Plate

To complete the bread and cheese I bought an enamel plate which I tried to make look used by applying Covent Garden Primer and very light grey paint. When dry I went over it with a Stanley knife to create knife marks and a hit it against a brick wall to damage the edges a little.

Cheese

To make the cheese I used non expandable polystyrene as it is more compact in appearance. Like the bread I carve it to shape but covered it with Idenden instead of PVA. I found, from experimentation (shown in my sketckbook), that if I dab water onto the Idenden surface it creates a lumpy texture with was perfect for the kind of cheese I was trying to replicate. This cheese being     St Marcelin is actually a French cheese so I decide to make another which I know is Belgian, Gouda cheese but when the idenden dried it was too hard to sand down and the texture was all wrong so I am using the St Marcelin in the end and use it as an imported cheese for my narrative. 

To make my bread I used Expandable Polystyrene. I cut it and carved it to an average oval shape adding 3 slits at the top to make it look like baked bread. I sand it down to soften surface then apply PVA with piece of Muslin. I leave to dry and paint over it. When dry I see that the muslin edges are still noticeable so I cover it with Idenden for a more even and harder looking finish then paint over it.

For my narrative I just want a small piece of bread that the farmer ripped off the loaf. To do this I carve a smaller piece of bread, cover it with muslin and PVA but to make the interior part of the bread look doughier I use an electric heater to reduce the foam. 

Polystyrene

There are 2 types of Polystyrene, expandable (white with foamy balls) and non-expandable (yellow). Both can be cut and sand down and are very soft materials therefore they will need to be protected with either:

·         PVA and muslin, applied like paper maché or

·         Artex or Idenden. These are pastes like poly filler, good to add texture if mixed with sand, paint or barque.  If a thick layer is applied they can be as strong as rock and completely flame retardant. When half dry they can be sand down, carved or drilled into.

Polystyrene is easy to carve into and shape but it also reduces when exposed to heat. To glue polystyrene together it is best to use Expanding Foam. This will expand by a 1/3 and is a Polyurethane foam which can be cut and sand down but will not shrink with heat.

Narrative

For my unit I decided that I wanted to create props that would be found in the house. The scene is set late at night in a farmhouse living room. The only source of light is coming from the fireplace and a candle that is placed on a side table next to an armchair. The farm owner has just finished work and sits in his chair to have a late night snack. On the side table he would have his snack and a drink. For the drink I was debating whether to have a warm drink, a spirit, a beer or wine. As the scene is in Belgium I considered the beer and would have put it in a Belgian beer glass or a tankard.

I thought it would be interesting to make a tankard but I preferred the idea of wine. I know that in France men like to have their small glass of red wine with a bit of cheese after work and so that is what I decided to do adapting my narrative bringing this farm closer to France. To help me find design ideas I went around Rochester looking into Antique and charity shops.

To look at cottage interiors and bottles I watched “Un Long Dimanche de Fiançaille”. I noticed that wine bottles were both clear and green but only had cork tops.  I also happen to know from personal experience that French “lower class” would drink red wine and from a small tumbler glass rather than a wine glass. This is also shown in this film (see below centre). To make these I can take a bottle and glass and adapt them. For the bottle I remove the labels with hot soapy water and add a red liquid inside that I make from paint and water.

Now my choice of beverage is finalised I decide to make bread and cheese as the snack. The best way to make these is with Polystyrene. 

Stylising the helmet

When I have painted to base green I go over it with different shades of brown until I am happy with the result. To add more effect I applied talken powder with paint to create a rusty look on the edges.

To make the helmet look more real I need to work on it a bit more. First I “Wet and Dry” sand it with sand paper making sure the paper is very wet at all times. Then go over it with T-Cut as I would with a car to get rid of all deep scratches and I also used iron wool. This results in an even shiny metallic finish. As I want to paint over it I first apply a layer of Covent Garden Primer to help the paint stick.

Brody Helmet

Plastic Mould

To construct a Brody Helmet I must first make a mould in which I will be making the helmet. To do this I need a plaster mould in the shape of the helmet which I sprayed with silicone release agent and put in the Vacuum Former. I then place a piece of Sheet Styren over the mould and switch on the heater.

