Visit to the Imperial war museum and the V and A.

The imperial war museum was founded in 1917 during the war; it was intended for records of the war effort and the sacrifices made by the British Empire. When I went to the museums I had a completely fresh mind as to what I wanted to create for this unit. The Imperial War Museum proved to be rich with reliable resources and inspiration for this World War 1 project, particularly from a props perspective. I walked out of the museum in a different mindset. The museum displayed artefacts from WW1 and recreated objects in scenes such as submarine bunkers. They also displayed a few civilian passports and passports used by Belgian, British and French soldiers.

When it came to finding specific sources for world war 1 the v and a proved to be of little use, however, I did find a few references to furnishings that British civilians would have had in and around their homes. Below is an example of 1910’s interior design for a cottage and also a dated 1913 lamp that would have been hung on the walls inside the house.

It was after seeing these artefacts and recreated scenes that the idea of having a narrative in which I could work from arose. I was seeing all these different stories being told to me of civilians and soldiers, this is when I decided to develop my own story.

Narrative

 In Ypres lives a small but young family; Jean Bernard, Marguerite Bernard and Jacques Bernard. Jean Bernard (French) met Marguerite Bernard (Belgian) through a family friend, they married in 1908 and Jean moved to Ypres where marguerite’s family lived as that was what was agreed upon with marguerites father. Jean’s occupation was a photographer; he inherited his father’s business after his death and took the business with him from France. Immediately after they were married Jacques was born. Marguerite’s father was an architect and Jeans father had a very successful photography business, and although they did not completely rely on their parent’s wealth they weren’t extremely wealthy, they were comfortable with trying to make their own living. Marguerite remained a house wife whilst jean continued to develop his business throughout the years Jacques was growing up. They lived in a comfortable size house in a wealthy to working class area of Ypres. When war was declared Jean went to war and had no choice but to close his business. Jacques was only 6 when his father went to war.

By creating this narrative I could select certain objects to make that would relate to the story and the characters such as a camera that belonged to the father, Jean Bernard.

Research into the narrative

 The city of Ypres in west Flanders played host to some of the most destructive and harrowing scenes of WW1, there were 4 major battles, these first began on October 19^th 1914. The fifth and last battle ended on October 2^nd 1918, this last battle was the most famous being named ‘The battle of Ypres’. Over 1,700,000 soldiers on both sides were killed or wounded throughout these five battles and an uncounted number of civilians. Over the five battles the city was dragged back and forth in ownership between the two sides. The city was subject to poison gas attacks from the Germans, months of endless fighting, and artillery fire. During the course of the war the town was all but eradicated. Ypres Society, Civilians and architecture was driven into the ground. In the mist of all the fighting Ypres was one of the sites that hosted a Christmas Truce in 1914 between German and British soldiers.

Film Reviews.

The White Ribbon.

 

The white ribbon is a film set between 1913-1914 in a religious village in Germany; it is directed by Michael Haneke, an Austrian film director. It was made in 2009 and since then had gained great media coverage and has been an award winning film. Overall the film was very disturbing as it included themes of mistreatment of children, greed, power and death. The credits at the beginning of the film were foreboding and sinister, they were very slow which seemed painful to watch. This put myself and others in a nervous disposition; I believe the overall effect of the few starting minutes was the director foreshadowing the events that follow. All the characters were realistic and very believable even the youngest of the characters, a big contrast to the films and television we are exposed to today. A possible drama practioner reference would be the work of Stanislavsky. Within the first 20 minutes of this film you could recognize there was a clear a hierarchy and a large difference between the sexes and the way they were treated. For example, whenever the children were outside playing, the boys were always allowed to run ahead, the girls had to walk in a certain way in a line, behind the boys, the girls never played the way children today would throughout the whole of the film. Throughout this film there were long pauses of silence, this distilled the moment and created tension between the action.

OH! What a lovely war.

In1969, David Attenborough directed oh what a lovely war. It was originally a theatre production, you can tell it was due to the way Attenborough directed it. It is directed in the style of a stage play, the sets particularly scream out his quality. The film focuses on the contrast of life at home and on the front during the war for British people. The biggest theme in the film is symbolism. The rug in the grand room represents the world and all the countries at war. Emotions, actions and the history of the war all represented by symbolism in this film.

All quiet on the western front.

