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Frequently Asked Questions
Why are you offering your programming for free on YouTube?
Very simple, Paul Woodadge the creator and filmmaker at WW2TV wants high quality WW2 content to be available to anyone with an internet connection. History belongs to everyone. In his previous career as a Tour Guide offering private tours Paul would have maybe 200 clients a year, and those people would have had the funds to both travel to Normandy and hire a guide. With WW2TV the potential audience is millions!
How will you fund the channel if the content is free?
Paul has given up his previous job as a battlefield guide to commence this project. It might have been possible to build this service very slowly in his spare time, but after lots of thought, Paul eventually decided to leap in fully to bringing exciting new WW2 content to the many battlefield fans around the World. Essentially this TV / Video service will require his complete dedication and commitment and that means working without an income. In order to fund the channel Paul is inviting and encouraging support via the Patreon system. Contributions are voluntary, no-one is obligated to pay. Paul hopes however that people will understand the situation and offer something towards meeting his running costs and eventually allowing the service to grow.
Why is WW2TV different, surely there are lots of documentaries available already?
Yes there are lots of films and documentaries already available, and what are these programmes like? What does a typical modern documentary have? We've all seen them, they have talking heads, veteran interviews, computer graphics, 3D cutaway footage, wartime clips, recreated battles with re-enactors and lots of explosions and dizzying effects. Our films will NOT be like that. Here are our reasons:
How many videos, films and programs will be available?
A typical 20 minute film requires at least 2 days to film and several days to edit. The aim is to produce and upload around 2 to 4 films of brand new content each month. With more subscribers and patrons, better and faster equipment more content can be created.
What type of films are you going to make?
The focus will be on bringing the WW2 battlefields directly to you wherever you are in the World. Conventional documentaries are often wonderful but are typically filmed at just a few locations. Our aim is to shoot each location from multiple angles. So, for example for a film about someone who landed on Omaha beach on June 6th 1944: it will be shot in the surf, from prone on the sand, ducked behind the shingle, across the bluffs, through the hedgerows and around the Normandy farms. You will see where the German weapons were situated and all these sequences will be edited together with a commentary to tell a story. The films will quite take you step by step across the battlefields. The footage will be in HD and mostly taken with a camera on a stabilizing gimbal. They will look professional with titles and some sound effects, but WW2TV is not attempting to compete with expensive documentaries with symphonic scores, green-screen sequences and computer graphics. The films will incorporate some WW2 footage and photos, but not as filler and only where appropriate. For example in Crossing the Elle River, the enemy unit was the 352nd Infantry Division and there are almost no Normandy images of that unit in existence. The easy solution would be to grab any of footage of any old German units on the "no-one will notice" principle, but that's not going to be the policy at WW2TV. Instead it will primarily be the battlefields themselves that provide most of the content.
In addition to the battlefield films WW2TV wants to reach out and interview WW2 historians and authors. Put them on camera and have them tell their favorite war stories. Let them show us battlefields too, see their collections and preserve their knowledge. For more information please visit the Authors and Historians page.
Also, down the line the intention is to film at WW2 events, festivals, re-enactments, ceremonies and conferences. Bringing WW2 to the homes of everyone, especially those that cannot travel.
Where will you be filming?
To start with, WW2TV will focus on Normandy and elsewhere in France where Paul Woodadge and many of his friends live. There are hundreds of locations here that have never been filmed and with them being on our doorstep it will be easy to film. Then further down the line: Arnhem, Bastogne, Dieppe? Then who knows? In the future, Iwo Jima and Stalingrad. Our ambitions are to film as many battlefields as we can before they change forever.
Very simple, Paul Woodadge the creator and filmmaker at WW2TV wants high quality WW2 content to be available to anyone with an internet connection. History belongs to everyone. In his previous career as a Tour Guide offering private tours Paul would have maybe 200 clients a year, and those people would have had the funds to both travel to Normandy and hire a guide. With WW2TV the potential audience is millions!
How will you fund the channel if the content is free?