Once the Sheet Styrene’s surface has gone wavy then straight again I know that it is ready. I then remove the heater, pull the levy up for the plaster mould to go through the sheet styrene. This will then stretch and I press the green button (Mould) to Vacuum. Finally I remove from the plaster mould and cut off the excess plastic making sure I wear protective glasses.

Resin and Fibre Glass Mould

First, whilst wearing the correct Personal Protective Equipement (boiler suit, gloves, mask and glasses at the ready) I must prepare the mould by applying 3 thin layers of Mould Release Wax  by buffing to a nice sheen and allowing to dry inbetween layers. I also need to use spray as a precaution.

When doing a fiberglass mould (wearing all my PPE) I must first do one layer of Gel Coat. To do this I mix 100 parts Gel Coat to 1 part Catalyst (hardener) here I will be using 100g of gel coat and 1g of catalyst. I mix quickly and thourougly before it goes off. I then add metal powder to add a metalic sheen. I use enough for the metalic effect to come through but not too much so that it is not too thick.

When ready I paint the mixture in the inside of my plastic mould making a layer of 2-3mm thick. I then leave to dry for 1 to 2 hours. The surface should be soft but not wet.

Before starting the Lay-up I must tear up pieces of Fibre glass matt and Fibre glass tissue so that they are ready and I don’t have to do it when my lay-up is hardening. I then mix up Lay-up resin gel and Catalyst 100:1 by weight (100g lay-up, 1g Catalyst) and less than 5% black pigment.

I first paint one layer of the mixture into the mould and carefuly place the pieces of fibre glass matt then push them into the first layer with the paint brush by dabbing making sure not to brush as this will drag the strands around. I repeat this process again with the fibre glass tissue to add a neat finish.

I now leave this to dry for about 2 hours although the drying speed depends on the temperature of the room. I wait until the texture is “cheesy” so that I can easily cut off the edges with a stanley knife rather than leaving it over night and have to cut it off with a hacksaw. When the edge is removed I leave to set a little longer and remove (with great struggle) from the mould.

My resin and fibre glass mould is now complete.

Properties and Transformation

For this project I have been asked to create Props that would reflect how villagers and farmers from Flanders, in Belgium, would maintain normal lives during the hardship of World War One. To help us with this we watched films such as “The White Ribbon” by Michael Haneke, ”Oh What A Lovely War” by Richard Attenborough, “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Lewis Milestone, “Jules Et Jim” by Francois Truffaut, “My Boy Jack” by Brian Kirk and “Un Long Dimanche de Fiançaille” (A Very Long Engagement) by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. These films having been set during the WW1 all have appropriate scenery, costumes and props. To start off our project we created a Brody Helmet out of Resin and Fibre Glass.

Oh what a lovely war!

Richard Attenborough's interpretation of the 1963 musical by Joan Littlewood, is an accusation of war never relying on violence or sudden brutal deaths. It is so unpretentious it shames all use of fake heroism and vanity. It doesn’t lessen or belittle the ones who took part but brilliantly underlines the collective stupidity that made such a mass slaughter possible. Oh What a Lovely War is a brilliantly written film, combining both symbolic irony and English humour.

The opening scene takes place in a wrought iron building where diplomats of the world are attending a gala. The guests comport themselves with all the social rules of higher rank and propriety until they break out in argument over which nation is the best.

The film uses symbolism throughout. The declaration of war is shown by a photographer taking a picture of the upper class. He hands two red poppies to the Archduke Ferdinand and his wife and as the flash goes off they both drop dead. The wrought iron room is used theatrically for both galas and diplomatic manoeuvres, for example when the generals walk over a giant map of the world or when they discuss tactics with audible gun shots and warfare in the background.

A strong metaphorical representation is used when a band is playing in the streets rallying people from Brighton beach and leads them towards the pier that has World War 1 in lights at the front. The scene is very optimistic and joyful and we see the Smith family buying tickets from a general and walking onto the pier in a way that they are entering life during the war.