In the 1930’s all quiet on the western front was directed by Lewis milestone. This film is set in the trenches during world war one and shows different stories from either side. It shows the true horrors of war and what it did to the men at the front, this film showed this quality stronger than the other films we had watched. The reason for this could possibly be because the time that it was made was shortly after the First World War; this would mean that the atmosphere and the memories of the war would be fresh in the minds of the soldiers and people at home.

Jules ET Jim.

In 1962 this film was directed by François Truffaut. The film is set in Paris during the outbreak of World War 1. The film focuses on the love triangle of two best friends called Jules and Jim and a woman called Catherine. This was less about the war and more about the effect that the war would have on relationships; due to this the film was useful for references to costume and props rather than historical references.

My boy Jack.

My boy jack is David Haig’s 2007 made film about the famous writer and speaker Rudyard Kipling’s son. The story focuses on Jack and his difficulty getting into the army and his battles through the war and also how his family at home is coping with him not being there. This film displays the most current style of costume, set and props and way of directing, in other words, this film is very ‘Hollywood’. This is useful as we can see what film makers of today would expect to be made in terms of props set and costume for the film.

Jean Bernard’s camera...The box brownie camera.

Jean Bernard’s camera...The box brownie camera.

 Other cameras dating back to that time were beautiful and designed with meticulous hand, however, these cameras would have been too complex and fragile with all the brass fittings to be taken to war. Although a professional photographer would have had an expensive and advanced camera, it would have been impractical for Jean to take this to war. He would need a much sturdier camera that would sustain being carried around in a bag, moved and dropped a number of times. IT also had to be cheap and light. A box brownie would suit this purpose, its hard shell is a box, which would have fitted nicely in a bag and would have sustained being dropped. With the added handle it would have been easy to carry around. The model Jean would have had would have been the most recent box brownie in production as he would have had it supplied to him first before he went to war. The Box brownie used would have been a No. 2, Model D Box Brownie. Box Brownie started production in 1914 and continued production through the First World War. This brownie model had A, B, and C produced before, the Model E was introduced in 1919.

Model I am going to attempt to make.

Final Outcome.

• First step is to measure out the sizes of the 4 sides of the camera and draw the rectangles on to a 3mm sheet of MDF.

·         The second step is to cut out a rectangular shape out of poly urethane.

·         Stick the four rectangles of MDF to the four sides of the poly urethane.

·         Fill in any gaps around the edges with poly filler, once dry, sand down.

·         measure the inside area of the front and the overall area of the back, draw the shapes on to MDF and cut out the shapes for the front of the camera and the back.

·         Draw all the accessories out on the box and drill and cut out the necessary holes and slits.

·         Cover the box tightly in leather.

·         Score the lines that are the detail on the leather on with a ruler.

·         Carve the grommets into the size circles needed for the three lenses.

·         Carve the lenses for the three holes and stick in.

·         Makes the turning key for the outside out of MDF, Grommets and a radiator key.

·         Cut out rectangle lenses for the two rectangle holes and glue in.

·         Cut out the handle and sand down, use two screws to attach to the box.

·         Apply the necessary paint and stand down.

Belgian bread and cheese, re-created.

Belgian bread and cheese, re-created.

 Our task was to create a Belgian bread and cheese out of poly urethane. First task was to research and choose what bread and cheese I was going to make. The most common bread that would fit into my narrative would be a home-made loaf. The cheese I selected as it was from west Flanders, this is where Ypres is located. The cheese is called Blue de gand cheese. I chose this not only for where the cheese came from but because of the look of the cheese. blue cheese is very interesting with it mix of colours and texture I thought it would be interesting to see if I could mimic these colours and texture with poly urethane.

·         First step is to carve out a blog of PU and draw the shape of your bread and cheese onto the flat surface.

·         The second step is to carve out the bread and cheese into its basic shape.

·         The third step is to sand down the shape till the surfaces match those of the cheese and bread.

·         You can choose whither to do this or not, but to add a smooth texture you add a layer of muslin to the surface using a mixture of watered down wood glue.

·         The fifth step is to add in the small aspects of the detail such as dents and texture of the cheese.

·         The sixth step is to paint the cheese and bread as realistically as you can. On top of my bread and cheese I sprinkled talcum powder to give a flour dusted finish to the objects.

A British soldier’s helmet, re-created.

A British soldier’s helmet, re-created.