To order, Trains Go To War, visit: KalmbachHobbyStore.com
Video Transcription courtesy of YouTube.
[ROB MCGONIGAL] Hello there, I’m Rob McGonigal, editor of Classic Trains magazine and we’re here to talk about our latest special edition, Trains Go To War.
There’s the cover right there. That covers railroads and wartime activity and all the major conflicts the U.S. was involved in and between the Civil War and Vietnam.
About two-thirds of it is about World War II and that’s why we’re doing this today because today is the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Probably the most important day in the most important war.
So, we’re happy to talk about the issue and answer any questions you might have.
[NARRATOR] For everyone who’s listening online, this is Steve and I’m just helping Rob off-camera.
Rob, we wanted to start off quickly by just talking about some of the some of the sort of the highlights of the magazine. It’s a special issue, how many pages is it?
[MCGONIGAL] 108 pages. It’s oversize, trim size, nice paper, it’s composed of articles that originally ran in Trains and Classic Trains magazines in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, going way back. And they’re all redesigned and we’ve got about 14 articles and eight of them were about World War II. And the first one in the World War II section is by our old friend Gil Reid, the late Gil Reid, who was a noted railroad artist and he worked for Kalmbach as an illustrator for many years.
And, during World War II he was a lieutenant in the [U.S.] Army first in North Africa then then Italy and he did a great story for the February 1945 issue of Trains that talked about his experiences and the military railway service in Italy, illustrated with his own inimitable artwork.
[Narrator] Rob if you could just talk a little bit about this Gil Reid article. If you want just open [it] up and show everyone very quickly here.
[MCGONIGAL] Yeah that’s the beginning of it. Military railway service in Italy with a Gil Reid pen-and-ink drawing and it just pretty much describes the scene of devastation basically in Italy when the Allies were there interspersed with the artwork from Gil.
We have some photos of damaged rail facilities that the Allies found as they displaced the Germans, [who] did a pretty good job of wrecking the facilities as they retreated … there’s one pair of photos here that shows a big viaduct before the war and then after liberation it was almost completely destroyed.
[NARRATOR] One thing that really caught my eye about this article, Rob, from Gil Reid: It’s special not just because there was artwork from Gil Reid but artwork because Gil read was there. Could you talk a little bit about that?
[MCGONIGAL] Well right, you know Gil painted or did artwork of many subjects over the course of his long life often working from photographs subjects that you know predated him or that were that he didn’t see but he did a lot of that he did this from life. I particularly like this one at the end here where he shows a picture of an Italian railroad worker sort of looking with bemused interest at this G.I. artist in his railroad yard and, of course, the G.I. artist is Gil. And if you knew Gil you kind of recognize his features in that little self-portrait of them.
[NARRATOR]This would be Gil Reid doing a self portrait circa, what, ’43 ’44?
[MCGONIGAL] Yes, correct.
But the big the big World War II story though, in the issue is “Tracks To Victory.” It’s a major piece that talks about the route military railway services role in Europe from in Italy and then especially after D-Day talks about the incredible job they did moving traffic after the Allies landed on June 6, [1944.]
Bruce Brewer is exactly right. The whole video looks like Rob is talking to and showing this special edition to a camera that’s off to the right. We don’t get a single satisfactory view of what he’s showing. If there was another camera, please use that “footage.” Watching from this angle is just frustrating.
On more thing: notice again the opening shot. It looks great as a still photograph. There lies the difference between motion pictures and still photography: camera angles must follow a different structure in filmmaking.
Also, use plenty of closeups, the camera can not see what the human eye sees. Closeups give us the details missed in a wide shot.
P.S.
I hope the DVD’s you sell don’t display this form of amateur photograghy.
Here’s an important tip: your opening shot should be either Rob looking straight into the camera or an over-the-shoulder shot from the interviewer’s perspective.
The age of digital cameras has brought people without any knowledge of filmmaking, thinking that they are being “new wave” with their camera placement at the side of their subject. This side angle is disturbing and unsettling to the viewer because it is from an unrealistic perspective.
You see this ridiculous side angle over used today, like the word”iconic,” because no one has told them they are violating all the correct rules of camera placement.
Remember you are supposed to be making an informational film, not a surreal collage.