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Security
Written November
5, 2003
According
to the video ON PATROL,
when you're a security guard, your primary job is to
protect property and the safety of others. You're an important
member of a team. And in turn, other people can help you
perform your job.
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Employees
can see a threat. They can tell you about a safety
hazard. They can encourage others not to steal or break safety rules.
But
you can get this support from other company employees only if you
treat them as team members. Treat them as individuals of equal
status to yourself. |
During
patrols, remember that the example you set establishes the quality
of security throughout the company. You will usually patrol
alone, but others will be depending on you to be inquisitive,
observant, and professional ON PATROL. |
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This video
was part of an upgrade of the training presentation for new employees
of Allied Security Inc. Envisioned as a two-week project for
Total Communication Systems, it turned out to take 66 weeks.
Fortunately, Allied's timetable was very flexible.
Tom Huet
and I were working for TCS when, on March 4, 1987, Tom met with Vince
Papi, Allied's vice president of marketing, to discuss how we could
produce the training tapes. Like TCS, Allied was based in the
Pittsburgh area, but they had 40 other offices across the country.
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To train
new employees, Allied had been using a set of 15-minute slide shows
produced by an outside firm. Eight of them were shown during
the eight-hour training day. After each, an instructor would
give additional information by talking to the new hires. But it
was expensive to travel an instructor to a branch office every time
one or two employees were to be added. |
Allied's
idea was to update the slide shows and convert them to video
productions, revising the narration and replacing the slides with
moving video. They also would record the instructor, so
that the whole training session could be put on a multi-hour
tape. Every office could have a copy on VHS. Then, if
necessary, new employees could receive their indoctrination without
an actual instructor being present.
The
proposal was to shoot the video in May or June. We at TCS would
fit it in around our other projects, such as Penn
State football and the Pan Am
Games. Tom figured that it would require four days of shooting,
followed by four or five days of editing.
Allied
would supply uniformed people as actors, portraying not only guards
setting a good example but other individuals as well.
We offered
to do the rest, including subcontracting the duplication of the VHS
tapes, for about $10,000. |
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Allied had
received estimates as much as ten times that high, so we got the
job. And I was assigned to make it happen.
The eight
slide shows were recast as seven videos, as follows:
1. THE SECURITY INDUSTRY
2. A SECURITY PLAN
3. PUBLIC RELATIONS
4. ON PATROL
5. PREVENTING FIRE
6. COMMUNICATING
7. WHAT DO YOU DO?
I rewrote
most of the narration to make it clearer, following Allied's
instructions on what to add and delete. (Because we were in
Pittsburgh, one change that we made was in our brief history of the
private security industry, where we deleted any mention of the
pioneering Pinkerton detective agency. The Pinkertons had been
called in to break up a strike at a steel mill in 1892, and the labor
movement in Pittsburgh still holds a grudge.)
In the
end, the videos that we made totaled 78 minutes, 24 seconds.
We thought
of them as training videos, but a guard can't be fully trained in an
hour or so. Our tapes were just an introduction to the
business, to be shown to the new employees before they were actually
hired. Specific, detailed instructions would come later.
This was explained in the first video.
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Hello.
I'm Steve Stein, president of Allied Security. Welcome to
today's orientation on our company and the loss-prevention profession.
This
program has been carefully designed to accomplish three very
important things.
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1.
Information needed to become a professional |
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You
will be exposed to a considerable amount of information about loss
prevention work; this information will help you become a professional
in the field.
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2.
You evaluate us |
It
will also give you the opportunity to evaluate us as an employer
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3.
We evaluate you |
while
we evaluate your potential as an employee.
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Not
everyone attending our orientation becomes an employee. After
more exposure to the field and our company's expectations, some
applicants elect to pursue other positions.
Also,
as we review the performance of attendees during classroom
activities, we identify those candidates that have the greatest
potential to be satisfied, productive employees. After the
orientation, positions will be offered to those of you that have a
serious interest in working for us and have demonstrated the
potential to succeed.
When
everything works the way it's designed, the end result is a mutually
beneficial employer-employee relationship, one in which the learning
process has already started with your exposure to some specific
knowledge about loss prevention. This knowledge will be the
foundation for the future training. |
As it
turned out, revising the narration and getting it approved took
longer than we thought.
On July
13, I noted in a memo that I had talked with Allied's office in
Atlanta. "They have still not completed the last portion
of the last script, which is a set of ten dramatized situations
demonstrating the legal limitations on what a security guard can
do. Other than that, I'm ready to start planning and scheduling
the shooting. But I don't want to go ahead until we have the
final portion of the script, since it's likely to specify locations
and props that are slightly different from the part of the script we
do have; starting to shoot now would require us to go back to some of
the same places and reshoot later. While we've been waiting for
the client to rewrite the script, the shooting that we had originally
hoped to do in June has been pushed back. Now, with Penn State
and Pan Am coming up, it looks like we'll have to do it in midweek
during September."
On August
7, I reported, "From the ten Situations that Ken Slutzky sent me
from Atlanta on July 24, I have converted the 'Scene' portions into a
shooting script. I'd like to point out a few things about this
script for Allied's approval.
"First,
some of the situations specify dialogue. Our shooting plan is
not to record audio on site, since untrained actors (mostly Allied
employees) will be playing the roles. So I arranged the script
like the other videos, with the actors pantomiming and the narrator
supplying the words.
"Also,
I did not include non-essential detail in describing the
scenes. For example, Situation Ten specifies that the guard
'walks through two swinging doors into a loading dock area.'
Maybe the loading dock where the video will be shot does not have
swinging doors. So in the script (7\96) I said simply 'guard
walks through door.'
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"Fourteen
times we will freeze the picture for 15 seconds so that the
instructor can pause the tape for discussion. Is this the way
you want to handle the pauses?
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"Consistent
with the original slide show format, we dramatize the 'Scene' and
then leave it up to the class instructor to cover the 'Teaching
Points' and the 'Discussion.' These will have to be included in
the instructor's manual, of course. They will be part of the eight-hour
tape we ultimately produce, but not part of the videos
themselves. I have managed to work a few of the teaching points
into the script, for example at 7\79.
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"Finally,
since these situations deal with correct procedures but not
exclusively with legal restrictions, I would suggest that we change
the working title of Video 7 from 'IT'S THE LAW'
to 'WHAT DO YOU DO?'" |
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Allied
approved my script revisions in mid-August. On August 31 we
surveyed our shooting location in Harmarville, not far from the TCS
office. Allied had gotten permission to use the buildings and
grounds of the old Gulf Oil Research Center, now owned by the
University of Pittsburgh, to represent a typical client's place of business.
 |
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We could
show our actors walking through long dark passageways and across
catwalks, interacting with office and industrial equipment. Then
graphics could be added later to illustrate certain points. |
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Jack
Sedlak, Stan Sobolak, Ron Bocchi and I would do the actual
videotaping. Two of us even volunteered ourselves as practice
subjects to be described by the trainees.
 |
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That's
Jack above, and my car and me on the right. The other guys
managed to stay off camera.
(Perhaps I
should have followed their example. When the instructor later
gave the "correct answer" for my description, he included
the word portly.) |
 |
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We planned
to pile our equipment into the company Suburban (seen here playing
its role) and tape most of the scenes on September 15 and 16.
Considerable organization would be required if we were going to be
efficient in shooting everything called for in the script. |
I gave my
little TRS-80 Model 100 computer a workout. I had used this
primitive laptop to rewrite the script, and now I created a
database. Each paragraph in the script was assigned a scene
number. Codes were added for location, props, and actors.
Then I sorted this list in relation to each of those factors.
Here are some excerpts from the sorted lists.

