Recruiting Materials

[RickRutledge]

As society grows more and more dependent upon devices for their communication and the younger generation continues to pursue things they can visualize and less on what they can read and put together, a bigger emphasis should be put on building multimedia that showcases our missions better than printed materials.

SO I did this. Please share on social media and encourage your members to share it as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGjaNFEKFr4

[LATORRECA]

Will do and see if we can use it on Instagram

[JC004]

That looks neat.  I would suggest that something geared toward an outside audience shouldn't have a couple cadets doing pushups with others standing over them, as it could be misunderstood easily.  A general PT shot would be good, though, even with pushups.

If you ever wish to bounce around ideas on recruiting planning and such, send me a message.  I've been working on updating a bunch of old materials and ideas.

[lordmonar]

+1 on what JC004 Said.

Also more shot of cadets doing something instead of just standing around or walking place to place.

Also from a CP point of view....I got to ask...whey were two cadets doing push ups inside a USAF aircraft?   Makes me wonder if a CPP violation is going on.

[The CyBorg is destroyed]

Also from a CP point of view....I got to ask...whey were two cadets doing push ups inside a USAF aircraft?   Makes me wonder if a CPP violation is going on.

I thought the same thing, Master Sergeant.

Unless they thought they were being "cool," which they weren't - that also raises my former Safety Officer's hackles.

[RickRutledge]

Guys--

A couple of things to note.

1) These are intended to be broadcast quality in both time and content -- I'm limited in the amount of run time for each project. Besides, the audience has the attention span of a gnat. This is intended to spark interest, not to divulge everything they need to know. The key is to get butts in seats and then we can close them, we're not going to close them on a :30 PSA or even a website.
2) I'm limited in what HD, broadcast quality footage exists with our cadets/members. That footage is actually from a USAF TV story and everything I grabbed came from DVIDS because that's the only place I can find anything.
3) I'm busting my butt to get more footage of other activities, but at the moment access and availability is limited. Help with gathering the footage is appreciated.

If you or anyone you know has any H.264 raw files or HD quality mp4 or mov transcoded video files, PM me and I'll give you my dropbox account info so you can drop it in. 

Be careful splitting hairs on what you perceive to be happening. It's easy to play arm chair QB and see cadets doing push ups and immediately think there's some sort of CPP violation taking place. The fact is, not a darn thing can be proven from a second or two of footage and if you come to my unit our cadet leadership is typically "standing over" (in the most literal sense) being hands on with how our PT is conducted and when the leaders are in the lean and rest our other cadet leaders are right there with them encouraging them. But based upon your assessment, I would expect you to throw an accusatory statement my way about how we conduct it because it "looks" like something is happening. This footage took place during an encampment in SCWG and was filmed by an Air Force PAO camera crew, we can't immediately rush to any sort of conclusion on what is or isn't taking place (solution looking for a problem). I've been guilty myself of jumping to conclusions based upon photos when there's nothing there to see.

[PHall]

Guys--

A couple of things to note.

1) These are intended to be broadcast quality in both time and content -- I'm limited in the amount of run time for each project. Besides, the audience has the attention span of a gnat. This is intended to spark interest, not to divulge everything they need to know. The key is to get butts in seats and then we can close them, we're not going to close them on a :30 PSA or even a website.
2) I'm limited in what HD, broadcast quality footage exists with our cadets/members. That footage is actually from a USAF TV story and everything I grabbed came from DVIDS because that's the only place I can find anything.
3) I'm busting my butt to get more footage of other activities, but at the moment access and availability is limited. Help with gathering the footage is appreciated.

If you or anyone you know has any H.264 raw files or HD quality mp4 or mov transcoded video files, PM me and I'll give you my dropbox account info so you can drop it in. 

