianet.org http://www.amianet.org/publication/links/archives.html http://www.amianet.org/publication/links/stock.html http://www.archives.gov/research_room/index.html http://mic.imtc.gatech.edu/ http://www.historychannel.com http://www.iwmcollections.org.uk/ Hope you find some of the footage! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Rodriguez Posted March 23, 2005 Author Share Posted March 23, 2005 Thank you very much John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominic Case Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 If I could get ANY information about where to go to view archival footage, Have you tried posting on the AMIA-L list? It's the Association of Moving Image Archivists email list - website at http://www.amianet.org/amial/amial.html. Easy to sign up for the list, and you would probably get some very experienced assistance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasarsenault Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 Sounds like the roots of a really interesting documentary! Searching for the footage that your father took years ago, and the stories behind it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Rodriguez Posted March 24, 2005 Author Share Posted March 24, 2005 Thanx for the tip Dominic, will do. Jason, That's what I was thinking, There's a script in this. A flashback rich environment for historical documenatary cutaways. All those battles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasarsenault Posted March 24, 2005 Share Posted March 24, 2005 I just finished a doc, and Im starting a new one now. Always looking for Ideas, and that one sounds as good as they get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K Borowski Posted March 25, 2005 Share Posted March 25, 2005 Believe it or not, I've been thinking of shooting a documentary on WWII cinematographers for some time, after seeing a clip on one of them in one of the History Channel's excellent WWII installments. I wanted to shoot it in B&W 35mm (or 16mm with similar grain to the 35mm stocks of the day) and Kodachrome 16mm. I recall that during WWII, all the color film that Kodak made went to the armed forces to document the war. I just think it would be incredibly cool to be able to shoot film that would intercut seemlessly with the footage of the day (sans scratches or uneven processing though)! I forget the man's name, but the thing that struck me the most was that, during an enemy attack, he got so close to the action that a bomb explosion actually caused the film in his camera to jump out of the gate for a second. I doubt I'll be able to procure the funds for something like that though. If anyone does decide to do a project of this nature, please contact me. I'd be willing to take the summer off for a project of this nature. Anyway, if I could travel to any time and get any job, I would choose nothing other than being a WWII combat cinematographer. I've always wished I could exchange places with my grandfather, who was wounded at Pearl Harbor. Regards. ~Karl Borowski Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Rodriguez Posted March 25, 2005 Author Share Posted March 25, 2005 Jason and Karl, I shot a 16mm piece for a Video Gaming Company once of a staged WWII battle scene. I chose my early 60's Bell and Howell 70 to shoot it on. I like the way the edges of the frame are just a little undefined. I have a whole set of Angenioux lenses for it; Still clear as water. The director was going to transfer to digital, desaturate it in post and 'yellow' it a little. I never got a copy of it but I got an email that said we nailed it. Since they were going to digital, I exposed for dead center on the curve. If I remember correctly I think I shot Eastman EXR 7293, a 200 T. I loved that stock. Wish I had a copy of that recreation now for reference. I can still see in my mind what we were going for. But anyway that's the kind of look that would be really cool for this. I'm just prepping it right now 'cause I've got a lot on my plate. I'm thinking June at the earliest. (Or the first hole in my schedule.) If you get ideas, send them in. I've always got enough stock in the freezer to get a good start. I've got to set up the archive tour itinerary before anything. I'm making headway, thanks to Dominic and John. We could all collaborate and do something nice. See what it does. Dad retired a Colonel and is totally lucid and amazingly accurate in his memory and perspective. It would certainly work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasarsenault Posted March 25, 2005 Share Posted March 25, 2005 Sure, if I have any ideas Ill pass them along. Don't wait to long to move if you are going to do this, time really is running out to collect some of these great WWII stories and facts. Good Luck, and keep us updated. I would love to hear how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Keith Mottram Posted March 25, 2005 Premium Member Share Posted March 25, 2005 I'd try Getty images and Pathe, who both have extensive archives of WW2 footage. