See The PBS Series on U.S. Navy Aircraft Carriers and Crews: ‘Carrier’
By John E. Carey
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Tonight at 9 PM Eastern time in the U.S. PBS starts its TV series ‘Carrier.’
From the Los Angeles Times
Later, a fighter pilot openly questions the rationale for the Iraq war and mulls over the morality of bombing the war-torn country. And finally, a range of enlisted personnel and officers plainly voice disappointment over not dropping bombs during their mission.
While by themselves these incidents may sound like the stuff of enemy propaganda, they are in fact part of a much larger message entirely approved by the United States Navy — which is somewhat nervously hoping that by allowing itself to look bad in places, it can look good overall.
The American public can watch what may be one of the riskier and more unconventional public relations strategies in U.S. naval history unfold on PBS’ “Carrier,” a 10-hour documentary series about life aboard an aircraft carrier during wartime. The program, which clearly bears the stamp of reality television, premieres Sunday night on KCET-TV and most PBS stations across the nation and runs throughout the week.
“There’s a city of 5,000 on an aircraft carrier,” said Adm. Ted Branch, who was captain and commander of the Nimitz when the documentary was shot in 2005. “They’re all people and they all have opinions. They aren’t robots.
“I think what may be surprising for our people is to see it on film,” added Branch, who has since been promoted and now works in the Pentagon. “But it’s not surprising it happened.”
Unlike with its one-dimensional recruitment ads that invite young Americans to “Accelerate Your Life,” the Navy did not pay for a camera crew to chronicle the warship’s six-month deployment that began and ended in Coronado, and covered 57,000 ocean miles including a combat mission into the Persian Gulf. The Navy paid instead by surrendering almost total editorial control to the filmmakers, who promised military officials they were out to capture the human stories inside the nuclear-powered ship’s massive steel hulls.
“The Navy participated in and supported movies like ‘Top Gun’ and ‘Pearl Harbor,’ ” said Maro Chermayeff, who directed, co-executive produced and co-created the series, which was bankrolled by Mel Gibson’s Icon Productions. “But they were always about the hotshot pilots; they were never about the ordinary 19-year-old sailor on the ship.”
USS Harry Truman preparing to refuel at sea….
The unusually candid and personal portrait of life aboard the Nimitz prompted Adm. Gary Roughead, the United States Navy’s chief of naval operations, to e-mail approximately 1,000 senior active, reserve and retired officers, and civilian executives, earlier this month to explain why the Navy agreed to the series, and to allay fears about the program’s potential negative impact.
“We did not get a Navy ‘commercial’ in the traditional sense,” wrote Roughead, a member of the Joints Chiefs of Staff and the senior military officer in the Department of the Navy. ” ‘Carrier’ is very different from the hardware documentaries we have supported in the past. This program focuses on our people and the reality-TV approach gives it a sense of authenticity and credibility. Since we did not monitor the individual interviews and ongoing production, the program contains material that does not always and fully represent the discipline, values and mission of the U.S. Navy.”
‘An all-inclusive picture’
The PBS series lands during an especially challenging time for military recruiters. As the unpopular Iraq war drags on, all branches of the military are finding it increasingly difficult to attract new volunteers. Although the Navy met its recruiting goals last year of approximately 37,000 and is on track to do so again this year, it’s spending more money to achieve those figures. The Navy spent $169 million in advertising last year, compared to $117 million in the previous year.
But the series provides the Navy with a new and welcome platform to reach what Pentagon officials call the “influencers” — the parents, relatives, teachers, coaches and other adults who help determine whether a young person ultimately signs up for the services. Several years ago, the Army developed a series of successful ads that specifically targeted adults who had no military experience — not unlike PBS’ audience pool.
Read the rest:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-et-carrier26apr26,0,4447567.story
Message from the Chief of Naval Operation, Admiral Gary Roughead:
From: Chief of Naval Operations (To Senior Navy Leaders)
Beginning Sunday, April 27, PBS will air a reality-TV documentary
entitled “CARRIER”, filmed while the production company was embarked during the entire USS NIMITZ’s 2005 deployment. The program will air over five nights from Sunday, April 27, to Thursday, May 1, 2008, 9:00-11:00 p.m. ET.
Ten hours of film will be aired, selected from almost 2,000 hours that were shot over the course of a 6-month deployment to CENTCOM. I have viewed the production and want to share context and some thoughts with you.
While “Carrier” shows the outstanding work our young Sailors do every day and the opportunities the Navy offers, it also shows Sailors making mistakes in their personal and professional lives. The snapshot is frank and may be somewhat disconcerting to some who came into the Navy some time ago. However, that said, I believe it will also resonate with a significant segment of our country, especially potential recruits and young Sailors serving today.
1) What we did. We provided unprecedented access to our Sailors,
and this production tells their story in a very personal way. There
is no narrator — the stories are told by the Sailors themselves.
You get unvarnished views from junior personnel about their hopes,
aspirations, and challenges of life in the Navy aboard the carrier.
We did not get between the film crews and the Sailors.
2) What we got. The production highlights the racial, gender, religious, and socio-economic diversity of our Navy. The hard work our Sailors perform and the remarkable feat of forging thousands of individuals on a carrier into a truly unique team really shines through. Culling through hundreds of hours of video, the producers created a 10-hour reality-TV documentary that shows selected aspects of our Sailors’ personal and professional challenges. The cinematography is very high quality and the visuals and music are sure to appeal to younger audiences.
3) What we did not get. We did not get a Navy “commercial” in the traditional sense. “CARRIER” is very different from the hardware documentaries we have supported in the past. This program focuses on our people and the reality-TV approach gives it a sense of authenticity and credibility. Since we did not monitor the individual interviews and ongoing production, the program contains material that does not always and fully represent the discipline, values and mission of the U.S. Navy.
You will see some Sailors making personal and professional mistakes, and expressing opinions that are different from the Navy’s. However, the production shows that these are the exception, not the norm, and that leadership is engaged to shape lives and appropriate outcomes. There are abundant examples of how the Navy changed Sailors’ lives for the better by giving them opportunities and a disciplined environment.
4) Why did we agree to the project? This production, although not an all-inclusive picture of the Navy, will give potential recruits and those who influence them a glimpse of what life is really like in the Navy. We want the American people to know, understand and appreciate the contribution our Sailors make each and every day while deployed around the world. We also want them to know us, not as a monolithic bureaucratic entity, but as a diverse organization of individual Americans who have set aside the comforts of home and have put themselves on the line to serve a greater cause. You already know how inspiring our people are, but few in our Nation get to see our people in an operational environment.
Some of you may be called upon to offer public comments about this film to the media or to community groups. We will soon distribute PA guidance to support your efforts and will be putting additional information on www.navy.mil in the near future. If you need any additional information, please contact CHINFO, RDML Frank Thorp.
Thank you for all that you do.
All the best,
Gary Roughead
Admiral Gary Roughead