SCENES
FROM VIDEO 3:
PUBLIC RELATIONS
LOCATION |
SCENE |
PROPS |
ACTORS |
COMMENTS |
L44 |
3\80 |
|
7W |
Careful: wet floor |
L85 |
3\81 |
|
7W |
Walk carefully |
L42 |
3\83 |
|
7D |
Daydreaming |
L71 |
3\85 |
MN SL GS |
7W 7I |
Being relieved |
L42 |
3\88 |
RA |
7G 5T |
Find thief |
L42 |
3\91 |
RA FI |
7G |
Find fire |
L42 |
3\93 |
NB |
7G 6T |
Find fight |
L42 |
3\96 |
|
7G 6G |
Interact with workers |

LOCATION
32: EXTERIOR OF PLANT/OFFICE
LOCATION |
SCENE |
PROPS |
ACTORS |
COMMENTS |
L32 |
1\11 |
|
|
Office building |
L32 |
3\24 |
RD |
7W |
Access
roads, emergency phone |
LOCATION
33: DAMAGED FENCE
LOCATION |
SCENE |
PROPS |
ACTORS |
COMMENTS |
L33 |
2\49 |
|
|
Hole in fence |
LOCATION
34: PARKING LOT WITH BOOTH,
RESTRICTION
SIGNS, ARM-TYPE GATE
LOCATION |
SCENE |
PROPS |
ACTORS |
COMMENTS |
L34 |
4\20 |
CR |
7G |
Misparking |
L34 |
4\27 |
CR |
7Y
8M |
Bully
guard |
L34 |
4\40 |
CR |
7G
8M |
Courteous
guard |
L34 |
4\55 |
CR |
7Y
8M 8B |
Bully's
buddy |
L34 |
6\19 |
VI |
7G |
Parking
ticket |

