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From
The Times Online
http://www.timesonline.co.uk
Movie men add special
effects to media war From David Charter Camp As Sayliyah, Doha
March 11, 2003
THE Pentagon has enlisted
Hollywood to help to present its daily briefings to the world. Fresh from the
latest Michael Douglas film, one of Tinseltown's top art directors has been hired
to create a $200,000 (,000) set for General Tommy Franks and other American commanders
to give daily updates.
George Allison, 43, who
has designed White House backdrops for President Bush and worked with the illusionist
David Blaine, has been flown into the US Central Command base in Qatar as part
of a reputed $1 million (,000) conversion of a storage hangar into a high-tech
hub for the international media.
Mr Allison's credits
include the set for ABC's Good Morning America as well as Hollywood productions
for MGM and Disney such as the Kirk and Michael Douglas film It Runs in the Family,
due to be released next month.
His work in Qatar reflects
the Pentagon's realisation that it needs to look good on prime-time television,
especially given public disquiet about the war, which is being led by some Hollywood
personalities such as Martin Sheen, Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon.
Gone are the easel and
chart, solitary television and VCR machine with which General Norman Schwarzkopf
showed fuzzy images of smart-bomb raids during the 1991 Gulf War. On a set that
will become instantly recognisable, generals will present updates from two podiums
at the front of a stage adorned with five 50in plasma screens and two 70in television
projection screens ready to show maps, graphics and videos of action. Behind them
will be a soft-focus elongated map of the world, as if to suggest that the world
is united behind them. The set was built in Chicago and reputedly shipped over
by Federal Express at a cost of $47,000 (000).
Besides looking good on
television, the presentation conveys another message; that American technology
is second to none and far outclasses anything possessed by the Iraqis, who will
be watching the briefings on the Arab broadcaster al-Jazeera.
President Saddam Hussein's
generals are likely to present their updates in Baghdad at a table in front of
their national flag. The technology gulf will be part of a psychological campaign
abetted by the media, which is here in droves. US military planners have ensured
that their footage will be instantly available in the eight most common video
formats.
Mr Allison said: This
is about bringing the level of technology up from the flipchart to the modern
age. It is trying to send a clear message about the technology and our use of
it.
Not all is running smoothly.
Organisers have discovered that they are several hundred telephone lines short.
Nor is the spirit of openness towards the media unrestricted: photographs of the
set are banned.
ENDS
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