大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Dominic Penny of Link into Learning on behalf of Joe Mendoza and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 Terms and Conditions.

I had a first-rate cutting room assistant, 鈥楶uck鈥� Bishop, a Wren in the Royal Netherlands Navy. She was wonderfully efficient and kept me and my cutting-room in first-class order, reminding me each day when it was twenty minutes to 鈥榩ack-up time鈥�; so as to help me not to get too 鈥榗arried away鈥� at the end of each working day.

One day I got to my cutting-room but she wasn鈥檛 there. 鈥淲here鈥檚 Puck?鈥� I asked my 鈥榖oss鈥� 3rd Officer WRNS Hazel Wilkinson, our excellent supervising editor and a good friend. 鈥淪he鈥檚 not working to-day; you鈥檝e got to cope on your own鈥�. 鈥淎nything wrong?鈥� I asked. All I got from Hazel was a 鈥榣ook鈥�. Oh Lord, I thought. I hope her boyfriend Lieutenant 鈥楯ochy鈥� hasn鈥檛 got her pregnant!

Anyway, I settled down to break down the days 鈥榬ushes鈥� and enter each slate-number and negative number in puck鈥檚 neat 鈥楻ushes-book鈥� as clearly as she did.

And then, suddenly, two chaps 鈥� civilians 鈥� came into the cutting-room: one in a blue rain-coat and trilby hat and another in a brown raincoat and similar head gear 鈥� each carrying a small pile of obviously full film cans.

鈥淲e need your help, Mr Mendoza, to sort out and assemble this material,鈥� said 鈥楤lue raincoat鈥�. 鈥淓xcuse me, gentlemen鈥� I said 鈥渂ut are you officers?鈥� 鈥淣o 鈥� civilians鈥�, he said. 鈥淢ay I know your names, please?鈥� I asked. 鈥淚t will not be necessary鈥� said Brown raincoat. 鈥淚鈥檓 leading Seaman Mendoza鈥�, I said 鈥渂ut everyone calls me Joe.鈥�

I had to mount their first roll of film on the 鈥榟orse鈥� feed it through the moviola and fix the end into the empty take-up spool there.

鈥淚t will not be necessary for you to view the material. Just operate the moviola for us and help to break the material down into correct-length separate shots and join them up.

So off we went. Mr Blue sat at the moviola and I pressed the stop and start pedal at his instructions. Mr Brown sat on the stool beside my cutting bench with typed pages of obvious commentary before him. Mr Blue told me to start the moviola and after a length of run-in spacing and a few seconds of visual material he said a loud 鈥淣ow!鈥� to Mr Brown across the room.

Mr Brown silently read the commentary to himself and after a bit called 鈥淪top!鈥� So I stopped the moviola, Mr Blue lifted the viewing magnifier and marked the frame below with blue wax pencil. 鈥淩un it for a couple more feet鈥�, he told me. So I ran the moviola for a few more seconds until Mr Blue told me to stop and cut the film 鈥� beyond his mark.

鈥淐arry on鈥�, he said, so I let it run forward until he looked through the magnifier. Presumably he reached the start of the next shot 鈥淪top!鈥� he said 鈥淐ut the film鈥� which I did.

He handed the cut trim to Mr Brown, who rolled it up, put an elastic band round it and put it aside. 鈥淣ow join it up, please鈥� said Mr Blue. I used the foot-operated joiner to join the cut end of the film in the moviola to the cut end of the film on the spool above it. And that was the procedure for quite a long time from then on.

We were steadily producing an assembly of numbered rushes in script order, and each shot of which was approximate commentary length. That was our basic function, it took a long time 鈥� all this stopping, cutting, joining and starting.

Mr Brown stood guard in the cutting room while Mr Blue had lunch in the Ward Room and vice versa. It lasted the whole working day, but we finished up with three reels ready for trimming, commentary 鈥� recording and laying after the final picture editing.

Did I ever find out just what film I had been editing by proxy? The answer is 鈥測es鈥�. It happened like this:-

Mr Brown, Mr Blue and I scrupulously collected all the two-sprocket snips left over from each shot as it was joined. I recognised from these exactly what they were from and the subject of the whole exercise, but I said nothing.

You see, the previous summer we had spent weekends off-duty swimming and sun-bathing on Hayling Island 鈥� a holiday spot then empty of visitors just outside Portsmouth Harbour. We noticed huge concrete structures in the sea 鈥榓round the corner鈥� from our swimming beach. We assumed they were to be part of some future extension to the Harbour. One of our party described them as 鈥楥oncrete ships鈥� and we all laughed like drains at such a silly idea. It was not until the whole story of the D-Day invasion of France was revealed that I realised I had been editing an instructional film on how to put Mulberry Harbour together.

鈥楳ulberry鈥� was a gigantic man-made concrete floating harbour, big enough and strong enough to carry and service all the shipping, all the men, all the machinery, all the tanks, all the ammunition, all the guns, to ensure successful invasion of three continuous miles of the coast of Normandy.

The day after Mr Blue and Mr Brown left my cutting-room Puck came back to it. She saw the tin of broken-down logged rushes from the previous day. 鈥淵ou haven鈥檛 done much鈥�, she said 鈥淲hat on earth have you been doing?!鈥� 鈥淢issing you!鈥� I said.

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