PROP
AL: FIRE ALARM OR SMOKE DETECTOR
LOCATION |
SCENE |
PROPS |
ACTORS |
COMMENTS |
L42 |
2\25 |
AL |
|
Detect fire |
L42 |
2\51 |
AL |
7G |
Alarm
not on; guard checks |
PROP
BF: BRIEFCASE
LOCATION |
SCENE |
PROPS |
ACTORS |
COMMENTS |
L73 |
4\90 |
EP BF |
7G
6G |
Inspect packages |
PROP
BX: BOX
LOCATION |
SCENE |
PROPS |
ACTORS |
COMMENTS |
L42 |
6\56 |
BX |
6F |
Man carries box |
L42 |
7\29 |
BX |
7G
6F 7B |
Recovering
stolen box |
L34 |
7\70 |
BX |
6W
7A 5T |
Car has been
broken into |

ACTORS
7A: TWO GUARDS
LOCATION |
SCENE |
PROPS |
ACTORS |
COMMENTS |
L34 |
7\62 |
CR |
7A 8M |
Injury at
parking-lot gate |
L34 |
7\70 |
BX |
6W
7A 5T |
Car
has been broken into |
ACTOR
7B: CAPTAIN BARNEY
LOCATION |
SCENE |
PROPS |
ACTORS |
COMMENTS |
L71 |
3\55 |
MN SL GS |
7W 7B |
Barney's inspection |
L71 |
6\02 |
|
7G 7B |
Communicating |
L42 |
7\29 |
BX |
7G 6F 7B |
Recovering stolen box |
L42 |
7\30 |
|
7G
6F 7B |
Interrogating |
L37 |
7\55 |
PV TS |
7Z 7B |
Dent in security vehicle |

Finally, I
used these sorted lists to plan the shooting schedule. Since we
were recording no dialogue, in fact no sound at all, we could shoot a
lot of the script in one day. My plan for one morning included
seven scenes in an office hallway, three in a conference room, and
four others in a factory building.
In those
last four scenes, workers were being evacuated because of a possible
fire. To supplement the actors supplied by Allied Security,
Jack and I again made cameo appearances, putting on our coats and
joining the "workers" in a quick but orderly exit from the building.
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Recommended
Changes In Script
Resulting
From Shooting September 15-16 |
3\09 |
Move to 3\19;
he checks equipment before starting his round. |
3\12 |
Change
"badge" to "position as a security officer." |
3\58 |
Expand
"goes on the next tour." We see Captain Barney
watching intently as Sgt. Wolfe punches his clock at a key station. |
6\91 |
Omit
"security patrol" (it's just an ordinary vehicle). |
6\95 |
Change
"reception area" to "conference room" and omit
"They are inter-office memos." |
7\20-7\26 |
Omit or
drastically rewrite. We don't want Allied employees making
citizens' arrests. |
7\52 |
Change
"two more packages" to "another package." |
7\56 |
Change
"door" to "fender." |
|
et cetera |
The
project ran into what could have been a fatal roadblock on October
16, when suddenly though not completely unexpectedly
TCS declared bankruptcy! All of us working on the project were
no longer employed.
Fortunately,
the bankers in charge of liquidating the TCS assets (which included
the Allied Security footage already on tape) decided that it would be
in the creditors' best interests for us to finish our current
projects and collect the payment. So Tom, Jack, Stan, Ron, and
I were hired on an as-needed basis to complete the work.
On
November 4, I wrote to Vince Papi detailing the shooting that we
still needed to do, hopefully later that month, so that we could edit
the footage in December. Here's the beginning of my list, in
which the numbers in the Script column refer to the video and scene numbers.
In
the Footage column, a number like "A:17" refers to footage
already shot (in this example, the first reel, 17 minutes in).
"Graphics" means that the video will come from the Chyron
character generator, old photos, or art cards. "Must"
means that the footage still must be shot. And
"Should" means that although it would be nice to shoot
footage, we could get by with graphics. |
SCRIPT |
FOOTAGE |
COMMENTS |
1\00 |
Graphics |
x |
1\09 |
A:22 |
x |
1\10 |
D:47 |
x |
1\11 |
Should |
School
or other institution; but since the other quick scenes in this
section have little movement, we could use the color photo of a
school crossing guard |
1\13 |
D:48 |
x |
1\14 |
A:53 |
x |
1\15 |
Graphics |
x |
1\16 |
Should |
Pictures
of 19th-century industry |
1\18 |
Graphics |
x |
1\24 |
Should |
Modern
business; could use color photo of Vince and others |
1\28 |
A:22 |
x |
1\30 |
A:23,
A:25 |
Still
need sensors and alarms |
Fire
prevention was a big part of the training videos. We had shot
some scenes at the research center in Harmarville, but we had to
complete our taping at another location in Blawnox, demonstrating
semi-spectacularly the various types of fire extinguisher.
Some
images were hard to shoot, so I created them using construction paper.

