"Letters From Okinawa" a Bob Zimmerman film

Zip. Best wishes with your film and just think of all the good memories of your dad. That will help you get thru the difficult areas of your film. I have some memorial tributes to my family members on my business website if you want to take a peek. www.sjbaraophoto.com

Next Monday I fly out to Colorado to begin filming a documentary on a Veteran related piece. It will begin with studio interviews. I just shipped all my equipment out there. 6 minutes for your film sounds pretty short. I was advised to make mine 18-23 minutes if I want it to get picked up on TV. My goal is DVD distribution however and it may need to be closer to an hour. I suppose most filmakers go thru this "editing it down, dilemma"

Anyhow, seems we are working on related films and I wanted to wish you the best of luck with yours.
Steve
 
Thanks Steve. I think I can do an easy 30 minutes. I really want it about that long. Then I'll see if I can edit something down to 6 minutes. Good luck in Colorado.

I'm looking for a few WWII vets
 
I started filming some old pictures today from WWII that my dad took.
I had to get started somewhere on this film. So I got my Ken Burns stuff out of the way!!
 
Not going to get this one done. As I started to do it I found more and more that I wanted to add. There is no way I could do it in 6 minutes. There is a reunion of the Marines who fought at Okinawa later this year. Getting other stories about what took place would really be good. I even have a person in Okinawa who is going to shoot some video at the beach where the Marines landed for the invasion. They will also film at the war memorial over there. So now that I have a overseas crew and all the other stuff I'm just going to work on the Okinawa Letters as a longer film.

I might try to put something else together for the Lossfest but not for sure if I can pull it off in time.

Can't wait to see what you all come up with.
 
HI Zim;
Maybe a longer film is what you need to do. I just finished my initial shooting in Colorado on my similar (American Veteran) piece..It too has grown into something much much more involved. I am now looking at a one hour or 90 minute documentary. Some of the testimony we heard, especially from a 6 year "guest" of the Hanoi Hilton, we very very difficult to get thru. This gentleman made my work easy as I just let him speak. One assistant (a Vietnam Veteran) had to excuse himself during the shoot. It was just too hard for him. I am glad that I consulted with a psychotherapist before hand on how to handle any potential PTSD situations. There were also a couple of Iraqi War vets who were extremely interesting. One was a bit nervous and I picked up on this right away. I dealt with this by clearing the studio of assistants and onlookers and we just had a man to man interview on tape. That put him more at ease and I was able to dig into the real emotion that needed to come out. That being some anger at the way some military folks are treated.

Like I said, this has snowballed into something much larger. Next month I am off to Virginia to do more filming. Then it is on to the editing..... I have to say I am and I am not looking forward to that monumental task. I realize that I will be living this project 24/7 for the next several months. I am sure many of you can relate to that comment. I have 9 months and over 500 hours of research into this already. Sorry for rambling on.
Steve
www.sjbaraophoto.com
 
Here is just a little snipit from a POW's story. After the bombing of North Vietnam, they started to go a little easier on the captives. They even got cigarettes from the guards. My subject said they were basically made out of bamboo, leaves, dirt and whatever was on the ground but nevertheless they looked forward to them. Seems though that each time they received a cigarette, they had to first find the hole in it and block it with their finger in order to take a drag..........the story jumps ahead now a few years.........On the day of his release, he entered the C-141 plane to return him to the States and there was a flight assistant passing out brand new American cigarettes in a basket. He couldn't wait to get one and grabbed a brand new pack of Pall Malls <SP> brand. He ripped off the cellophane on the pack and lit it up. As irony would have it, he picked the only cigarette that had a hole in it that he had to find and block with his finger...Have you ever heard of an American cigarette having a hole in it, right out of the pack? I haven't. What a story. He said he gave up smoking after that.
 
Steve you are right how it snowballs and to do the vets justice you have to let the story be told. I could try and squeeze something into 6 minutes but what these guys have went through can't be told write in a few minutes. Plus the WWII vets are dying at the rate of 1,000 a day I read. So I feel I need to do this in a longer form.

It sounds like you have a pretty good film going. Good luck
 
Thanks and keep on filming their stories. That is a sobering fact about the WWII Vets. As long as you have their stories compiled, you can do the film any time you want. Take care.
Steve
 
Zim, think youre doing the right thing here. Okinawa was a bloody horrible mess. Your story deserves to be told in full.

As a side when I was in Okinawa last I visited Himeyuri no tou (Himeyuri peace museum). Its basically the site of school where girls were dragged into the tunnels to act as nurses. Many died and as the US troops cornered them they took their own lives. They were told this is the only course of action due to what could happen to them and they believed it. After touring the museum theres a room with paper and pen for you to leave comments. I stood there and wrote five pages on my impression.

One thing that was very clear to me is the huge number of terrible stories from civilians and the US soldiers during the Okinawan campaign.

Good luck with yours, I hope it turns out perfectly for you.
 
Lots of bad stories. The more I read about Okinawa the more I wonder how my dad held it in his whole life. Many people talk about the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. More people died on Okinawa. Plus that was just a start. If the US would have went to the mainland millions might have died.

I've been talking to vets of Okinawa,,,,amazing people.

Kind of a bummer I won't have a film in the fest,,,
 
Zim said:
Lots of bad stories. The more I read about Okinawa the more I wonder how my dad held it in his whole life. Many people talk about the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. More people died on Okinawa. Plus that was just a start. If the US would have went to the mainland millions might have died.

I've been talking to vets of Okinawa,,,,amazing people.

Kind of a bummer I won't have a film in the fest,,,
Click to expand...

I agree, it's a bummer that you won't be able to enter the fest.

But you should definitely continue doing your research. I'm sure you have gathered some incredible stories that NEED to be told. I've done some reading on the Okinawan situation during that time period as well, and I'd love to see you put something together eventually. Documentary time!
 
Thanks yes it will make a good doc.

I'm trying to think of a last minute Lossfest idea...less than and a month.
 
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