<\/p>\n
The Defense Department has a long-standing relationship with Hollywood. In fact, it\u2019s been working with filmmakers for nearly 100 years with a goal that\u2019s two-fold: to accurately depict military stories and make sure sensitive information isn\u2019t disclosed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take both of those roles very seriously,\u201d said Army Lt. Col. Tim Hyde, the deputy director of the Los Angeles Office of the Chief of Public Affairs<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hyde\u2019s office focuses on the Army, while each other branch of the armed forces, including the Coast Guard, has its own Hollywood liaison office. But they coordinate with each other, and projects are often doled out to various installations to best accommodate filmmakers\u2019 needs.<\/p>\n \u201cIn our office, there\u2019s only three of us,\u201d Hyde said. \u201cIf there\u2019s a topic dealing with tanks, I have no clue — none of us do. \u2026 So, we coordinate regularly with subject matter experts in the field that\u2019s being depicted.\u201d<\/p>\n Develyn Watson, the deputy director of the Air Force Entertainment Liaison Office, said that coordination can be one of the hardest parts of their job.<\/p>\n \u201cCoordinating military assets and marrying them up with what a film company may need, at no cost to the government, requires considerable work, patience, and sometimes a sense of humor,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Here are some other things you might not know:<\/p>\n There will always be large-scale scripted projects, like the recent \u201c12 Strong<\/a>,\u201d \u201cThe Long Road Home<\/a>\u201d and \u201c15:17 to Paris<\/a>,\u201d or TV shows like \u201cNCIS\u201d and \u201cHawaii 5-0.\u201d But there are also a lot of unscripted projects that require DoD attention, such as documentaries on the History and Discovery channels; game shows like \u201cJeopardy\u201d and \u201cThe Price is Right\u201d that often have military-themed episodes; and talk shows like Ellen, Steve Harvey and Conan.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf they request to have personnel or soldiers or people like that on their shows, we help coordinate that,\u201d Hyde said. \u201cThen you have shows like \u2018Top Gear\u2019 that want to focus on some of our equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n Ever hear of the silent film \u201cWings\u201d? Yeah\u2026 me either. Probably because it was made in 1927, the first year of the Academy Awards. The movie was about World War I fighter pilots, and the Army helped with its production. The film ended up winning best picture that year.<\/p>\n Toward the end of World War II, the Army finally set up an official Hollywood office that was part of the Signal Corps. Many soldiers were part of the film-making process, including Frank Capra, who directed \u201cPrelude to War,\u201d the official government film about the U.S. joining World War II.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had filmmakers who were active-duty in the Army, and that was there job — to make those films as part of the war effort,\u201d Hyde said.<\/p>\n \u201cPrelude to War\u201d won the best documentary Oscar in 1942. Another major Army-approved project: the 1970 film \u201cPatton,\u201d which won seven Oscars, including best picture, best actor and best director.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cThe Long Road Home\u201d was filmed at Fort Hood, Texas, even though many of the scenes were set in Iraq. To recreate the scene, set designers built more than 100 buildings from scratch to look like a road in Sadr City.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With \u201c15:17 to Paris,\u201d Robins Air Force Base in Georgia was used for filming, but the movie depicts a character\u2019s time at Joint Base San Antonio-Sam Houston, Texas. Set designers spent two weeks making Robins look like Sam Houston.<\/p>\n While Hollywood is paid to tell a compelling story that will make money, the DoD is looking to tell an accurate story. So naturally, there can be challenges in combining the two.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are compromises on both sides. There\u2019s a point where we just have to say no — \u2018It\u2019s either going to happen like this, or it\u2019s not going to happen at all,\u2019\u201d Hyde said, although he admitted it rarely comes to that. Production agreements require the DoD to be able to review a rough cut of a film, so officials can decide if there are areas that need to be addressed before a film is released.<\/p>\n Hyde has been in the Army for 20 years and with the Hollywood office for nearly three.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all been a great experience that I never thought I would have while I was in the Army,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s so different and unique.\u201d<\/p>\n As are each of the projects.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat works for one doesn\u2019t necessarily work for the next one, and being able to adapt to the needs of the production and personalities of the production [is a challenge],\u201d Hyde said.<\/p>\n The bottom line? They want to tell the military story right.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to make sure we\u2019re doing right by the soldiers and the families involved. If we\u2019re doing right by them, then in the end, to me, we\u2019ve accomplished our mission,\u201d Hyde said.<\/p>\n (This article was originally published on Jan. 22, 2020)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.war.gov \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Defense Department has a long-standing relationship with Hollywood. In fact, it\u2019s been working with filmmakers for nearly 100 years with a goal that\u2019s two-fold: to accurately depict military stories and make sure sensitive information isn\u2019t disclosed. \u201cWe take both of those roles very seriously,\u201d said Army Lt. Col. Tim Hyde, the deputy director of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2417442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[22220,446844,473317,473320,473315,21741,21835,22860,473318,23377,400348,473316,473319,25432],"class_list":["post-2417441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-arts","tag-department-of-war","tag-deputy-secretary","tag-deputy-secretary-of-war","tag-dow","tag-entertainment","tag-government","tag-hollywood","tag-joint-chief","tag-military","tag-pentagon","tag-secretary","tag-secretary-of-war","tag-united-states"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/How-Why-DOD-Works-With-Hollywood-US-Department.JPG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2417441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2417441"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2417441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2417443,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2417441\/revisions\/2417443"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2417442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2417441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2417441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2417441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Military liaisons work mostly with unscripted projects. <\/strong><\/h2>\n
Military participation in Hollywood dates back to the first Academy Awards.<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Installations are used to recreate sets of other places. <\/strong><\/h2>\n
There can be tension with filmmakers. <\/strong><\/h2>\n
You can make a career out of this. <\/strong><\/h2>\n