Making the buckles for my helmet

Friday 30^th September

Process: Making the buckles for my helmet

To make the buckles we got some wire and using our pliers to bend the square shape. After making the shape I cut off the excess wire and got some thermal plastic to make the straps. After cutting the plastic to the right size I heated up the middle section and when it was heated enough I got my wire squares and bent the plastic over one of the bars. If I was going to do it again I would use thinner wire and I wouldn’t heat the plastic up to much.      

Polishing and painting the helmets

Thursday 29^th September

Process: Polishing and painting the helmets

First of all I got some wet & dry sandpaper and started sanding down the helmet using water, once the metal started showing through, I had to dry it. I also had to fill in some holes that were created by air bubbles using filler and hardener. Unfortunately I forgot to Tcut my helmet, but if I were to do it again I world Tcut and wire wool my helmet. After that I primed it ready to be painted using Covent Garden Primer. Then I waited for the primer to dry, before mixing up my colour and paining the helmet 2-3 coats. After the paint was dry I dry brushed some brown onto it in random places and rub it in with my finger to make it look like rust.

Fibre glassing

Tuesday 27^th September

Unit: PROPERTIES &TRANSFORMATION

Demonstration: Fibre glassing

Today we watched how to fibre glass with Andy, so we could make our helmets. First we have to put 2-3 coats of wax and 1 coat of spray wax on the inside of our plastic helmets. Next we mix up the resin with hardener (100g of resin to 1g of hardener), then add the metal pigment. With the resin we painted the inside so it was showing no white; we then left it an hour to dry. Then we have to tear up 2 types of fibreglass (weave and sheet), and mix up the resin again only this time with plain black pigment or no pigment at all. Then starting with one half of the helmet we started to do a layer or weave fibreglass, gradually working round all sides of the helmet, pushing the fibreglass into the resin. After 2-3 layers of the weave fibreglass we went over it with the sheet fibreglass 2-3 times to give it a smooth finish, then let it dry for an hour and cut round the edge so as not to have to saw it later. After it is fully dry we then proceeded to getting it out of the mould. And sanding down the edges.    

Seminar

Monday 26^th September

Unit: PROPERTIES &TRANSFORMATION

Seminar:

In today’s seminar we talked about where we could find research (e.g. books, films, internet, museums etc...) we also talked about looking at pre-war things, because they wouldn’t have had new things during the war. We talked about looking at solders and civilians during the war to get ideas about both sides.

What is a Prop?

Tuesday 20^th September

Unit: PROPERTIES &TRANSFORMATION

Lecture: Props

What is a Prop? A prop is an object handled by the actor or seen on stage or screen that helps tell us the story.

·         Hand props: props that are used in the performance.

·         Hero props: handled by the actor.

·         Set props: just in the background, not handled direct.

·         Consumables: (food/breakages) has to look like the food of the era and be edible, this is also a prop that has to be made over and over again.

·         Special Effects props: (requiring an unusual performance) these have to be rewired if needed or recreated easily.

·         Practical props: ones that will work when needed.

·         Furniture

·         Lights

·         Set dressing props: one that defines the environment.

·         Greens: up to the prop master to look after if real.

·         Costume props: such as bags, swords, guns etc...

·          

Hero and set props have to be perfectly matched to the era you are trying to create if it has a close up on a film. A successful prop fulfils all the criteria that is demanded of it.

Rules for Theatrical Props Making:

There is no correct way to build a prop

·         Props are generally made with little budget.

·         Theatrical props are made cheaply.

·         What they are made for will determine the level of detail that is required.

Props can be hired, bought, borrowed, made etc...

Props Makers – Props Masters

·         The prop makers make.

·         The prop masters manage (and sometimes make props too)

Knowledge of materials and how they behave is crucial for success in prop making.

·         Your knowledge and understanding of the props to build will come from research.

·         Journals will be a record of this: one that I will constantly refer to.

The White Ribbon Film Review

The White Ribbon or Das Weisse Band is a 2009 Austrian-German film, released in black and white, written and directed by Michael Haneke. The story is about a village in Germany just before the First World War, documenting the lives of the family’s that live there. Haneke said, the film is about "the origin of every type of terrorism be it of political or religious nature." To me it doesn't come across that way at all, it just seems like a horrid film about child abuse and there was no reason to make the film in the first place.


The plot of the film was ludicrous because they seemed to dismiss and shrug off everything they had been meaning to find out throughout the film, so you don’t even know who is responsible for everything that’s happened in the village, starting with the doctor coming off this horse, in the end. It was hugely long for a film of that nature and very confusing. The only parts I seemed to like (because they were mildly happy) was the little boy and his bird and the two lovers finally got together in the end (the only happy ending in the film).