Another use of symbolic is when the scene takes place at the theatre and a row of pretty young girls are encouraging the young men to volunteer for the army. They appeal to the men by patriotically singing “We don’t want to lose you, but we think you ought to go”. Maggie Smith then appears as a stage dancer in single spotlight looking attractive and desirable. She lures the men to come and sign up using appealing lyrics like “On Saturday I’m willing, if you’ll only take the shilling, to make a man of any one of you”. The boys are seduced and slowly all walk up on stage. Everybody is cheering for them and they look like brave heroes. As soon as they arrive on stage they see Maggie Smith covered in make-up and they start to think that things may not be what they seem. Once they are all backstage, the pretty girls have disappeared and they are left with a strict and brutal general. This is when everybody realises that reality is much different and the war is not attractive or appealing.

Throughout 1915 and 1916 the scenes are much darker. We see many shots of parading wounded men in torrential rain illustrating endless stream of grim and hopeless faces. The scenes are smoky or wet; the colours are browns, greys and khakis. The women’s costumes back at Brighton are dirty, darker colours, clothes that would be worn for work or by the lower class and not the pretty mousseline and white lace from the beginning.  “The Bells Of Hell Go Ting-a-Ting”, “If The Sergeant Steals Your Rum, Never Mind” and “Hanging On The Barbed Wire” capture the mood of despair and the miserable conditions look more like the gritty realistic portrayal of war rather than a hyperbolic musical. The only colour is the red from the poppies which are handed out to the soldiers who one by one end up dead confirming the poppy’s symbolic of death. The enthusiasm of the earlier days have long gone and been forgotten. Still the English humour remains when we see the general exit his quarters by sliding down the swirly slide.

The ending scene is particularly moving. As the armistice bell rings we see that last of the Smith boys is running in full uniform through thick smoke. The scene slowly changes as the smoke gets thinner and his costume gets lighter until he is in a sunny field wearing his own clothes. A blurry shot of red seems to be blood all over the floor until we realise they are poppies out of focus. The shot changes to the Smith girls having a picnic and we see the boy appearing behind them. At first, the audience thinks this is a reunion scene until we realise the girls cannot see the boy and he walks over to take his place on the floor with his comrades who are happily sleeping in the sun. A bird’s eye view in long slow pan then shows the girls walk through millions of white crosses as the sound of dead soldiers sing “We’ll Never Tell Them”.

The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke

The White Ribbon is an enticingly sinister drama set in north Germany just before the First World War. Filmed in black and white, it tells the tales of the habitants of a small village where everybody has a status and everything seems fine. However a series of atrocious events upset there disciplined lifestyles revealing this illusionary facade and disrupts the social order. First the doctor falls off  his horse as it trips over wire then the farmer’s wife dies in an accident in the sawmill making the son accuse the baron and ruins his cabbage patch. This leads to the baron ending his funding of the farm and the father disowning the son.  A barn is then set on fire and children are found beaten and tortured. The entire plot is focused on the mystery of these crimes and keeps the viewer guessing.

The white ribbon is primarily a representation of realism. The shots are limited to close-up, medium long shot and long shot to only show what is going on and where rather than trying to create dramatic effects. The shots are often elongated for unconventional long periods of time to enhance the drama or stillness of the scene. For example when a little boy is looking for his sister in the house late at night the camera is in one position and does not move letting the boy come in and out of the shot while he looks into rooms. This makes the viewer uneasy as it creates that sense of impatience one feels when they are looking for someone and at the same time it builds up the feeling of dread that he will fall into a disturbing situation when he finally finds his sister.

I believe that there is no such thing as pure realism as it is merely the object of perception. One person may watch this film and be horrified when another may absolutely love it. Perception is unique to every individual and is moulded by the senses which filter and distort existing absolute reality into the internal representation creating intrapersonal reality through language and culture. In this film there is a total lack of music which plays a crucial part in this unique representation of reality as music sets the mood. Here the viewer is at liberty to feel however he likes.