Paul has given up his previous job as a battlefield guide to commence this project. It might have been possible to build this service very slowly in his spare time, but after lots of thought, Paul eventually decided to leap in fully to bringing exciting new WW2 content to the many battlefield fans around the World. Essentially this TV / Video service will require his complete dedication and commitment and that means working without an income. In order to fund the channel Paul is inviting and encouraging support via the Patreon system. Contributions are voluntary, no-one is obligated to pay. Paul hopes however that people will understand the situation and offer something towards meeting his running costs and eventually allowing the service to grow.
Why is WW2TV different, surely there are lots of documentaries available already?
Yes there are lots of films and documentaries already available, and what are these programmes like? What does a typical modern documentary have? We've all seen them, they have talking heads, veteran interviews, computer graphics, 3D cutaway footage, wartime clips, recreated battles with re-enactors and lots of explosions and dizzying effects. Our films will NOT be like that. Here are our reasons:
- Veteran interviews - in terms of WW2 - this resource is finite, soon the Greatest Generation will be gone. Filmmakers will have to use alternatives to interviews with participants.
- WW2 Footage - of course WW2TV will use some period footage, but only if applicable and not as filler. There's nothing more frustrating than seeing the same old clips, used wrongly. Clips from the wrong campaign, year or battle are annoying!
- 3D graphics and maps - essentially our budget will not be able to cover this, but what did the actual men of WW2 have to guide them? Maps, their eyes and the ground. We will use some wartime maps and aerial photos overlayed with arrows, Google Earth images and primarily the real battlefields to tell our stories. You will be on the ground with the troops, seeing what they saw, as they saw it. Yes, some places have changed, but many haven't.
- Battle re-enactments - although eye-catching and exciting, knowledgeable viewers end up focusing on errors in uniform and the mistakes rather than the story.
How many videos, films and programs will be available?
A typical 20 minute film requires at least 2 days to film and several days to edit. The aim is to produce and upload around 2 to 4 films of brand new content each month. With more subscribers and patrons, better and faster equipment more content can be created.
What type of films are you going to make?
The focus will be on bringing the WW2 battlefields directly to you wherever you are in the World. Conventional documentaries are often wonderful but are typically filmed at just a few locations. Our aim is to shoot each location from multiple angles. So, for example for a film about someone who landed on Omaha beach on June 6th 1944: it will be shot in the surf, from prone on the sand, ducked behind the shingle, across the bluffs, through the hedgerows and around the Normandy farms. You will see where the German weapons were situated and all these sequences will be edited together with a commentary to tell a story. The films will quite take you step by step across the battlefields. The footage will be in HD and mostly taken with a camera on a stabilizing gimbal. They will look professional with titles and some sound effects, but WW2TV is not attempting to compete with expensive documentaries with symphonic scores, green-screen sequences and computer graphics. The films will incorporate some WW2 footage and photos, but not as filler and only where appropriate. For example in Crossing the Elle River, the enemy unit was the 352nd Infantry Division and there are almost no Normandy images of that unit in existence. The easy solution would be to grab any of footage of any old German units on the "no-one will notice" principle, but that's not going to be the policy at WW2TV. Instead it will primarily be the battlefields themselves that provide most of the content.
In addition to the battlefield films WW2TV wants to reach out and interview WW2 historians and authors. Put them on camera and have them tell their favorite war stories. Let them show us battlefields too, see their collections and preserve their knowledge. For more information please visit the Authors and Historians page.
Also, down the line the intention is to film at WW2 events, festivals, re-enactments, ceremonies and conferences. Bringing WW2 to the homes of everyone, especially those that cannot travel.
Where will you be filming?
To start with, WW2TV will focus on Normandy and elsewhere in France where Paul Woodadge and many of his friends live. There are hundreds of locations here that have never been filmed and with them being on our doorstep it will be easy to film. Then further down the line: Arnhem, Bastogne, Dieppe? Then who knows? In the future, Iwo Jima and Stalingrad. Our ambitions are to film as many battlefields as we can before they change forever.