Produced by Glenn E. Miller for Lockheed, and narrated by radio and television personality George Fenneman, TABLE 210 is about the making of movies for the Department of Defense. The name of the film comes from a piece of language in most Department of Defense contracts in this era — Table 210 — which defines that work performed under the contract needs to be documented with motion pictures. Here, the creation of a filmic record of an experimental and highly classified Lockheed missile system is used as an example. (All the staff involved in the making of the film, have Secret clearance at a minimum.)

At 1:30, a writer is seen coming up with an outline script for a film. The outline is then discussed at1:43 by staff, and the art director begins working on a storyboard. Various factors have to be taken into account including the company’s sales policy and goals, and the nature of the weapons system. Project engineering staff and military staff meet at 2:17 to discuss the motion picture.

At 2:27, photography begins on project activities. At 2:59, camera equipment is shown being tested. At 3:20, an early mainframe computer system is shown. At 3:30, a helicopter is seen retrieving a spent missile. Various other challenges are seen — filming at sea for instance. Or filming missile launches that span thousands of miles. At 4:40 a tiny subject is seen — a pair of wires — while at 4:47 a large scale explosion is shown.

At 5:00 the optics section of Lockheed is shown with Fairchild, Wollensak and other cameras shown being maintained and prepared. Various high speed and specially ruggedized cameras are shown. At 5:30 a centrifuge test is conducted with an engineering camera that would record flight instrumentation.

At 6:00, a lens is installed on a camera. Special lenses in use including one that can record four discrete areas at a time (most likely for an aircraft instrument panel). At 6:40 a camera pod that is attached to a missile is seen. At 7:00, a motion picture record of a parachute test and failure is seen. At 7:30, high speed cameras are seen shooting extreme slow motion up to 9000 frames per second.

At 8:00, electronically transmitted data is seen being recorded on the ground on large reel to reel recorders. At 8:30, a chase plane with a camera crew on board is shown at work. At 8:50, camera crews on the ground prepare for a missile launch. The flight of the missile is documented through the critical stages.

At 9:30 the ground recovery operation is shown, with motion picture film being retrieved and sent by special plane for developing. At 10:54, a battered film camera is retrieved from a test missile after a crash. 78′ of film was retrieved and processed from this test, revealing the cause of the accident.

At 11:40, Lockheed’s Motion Picture Headquarters is seen with editors working on Moviola motion picture editors to make rough cuts. At 12:30, art directors bring the storyboards up to date, and titles and illustrations prepared. At 13:30, special techniques are used to create spectacular animations. At 13:45, narration is recorded on a soundstage by an actor. At 14:17, a reel to reel audio tape recorder is seen in use. At 14:25, editing of the film continues and at 14:30, playback is made on a test print for dubbing. At 14:50, a secretary is seen ordering up prints based on specifications in Table 210. The narrator adds that many of these films are classified so that they must be tracked and packaged according to security regulations.

At 16:00, a special courier leaves Lockheed Aircraft Corporation’s airport to deliver one of these classified films to the customer — the Department of Defense. Already, the narrator mentions, a sequel film is being made.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com