Those
above, depicting the four classes of fires, show that Classes B, C,
and D should not be fought with water.
Much of
the script couldn't be illustrated with pictures of any kind, so the
Chyron graphics generator got a workout. |
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For
example, our script went into detail about the three phases of making
a report, the six steps in writing one, and the six attributes of a
good one. I made graphics for all of this, with appropriate
animations. We even explained how to make an outline, just like
back in school.

Bill
Wilson was chosen to provide the voice-over narration for the seven
videos. A veteran broadcaster from Johnstown, Bill was already
working for TCS (or what was left of it) as the host of the Paterno
show. He came to our field shop to record the script I had
prepared, using ¾-inch videocassettes. Then I edited his
various takes together and added some inspiring martial music,
backtiming it to climax when the title appeared and again at the end.
We then
laid this audio onto a reel of one-inch video tape, parked a remote
production truck at the TCS field shop, and added the footage and
graphics. Our seven videos were complete!
But there
was still the matter of the classroom lectures that would lead into
and out of each video. Allied brought in an instructor named
Dan to tape the classroom sequences on February 9, 1988. We
finished combining them with the videos a month later. |
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However,
it turned out that there were some problems with the lectures,
including a missing page of Discussion Points and a 90-second stretch
of tone on the audio track. On March 15, in what I called (in
security guard jargon) an Irregularity Report, I told Vince Papi
about these glitches. We thought we might be able to work
around them. But eventually, after doing nothing in April and
May, we decided to reshoot portions of the lectures. Stan
Sobolak and I recorded the retakes on June 7, and Ron Bocchi and I
made the editing changes on June 9.
My final
work on this project was on June 11, 1988, when I spent an hour and a
half writing a couple of memos.
When we taped
Dan's retakes on June 7, he spoke a little longer than he had on the
original takes February 9. Both the lead-in to ON PATROL
and the wrap-up were about four minutes longer than before.
So the classroom
version, which used to run 2 hours 55 minutes, is now 3 hours 3½
minutes long. The first half (just over 90 minutes) is on one
reel and will probably be put onto one cassette by the duplicator;
the other half (93 minutes) is on another reel.
The break between
the reels comes in the middle of the PREVENTING FIRE
video, at 5\56 in the script, where the theme changes from preventing
fires to putting them out. As I told you on the phone Thursday,
this turned out to be the only way we could get the entire classroom
version onto two of our reels.
(The
classroom version ran just over three hours. Using it to orient
new employees was supposed to take up an eight-hour day, so that they
would receive "a full day of training." The five-hour
difference would be made up by 22 pauses for "what do you
do" answers, a ten-minute quiz after each video, two coffee
breaks, lunch, and local administrative paperwork and instructions.)
The next step is
to arrange to have the VHS cassettes duplicated for Allied.
Vince Papi says that he has 50 cassettes coming from the original
agreement, and he would like to pay for some additional copies.
The one-inch tapes
are still at the field shop. They consist of the following:
Ten 1-hour reels
of raw footage, plus:
Edit Master of
videos 7-2-4-3-5-6-1
Dub Master of
above but in correct order
Classroom Edit
Master Part 1, 90 min 25 sec
Classroom Edit
Master Part 2, 93 min 04 sec
Apparently at the
conclusion of this project Allied is to receive "the original
tapes." I don't know whether this means all 14 reels, just
the last three reels, or whatever. Please check the agreement
and work this out with Vince.
He says he has
received authorization to pay for the project. He could arrange
to drop off the check when he picks up the VHS cassettes and/or
one-inch reels. Please work out the details with him.
And thus I
signed off on the project. My work in the security guard
training industry was complete, and our nation's corporate assets are
now that much safer.
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