 Looking at the way it was filmed is a different matter, it was very cleverly shot, with long scenes of silence that tend to tell more of a story then when the actors are speaking. And for a modern film to be changed to black and white for the whole film is strange to see in days of HD TV and I thought it was done very well (even if still looking a little to modern). All in all I didn’t enjoy this film at all, some parts made me feel ill, and the film was basically pointless because they didn’t finish the plot. I didn’t find it helpful, apart from seeing what they might have had in a home before the war, it didn’t show any of the war or how the village would have been affected during and after the war.  

Life on the Edge of the Trenches

(This is a picture of the couple just
before Aloys went off to war.)

While sent to the village of Poelcapelle to report on the progress in the village, I came across a small farmhouse. In this farmhouse lived Elise and her husband Aloys Geerts, although Aloys has been sent fight in the war. As farmers they are great assets to the war going on around them, food is a main priority to be sent to the town of Yepres, which is the main town where most of the battles are taking place. What they wear on a day to day base is rugged, with patches sewn on. Elise has to make her own clothes; the war has changed woman’s fashion to a huge extent. To make it easier for Elise to work on the farm the hemline of her shirts and dresses have been raised to ankle length. The clothing of Elise is mainly brown, white, green and sometimes blue although Elise had to get the blue ink out of pens to dye the fabric blue. The fabric was mainly cotton, linen and wool. Elise wear’s mainly a white cotton shirt with a brown linen skirt. When I spoke to Elise about how she felt about the war she replied; ‘Wir versuchen, ein glückliches possitive aproch zum Leben zu halten und nicht dann lassen den Krieg auf uns wirken.’ Which means; We try to keep a happy possitive aproch to life rather then letting the war affect us. When walking into the house i sometimes wonder how she can be so happy, its so minimal. Bare wooden floors which are quite rough to walk on, stone walls with nothing on them. Just copper pots and pans sournding the kitchen whith a simple wooden table and chairs. The bedrooms are very basic too, with a simple metal framed bed, and one chest of draws, plain mirror and a stool. All she had to keep warm was a fire in the living room. And she only has a bible to read and two armchairs to sit on. Two things caught my eye while being in the farmhouse, the first was a manel of what to do if a the village is invaded. And also a copy of the wipers times, while reading through the wiper times I was very amused by the fact that they were putting adverts to sell land on Hill 60. They also do the weather report which made me giggle 5 to 1 Mist, 11 to 2 East Wind or Frost, 8 to 1 Chlorine.




Elise has to hire help with tending the farm now her husband has gone to war, with what little money they get from selling their produce. The farm only produces vegetables now for the surrounding towns, because they had to kill off their live stock to sell for meat. Elise still keeps one cow to produce milk for herself. On the last night of my stay Elise made me a wonderful vegetable soup, made with all the vegetables and made the milk she produces into cream to thicken the soup up; it was delicious considering what little she has to work with. I was quite sad to have to say goodbye to Elise and her farm. I wished her well and prayed that her husband would return safe. Unfortunately shortly after I returned to London, I received some upsetting news informing me that Elise’s husband had been killed in action.


I still am in contact with Elise, she is coping quite well considering all she has been through, I think after what I have experienced me and Elise will always be in contact. I have learnt a lot from my time in Flanders, I will never forget the people I have met, the friends I’ve made and the things I’ve seen and the incredibly hard life that people have on the ‘edge of the trenches.’ 

(Elise’s Kitchen)

Briefing: PROPERTIES & TRANSFORMATION

Monday 19^th September

Briefing:

Unit: PROPERTIES &TRANSFORMATION

Today we got our brief for our props making, we will be shown how to make different types of props using different materials. We will then be asked to come up with ideas and research props we could then make ourselves based on World War 1 (The Great War).

Unit: PROPERTIES &TRANSFORMATION

Demonstration: Vacuum forming.

After our brief we had a demonstration of how to vacuum form an English war helmet. Andy showed us how to make the mould first of all. First off you get a square of MDF to place the mould onto, you then drill a hole into the centre of the board and place a stick into which acts as a guild, make sure it can turn around. You then measure how big you want the helmet and draw it onto a piece of paper, cut the paper out and stick it to some plastic. Cut the plastic shape out using a Stanley knife. Peel off the paper and stick the plastic shape to the stick, you are now ready to plaster. Down into the resin room Andy mixed up some plaster and started placing it in the middle of the bored turning the sick with the plastic on, creates the shape of the mould and gets rid of any excess plaster. Leave the plaster to dry, once dry drill some holes round the very edge of the helmet, this will help to release the plastic once vacuumed. Then it is time to form. We each got a big sheet of plastic which we proceeded to cut in half, then using the mould we heated the plastic in the vacuum former and vacuumed it over the helmet. Then we have to get the mould out and cut down the edges. We then had a plastic helmet ready to use as a fibre glassing mould.