2003's The Core is widely regarded as a piece of schlock, but with a sense of humour.  It is certainly one the least realistic films the US military has ever supported, featuring a small craft that drills into the Earth's core so a team of scientists can nuke the core, ...
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To unsuspecting movie audiences Pitch Perfect 3 is a piece of lighthearted family-friendly entertainment to be enjoyed and then forgotten almost immediately. Lurking beneath this neutrally-toned surface lies a work of military recruitment propaganda, intelligently crafted to appeal to demographics that the DOD usually has trouble reaching. In this episode ...
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MPAA President Jack Valenti maintained a long and friendly relationship with various branches of the US government, not least the Department of Defense.  He also harbored lifelong ambitions, including to be buried among America's military heroes at Arlington National Cemetery.  The DOD recently released correspondence between Valenti and then Secretary ...
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Pitch Perfect 3 appears on the surface to be a family-friendly piece of lighthearted, forgettable entertainment.  But beneath that surface lies a carefully-crafted piece of military PR, aimed at recruiting people the DOD usually finds it hard to attract.  Documents recently released by the US Air Force and the Pentagon ...
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Most government agencies sign contracts with Hollywood producers when they agree to provide support on a film or TV show. These are called Production Assistance Agreements, and set out the legal terms of the partnership between the government and the production company. In this episode I explore these contracts, how ...
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Going back through some documents released by the Army on the Transformers films I noticed that some of the notes weren't script notes from pre-production, but were production notes from while Transformers: Dark of the Moon was filming.  They show that sometimes the Pentagon continues to rewrite the script while ...
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Two and a half  years ago I asked the US Navy for various documents relating to their work with the entertainment industry, including the Production Assistance Agreements they sign with Hollywood producers.  After over a year's delay they responded saying that they don't keep any copies of these contracts.  Following ...
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As part of their outreach efforts the Air Force's entertainment liaison office has started running annual tours for dozens of Hollywood bigshots. Recently released documents detail last year's tour to US Space Command. In this focus episode I go through the documents page-by-page as an open source case study in ...
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