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. “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.” 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. 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. 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. 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. 1. Information needed to become a professional 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. 2. You evaluate us It will also give you the opportunity to evaluate us as an employer 3. We evaluate you while we evaluate your potential as an employee. 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.' "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? "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. "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?'" 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. 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. 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. 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.) 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. 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. 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. 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.