Be careful splitting hairs on what you perceive to be happening. It's easy to play arm chair QB and see cadets doing push ups and immediately think there's some sort of CPP violation taking place. The fact is, not a darn thing can be proven from a second or two of footage and if you come to my unit our cadet leadership is typically "standing over" (in the most literal sense) being hands on with how our PT is conducted and when the leaders are in the lean and rest our other cadet leaders are right there with them encouraging them. But based upon your assessment, I would expect you to throw an accusatory statement my way about how we conduct it because it "looks" like something is happening. This footage took place during an encampment in SCWG and was filmed by an Air Force PAO camera crew, we can't immediately rush to any sort of conclusion on what is or isn't taking place (solution looking for a problem). I've been guilty myself of jumping to conclusions based upon photos when there's nothing there to see.

Other then completing organized PT or a CPFT there is no legal reason for a cadet to be doing push ups while in uniform.
The folks from Combat Camera may not know that but YOU, as a CAP member, should.

[lordmonar]

Rick.....You should know that perception is everything.

As a CP guy.....my CPP radar is always on.....and as I just said.....seeing that 2 seconds of film caused my threat buzzer to go off.

And yes that 2 second does not prove anything.   But as you know we err on the side of caution with all things CPP.

Just saying.

If I was on that flight and I came across that scene not knowing anything else...I would be asking who ever was in charge....what was going on.   I may not have done anything about it....It may have been okay.   But I would ask.

And as a CP guy....I'm telling you....if you don't want people givieng you a hard time about your content....you got be aware that your audience is also hair splitting CP types on CAPTALK as well as kids and parents out in the community.

So....Yes I'm jumping to conclusions.....but sometimes that what you got to do.

[Майор Хаткевич]

And again, I'm sure there's more footage out there, that can be an "action" shot, besides push ups...

[RickRutledge]

I really didn't expect this thread to go here, but it's CAPTALK and I guess anything should be expected.

Throwing this out there, let's just say the cadets shown in the video WANTED to do some PT in front of the cameras to "show off" as many high speed, low drag cadets are prone to have a hunger for...so they decide to get together on their own and just start doing it completely un-provoked by their leadership. What good does it do for any leader to discourage their cadets to partake in something that they enjoy? As long as it's not a major safety risk, no harm no foul. Still a problem seeking a solution. A victimless perceived crime. Now, what I don't know is if that happened in this particular situation BUT I can say with a high level of certainty that if a parent or potential cadet saw simple push ups and sit-ups being done and that was a discouragement from joining an organization like ours with all that we offer -- it's likely not a loss to the unit. Footage of cadets getting screamed at (which is completely unnecessary in a training environment, IMO) in formation or during drill or during PT then I would be 100% on board with the criticism.

Is it the best footage to use? No. Not by a mile. I'd rather show cadets taking charge on a rappelling tower or doing model rocketry or even participating in some ES training, but again (as Mr Hatkevich as so eloquently stated) this is the only footage that I can find that fits the broadcast quality stamp. If you or anyone you know has 1080p HD footage available in mp4, mov or raw H.264 formats, please let me know. I'd be happy to swap out whats in there for something better, but I'm limited on what I've been able to find and that is half of the battle.

Many of us have acknowledged the epidemic of solutions looking for problems in this organization and frankly this is quickly becoming yet another instance. If it's that much of an issue, please, get me something better. Grab a DSLR and get footage of your cadets practicing color guard or launching rockets. I'd gladly take replacements, I mean after all the footage of the cadets marching twice is the same sequence of film split in two. I'd LOVE for something better, but it has to pass the test.

Mr Hall -- I didn't film it. But, I can tell you that a commander OR a PAO was present during the filming. And no one has said anything about any of these cadets being required to take part in this example of our PT program, there is no way to prove it either way. Have something better? Send it to me.

[JC004]

Guys--

A couple of things to note.

