Scripts & Planning - Karen J. Savage

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Counterdrug program

"OPORDER" marketing video --

This video was designed to encourage Army Reserve/National Guard Engineer units to spend their Annual Training by deploying to California's border with Mexico to build portions of the Border Fence-and-Road Barrier Project.

The Chief of the Counterdrug Program wanted the body of the video to be structured as a 5-paragraph Operations Order. This would help the deploying units write their own OPORDERS for their deployment to the project.

Pre-production "Storyboard" script - (1 Megabyte!)

     This early draft is only of the 'core' OPORD portion of the video (the opening and closing were added to the script later.)

     It is illustrated with stills from pre-existing video footage. Many of the shots these stills came from were used in the finished video in the location shown in this script (saving a lot of time and money...)

     The Storyboard format made it easier for the Counterdrug staff officers to review the script, as they had a clear idea of how the finished video program would look.
Approved Shooting Script

This script is formatted in the standard 'Hollywood' script format, and now incorporates the opening and closing portions.
Narrator script

This contains only the spoken narration, formatted in easy-to-read all-capital-letters, and is double spaced to allow the narrator (the 'talent') to make pencil changes and inflection marks.
Here is the finished video

Other scripts

Calexico Border Fence news script
The video story was submitted to SRTV and AFTN
"The Drugstore" news script
The video story was submitted to SRTV and AFTN
Operation Castle Rock end-of-mission briefing
This video was designed to be both a component of the Operation Castle Rock After-Action Report (AAR), and as a marketing tool for the Counterdrug Border Engineer program.
Pre-Production "Funding Cut" planning document.
A video was needed to counter congressional opponents to the Counterdrug program, and to give congressional allies the tools to fight the move to cut the funding.
This document was developed to assist the staffing of the project and script-writing process.

Disaster rescue operations

Monterey Rescue news script
The video story was submitted to Armed Forces Radio & Television's "Soldiers' Radio and Television" and "Air Force Television News" shows.
Here's the video for the above script.

BOSNIA

SFOR-6 End-of-Mission After Action Review video

    This video was produced to Document and Record the events and successes of SFOR-6, Multi-National Division, North (MND-N).

     I organized and led a team of 12 Army broadcasters and 6 Bosnian national employees dispersed over 4 distant basecamps in gathering the footage necessary for this video. I worked closely with the MND-N Commanding General and his staff in developing the approved script.

     By using two teams of video editors working round the clock in two shifts, I competed the editing of the final video in two weeks (including all staff review and changes, and the Commanding General's changes and final approval.)

Draft script
This was the version submitted for review by the MND-N staff. Note that video shots that were already on hand are marked (LIBRARY) or (FILE) in the script. This aided planning and resourcing the missions necessary to gather the remaining shots needed to complete the video program.
Compilation of changes
Each staff officer was given a copy of the script to review. Three of them requested specific changes to the wording of the narration. Those change requests were compiled into this document to facilitate the editing of the script and the final review by the Commanding General of MND-N.

Bosnia - Route Kansas Repair Video News Release (VNR)

One of the humanitarian missions performed by Stabilization Force, Rotation 6 (SFOR-6) was to rebuild and repair the main road from Brcko to Tuzla (known to SFOR as 'Route Kansas'.) This VNR was prepared and released to Bosnian television stations and news organizations at the completion of major repairs. The finished tape was designed so that a Bosnian TV reporter could record his or her own narration and present the VNR as a station-produced news story.

3 treatments
This is an early stage of the project. Three possible treatments to the story are presented in order to determine which approach best serves the goals of SFOR. Each treatment is designed to achieve a different Information Operations end-state.
Pre-production shot-sheet
Missions "outside the wire" heavily taxed our manpower resources. This document was produced to aid planning of a mission to gather the rest of the footage needed to complete the VNR.
Draft script
Two versions of the VNR were edited. One version had English narration for SFOR Staff review, the other had a Bosnian language guide narration, so that the video could be 'cut' to the timing of the Bosnian narration.

Bosnia Public Service Announcements

These PSA's were designed to be shown on Bosnian television. They were made in both English and Bosnian language versions.

Havest '99 weapons turn-in program
This program encourages Bosnians to turn in weapons; rifles, grenades, mines, mortars, etc., left over from the Bosnian war.
SFOR Restructuring
This video reassures Bosnians that, although the number of peacekeeping troops in Bosnia is being reduced, there are still enough troops available to ensure the safety and security of Bosnians.
Holiday Greetings
Best Wishes from SFOR for the New Millennium

STILLS
from the video program,

Engineer Operations Order

(Click on a thumbnail to see the full-size picture)

A lookout peers over the Tijuana fence.

Thermal image of smugglers

The USA is on the left,
Tijuana is on the right.

Briefing SEC-ARMY

Engineer Road construction on the Mexico border.