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K Borowski Posted March 25, 2005 Share Posted March 25, 2005 I think it would be great if we could find someone who knew Robert Capa, the famous still photographer, as well as other cinematographers. I'm not sure where to go about lookinf for people like that. I have an Auricon, so I could shoot some documentary stuff in 16mm, but I don't even know where to begin looking. Jason, I was thinking the same thing. Time really is running out, and so many war veterans and combat cameramen haven't been given the chance to tell us their stories. Regards. ~Karl Borowski Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member John Sprung Posted March 25, 2005 Premium Member Share Posted March 25, 2005 If you get ideas, send them in. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> One thing that might be worth looking into is the lost film of D-Day. After the invasion, they gathered up all the exposed film in a duffel bag, and the guy carrying it back to a ship lost it all overboard. Those few shots we always see, the POV of two buildings from a Higgins boat, the wounded man in the surf, are all from a single 100 ft Eyemo roll that was shot by a Sgt. Taylor. Taylor was wounded, but never let go of his camera. So his roll was the only film that didn't get collected and lost. (I wonder if the Germans got the reverse?) Another one I heard about is the flying film lab -- not sure whether to believe it, either. The story is that they used live recon over battles by shooting 35mm film from a C-47. But instead of taking up the film in the magazine, it went straight from the camera to a small developing machine and then to an ancestor of the Rank flying spot telecine, and the video was transmitted to HQ on the ground. So many really strange things happened in WWII that it could be true. -- J.S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K Borowski Posted March 26, 2005 Share Posted March 26, 2005 I don't know any WWII cinematographers unfortunately, but I do know a few veterans who might be able to give me a heads up on where to look or might have interesting stories to contribute themselves. I know of a gentleman who fought for the Polish flyers in WWII, as well as a man who was shot down in Germany and saved by a German sergeon. I also know of one gentleman who survived a Japanese prison camp. Then again, I love way off the beat and path, in Ohio, so I'm not sure of how much help I can render in a project such as this, unless this is a project that will literally tour the country. I'm going to ask some questions and see if I can find anyone else to interview. .. Regards. ~Karl Borowski Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Sullivan Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 Leon, I'm in a similar situation. I'm helping my girlfriend, Julie Jones publish her late stepfather, Army Sgy. Edmund Burke O'Connell's wartime memoir of his service as a motion picture combat photographer with the 196th Signal Photo Company in the Italian Campaign of World War II. He covered the North African campaign and went on to Florence, Italy. While in Florence, O'Connell met and fell in love with an attractive Florentine woman, Tina Calamai, and used her family's 15th century Medici villa as his base of operations. We have been able to locate an 89-years-young Army still photographer who worked with O'Connell during the final 1945 push to the Swiss border. We have several photos of O'Connell holding and using his Bell and Howell Eyemo, and would love to locate any surviving film he shot. You will find Peter Maslowski's book "Armed with Cameras" - The American Military Photographers of World War II to be a great resource. Tom Sullivan and Julie Jones Pacifica, California Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Peich Posted May 23, 2006 Share Posted May 23, 2006 Leon, Here's a couple of suggestions for your quest: International Combat Camera Association, Inc. Link Is your dad a member? Have you viewed "Shooting War: WWII Combat Cameramen" by Richard Schickel, executive producer S. Spielberg and hosted by Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, err, I meant to say Tom Hanks. This is a good doc that aired on ABC 12/ 2000. I'm sure your Dad must have seen this, as my Dad, also in his 80's and served in the Pacific, catches all the WW II docs. Perhaps you could contact some of the archival researchers listed in the credits. Although this is after the war, but another interesting doc about combat shooters who went on to shoot A-Bomb tests is: Hollywood's Top Secret Film Studio by Peter Kuran. He produced 5 films on the A-bombs, so he had to search some gov. archives. There is some incredible footage of the early A-Bomb tests. Some of it shot in 65mm and 3-D (you get a pair of glasses with the DVD). I do hope you can find at least couple of rolls your dad shot. Did he get to keep any of the cameras he used? Charlie Peich D.o.P Chicago Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Rodriguez Posted July 12, 2006 Author Share Posted July 12, 2006 Great tip, Charlie! Thanks a lot I'll definitely check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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