Talk with filmmaker Bruce C McKenna by replying to this post.

Bruce -

Fantastic first episode and a great start to the series. I was wondering who served as the military and historical advisers on the set and how they interacted within the writing, production and editing processes. The attention to detail was impressive and with so few WWII veterans to serve as primary sources it must have made getting the exacting details you've achieved a challenge.

Thanks

Drew

Bruce, you worked for more than 7 years on this miniseries. How did you feel after Sunday's premiere?

Bruce the dialog was so natural between the characters. What research do you do to create such layered dialog? What's the difference between focusing on the big picture story and honing in on the intimate dialog between two characters?

Bruce,
How do you write dialogue around real life situations/events? Thank you!

1. Bruce - Fantastic first episode and a great start to the series. I was wondering who served as the military and historical advisers on the set and how did they interact within the writing, production and editing processes. The attention to detail was impressive and with so few WWII veterans to serve as primary sources it must have made getting the exacting details you've achieved a challenge.
- Drew, MakingOf Forums

Thanks! If you think Episode One was fantastic, wait 'til Two! Our military advisor was Dale Dye, a retired Marine Corps Captain who served in Vietnam and has worked on a lot of Hollywood productions, including Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers. Our Historical Consultant was Hugh Ambrose, Steven Ambrose's son, who helped me find the three main characters and provided me and all the writers REAMS of historical data. Hugh also wrote the companion book to the Series, "The Pacific." Richard Frank and Don Miller, two of the Pacific Theater's most prominent historians, consulted with us during the editing process and gave their suggestions, which were very helpful.

Both Dale and Hugh vetted every script, Dale from the perspective of the combat Marine (tactics, language, etc), and Hugh from the perspective of historical accuracy and faithfulness to real characters. Both were on set to keep us honest. And Dale handled all the military extras and helped to choreograph many of the battle sequences for the directors. But you should know that we interviewed literally dozens of surviving vets who served, either with the main characters, or near them, to make sure that we got things as authentic as possible. And I had a couple of WW2 vets read the scripts to give me more insight into things like combat, etc. Hope you enjoy the rest of the show

2. Bruce, you worked for more than 7 years on this miniseries, which is an amazing accomplishment. Congratulations! How did you feel after Sunday's premiere?
- Christine, MakingOf Forums

How'd I feel? Wow! Relieved...worried...depressed, exalted. Proud. Anxious. I felt it all! A big part of my life just came to an end. Remember college? Double that and that's about how long I worked on this. It's funny. We had a really big snowstorm Sunday night where I live...and so my cable was out: I couldn't watch it!

But overall I am very proud and thankful that it all worked out. It's a bit like baking a cake. You assemble all the ingredients...whip'em together and stuff it in the oven. It comes out...you think it looks good, but you won't know until your guests taste it...and then it's too late (for those of you film savvy readers...I stole that from Excalibur).

3. Bruce the dialog was so natural between the characters. What research do you do to create such layered dialog? What's the difference between focusing on the big picture story and honing in on the intimate dialog between two characters?
Jen, MakingOf Forums

Good question. You can have a really well structured and researched story, but if your dialogue is cheesy...you're dead. So you have to craft dialogue that is meaningful and authentic to the time. The only way to get a handle on it is to read a lot of period books and watch period movies. What's interesting about the 30s and 40s is that so much of culture was transmitted through film. Everyone went to the movies. A lot of people (particularly teenage boys -- who ended up in the Armed Services) learned how to talk from the movies. So it's not inaccurate to have a bit of "hollywood" in people's speech patterns. But the main thing is to interview as many guys still living and listen to the cadences in their voices. As for the difference between "Big Picture" and intimate dialogue? Well, if you're "in the zone" as they say, they will mutually reinforce each other. Good dialogue stands on its own...but also informs the viewers about character and bigger things like the theme of the piece.

4. Bruce, How do you write dialogue around real life situations/events?
- Harks, MakingOf Forum

This is a good corollary question. The answer is research, research, research. Working seven years on this monster was difficult, but one of the advantages is that I was so steeped in the period, the characters, the stories, etc. that actually many times the dialogue seemed to simply write itself. And I should add that ALL of the writers on the Series immersed themselves. Even though I have sole credit on Episode One, Tom Hanks, Graham Yost, and the Director Tim Van Patten improved on my words on many occasions. They, too, benefitted from all our research, including thousands of pages of transcripts from interviews with veterans.

5. Who was your technical adviser? The second thing we saw, in the voice-over about the Pearl Harbor attack, was a flight of Japanese Nell bombers. The Nell was a Japanese Air Force plane, There were no Nells at Pearl. The attack force was comprised exclusively of carrier aircraft.
- Joseph, “The Pacific” Facebook Fan Page

See Answer #1. As for the image of the Nell bomber in the prologue...perhaps that was meant to be the Philippines or somewhere else the Japanese attacked on December 7th. I hope you forgive the few (hopefully minor!) mistakes that will inevitably crop up. Things happen, especially on a production this big. Whatever mistakes were made are the sole responsibility of the Producers (that includes me). So don't blame the technical advisor.

I have several questions.

Firstly, Mr McKenna, why were the following scenes cut from the first episode?

Leckie and Chuckler have set up their machine gun on the bank of a stagnant creek. On the other side is a coconut planatation. Vouza makes a bird whistle, and there's an answering whistle from the other side of the creek, then a dozen islanders and a Scotsman named Martin Clemens, step out from behind the coconut trees. They are "Coastwatchers" who are helping the Americans by spying on the activities of the Japanese on the island. The Americans give them rice to eat.

Leckie is shivering with a malarial fever, and Chuckler says he should go back to the hospital, but Leckie says they'd just send him right back. Chuckler says his mother used to make cabbage soup when he was sick, and Leckie says his mother ignored him when he was sick.

Do you have any power over the matter or is it the editor of the series that has the final say? I really believe that the first axed scene mentioned here could have really helped explain the prelude to the Battle of the Tenaru and really would have paid homage to the indispensable contributions made by the coast-watchers to war effort during World War Two which is unfortunately mostly ignored by the general public. Sergeant Major Vouza's story before the battle and his part in it is also extraordinary. Then again, I have not read HFMP yet and therefore not sure when Leckie did come across the coast-watchers. No matter what, it would have been nice though for someone to mention the intelligence they had received from Vouza about an imminent attack on the Alligator Creek before the battle.

Why was the episode so short? The whole episode really felt rushed and I believe many people feel the same way. Again, do you have any power over this matter?

Why was there a close-up scene of Leckie at Cape Gloucester in the pouring rain at the end? That scene really felt so incongruous and funny.

Did anyone complain about the M1903A3s during the shooting of the Guadalcanal scenes? To be honest, they kind of ruin the episode for me and many people feel the same way too. It's understandable if the production couldn't obtain any M1903 Springfields but man they just seem so out of place. It's akin to shooting scenes of Marines with M16A4s during the Vietnam War.

Why weren't some facts included at the end of the episode before the credits?

Thank you.

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