1) These are intended to be broadcast quality in both time and content -- I'm limited in the amount of run time for each project. Besides, the audience has the attention span of a gnat. This is intended to spark interest, not to divulge everything they need to know. The key is to get butts in seats and then we can close them, we're not going to close them on a :30 PSA or even a website.
2) I'm limited in what HD, broadcast quality footage exists with our cadets/members. That footage is actually from a USAF TV story and everything I grabbed came from DVIDS because that's the only place I can find anything.
3) I'm busting my butt to get more footage of other activities, but at the moment access and availability is limited. Help with gathering the footage is appreciated.

If you or anyone you know has any H.264 raw files or HD quality mp4 or mov transcoded video files, PM me and I'll give you my dropbox account info so you can drop it in. 

Be careful splitting hairs on what you perceive to be happening. It's easy to play arm chair QB and see cadets doing push ups and immediately think there's some sort of CPP violation taking place. The fact is, not a darn thing can be proven from a second or two of footage and if you come to my unit our cadet leadership is typically "standing over" (in the most literal sense) being hands on with how our PT is conducted and when the leaders are in the lean and rest our other cadet leaders are right there with them encouraging them. But based upon your assessment, I would expect you to throw an accusatory statement my way about how we conduct it because it "looks" like something is happening. This footage took place during an encampment in SCWG and was filmed by an Air Force PAO camera crew, we can't immediately rush to any sort of conclusion on what is or isn't taking place (solution looking for a problem). I've been guilty myself of jumping to conclusions based upon photos when there's nothing there to see.

I can't speak for anyone else, but what I said was that such materials should avoid bits that could easily be misunderstood by an external audience.  I was already assuming availability of footage was limited.  It doesn't matter what's really happening in such a situation (as long as nothing bad is truly happening), I just think you want to avoid any misunderstanding.  That's the public affairs perspective of it, rather than accusing the wing of failure to enforce the CPP or something big like that.

Did you see if NHQ had a tiny bit of some footage with CAP aircraft, or something like that?  National captures video when possible.

[RickRutledge]

Fair enough. But my inquiries with NHQ have resulted in nothing, so far. It's close enough to the holidays that I expect that the response or available resources may take a week or so to surface. The lack of quality footage is a part of a bigger problem with progress in some of our specialty tracks. Our PAO emphasis is put almost exclusively on print that we're missing the boat on documenting most of our activities. Print isn't dead yet but we really need to make video a priority, as an organization.

[Eclipse]

Considering the couch groove most adolescents live in, too much PT is likely to turn them off, and have them click-through.
I fixated on the push-ups as well and that's where my attention stayed.

As to your fixation on HD - yes, it's always nice to have high-def assets to work with, but your audience will be viewing these mostly
on a 3-6 inch screen on a cellular network.  As long as the videos don't look like Mindcraft, they should be considered viable.

[RickRutledge]

These aren't intended to be for interactive only, though that is one of the distribution platforms, the plan is to make the series of these broadcast quality and you can't get local TV to run anything that isn't HD. The obsession on HD isn't my own it's part of a bigger plan.

[lordmonar]

+1 JC004.

Not getting into your chops Major....not really.   Just giving you feed back that maybe it would be good to drop those 3 seconds.

Also understand that footage may be limited.  And understand that NHQ is sometimes not responsive.   Try the PAO facebook page or even a general request here on CAPTALK for sources of HD film.

Also maybe a general call out to units in your wing with specific scenes you would like filmed and let them do it for you.

[JC004]

Fair enough. But my inquiries with NHQ have resulted in nothing, so far. It's close enough to the holidays that I expect that the response or available resources may take a week or so to surface. The lack of quality footage is a part of a bigger problem with progress in some of our specialty tracks. Our PAO emphasis is put almost exclusively on print that we're missing the boat on documenting most of our activities. Print isn't dead yet but we really need to make video a priority, as an organization.

Talk to Marc Huchette.  He was doing multimedia at national activities.  I think he's doing something else now, but he can point you in the right direction.  See CAP Phone Book on eServices.

[Private Investigator]

From my POV the Cadets doing situps and pushups while other Cadets stand over them appear to be victims of bullying. JMHO.