World War 1 research - What did they wear?

I want to get a complete overview on what life was like for a villager in World War 1 so I am researching every aspect of their lives. This will hopefully make it easier for me to find a narrative and enable me to make more realistic props. 


As women had jobs during World War 1, they began mixing with other social classes and as a result dress codes began to relax.
Before the war women's dresses were long (to the floor) but as the war dawned, women's dresses got shorter because no fabric was being produced and it was more practical.

Woman at work making munitions

From watching "The White Ribbon" I found that the farming men dressed in smart black or brown trousers, white shirt that is usually rolled up at the sleeves and sometimes a waistcoat. The women dressed in plain long, high necked dresses that covered the arms. The children mainly wore the same as the adults. 

Farming costumes from The White Ribbon. 

 

Children's boots

World War 1 research - Around the home

As the brief requires us to make props to show how villagers from near the trenches continued with their lives, these will be from working class families.
Most commonly, occupants in a village home would be farmers as their produce was in high demand from soldiers and because of rationing.

The kitchen - Was the heart of the home. It was quite basic for a working class family, with a small coal fired stove and maybe a cabinet and shelves.

Families ate cheap cuts of meat in their meals, but rationing began and so meat was rare to get. Some families came close to starvation during World War 1. Dried oats were ate quite a lot as you can make them in large batches and store for ages. Pieces of bread with warm milk was also a common meal. 

Bathroom - Poor families did not have a toilet indoors; they would have to go outside where the toilet would be in a small shed. There would be a small tin bath that would be filled with hot water heated on the stove in pots. 

Bedrooms - Would also be small, with many to one room. Sometimes, four- six people would share a double bed in really poor families.  

Farming family's home in WW1.

• The whole house would be heated by a fireplace downstairs. As production stopped and nobody had money during WW1, walls would be peeling with paint and wooden floors would be uneven and dusty. Some houses had gas lighting, but a poor family would have lit their house with candlelight. 

This family also had extended family living with them.

World War 1 research - How the war started

I thought I'd start my research by looking at how World War 1 actually started...

• Archduke Franz Ferdinand (heir to Austro-Hungarian throne) assassinated on 28th June 1914. 

• Ferdinand was killed by a Serbian nationalist secret society and Austria-Hungary wanted to stamp its authority on Serbia by bringing the assassins to justice and crushing the nationalist movement. 

• Serbia had ties with Russia and Austria-Hungary knew this. Austria-Hungary asked for Germany's help if Russia decided to declare war on Austria-Hungary (not thinking this would actually happen).

Austro-Hungarian flag in 1914

•  Austria-Hungary unsatisfied with Serbia's response to their threats declared war on Serbia on 28th July 1914.

Russian flag in 1914

• Russia, bound by treaty to Serbia then mobilises its army 

German flag

• Germany, bound by treaty to Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia on 1st August 1914

French flag

• France, allied to Russia found itself at war with Germany and Austria-Hungary

British flag

• Britain, allied to France declared war against Germany on 4th August 1914. Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa offer their military and financial assistance to Britain. 

Japanese flag

• After a military agreement with Britain, Japan declared war on Germany on 23rd August 1914. 

Oh! What A Lovely War

On Monday we watched Oh! What a lovely war (directed by Richard Attenborough.) This film is based on a musical about the First World War and I vaguely remember going to see a production of this at my secondary school nine years ago.

I really like how this film has a light hearted, upbeat nature throughout, contradicting the horrible events that are taking place around the characters.

The film opens with stills of World War 1 artefacts e.g. guns, grenades, helmets, badges etc. which I found useful in terms of research for this project.

The audience then sees what looks to me like a set from stage with white arches and white tables & chairs. There is a world map on the floor where the characters from different countries stand on and discuss whether to go to war. The story is constantly brought back to this room, symbolising higher authority and where important decisions are made.

This film has very much kept its theatrical roots with its enthusiasm, songs and even the set which I think makes this film quite effective.

I thought the way that the war was being compared to a funfair was very effective, again tying in with the light hearted nature but devastating events. A scene where “World War One” is written in lights, like the entrance to a funfair. The characters all cheer and queue up to enter it as if it were a funfair. Each game or ride in this funfair symbolises something sinister happening in the war e.g. a man is playing a game where you shoot cardboard men behind a stool, the viewer then sees this man shooting at real men from a trench.

We also see children watching a puppet show about the war, but then real soldiers are on a carousel and are shot down. I think the combination of things associated with children mixed with warfare really hits home with the audience, making the film’s point more devastating.

I found costumes interesting in this film as the men in trenches wore dull earthy colours e.g. khaki and brown but at home in England characters wore pastel colours; the rich characters wore elaborate costumes e.g. full length tasselled dresses with fur shawls and headdresses. As the war progresses the characters at home wear darker clothes as they realise somebody they know has died during the war.

I like the use of an almost mysterious character throughout the film as he crops up as minor characters e.g. the photographer at the start of the film, a soldier and a waiter. He observes what is happening, but narrates to the viewer. I also got the impression that he knew what was going to happen before the characters did making him an interesting addition to the film. I found one of the ending scenes interesting where this character walks through the white set (from the beginning of the film) and it has a red ribbon tied around it. I think that this is effective in symbolising the unnecessary bloodshed of World War 1.

Overall I really enjoyed this film and it has helped me to get into the mind-set for finding a narrative for the props I will be producing.  

How to vacuum form an army helmet

Andy showed us a picture of the war helmet we would be making and scaled this image up to the right size on another piece of paper.

• Stick this image onto a thin plastic sheet and mark where the centre is

• Cut only half of the shape of the hat out.

• Cut the remaining half of the hat out. The outline of the hat should be left on the bigger piece of plastic and cut this off.

• Sand the edge down slightly to get a smooth finish

• Stick the end that would be the centre of the hat to the end of a stick using super glue and an agent that sets if off quickly.

• Using a small block of wood drill a hole big enough for the stick to fit inside it. Then stick this to a board of wood using a mixture of super glue and PVA glue (to give a fast sticking but strong glue.)

• Then coat this with 2 layers of sealing agent so that the plaster doesn't soak into the wood.

• The stick can then be put into the hole. You can coat the hole in Vaseline to help it rotate.

• Mix plaster by putting warm water into a bowl and sprinkling plaster until it makes peaks in the water.  

• Mix with hands until mixture thickens

• Slop mixture in centre of the board around the base of the stick. Rotate the stick every once in a while to scrape the plaster into the shape of the helmet.

• Build up the layers till you have a helmet mould then remove the stick.

• You can now take this to the vacuum former. Place the mould onto the table and lower it.

• Cut a piece of plastic (around 27 inches squared) and place on the section above the table (shiny side up.)

• Lower the metal frame and clamp handles

• Bring heater over the plastic until you can see it go wavy

• Push heater back and bring table up (by pulling the lever on the right of the machine towards you) and press start.

• After a few seconds push the stop button (the plastic would now have been moulded around your plaster mould hat.) and wait till the plastic has cooled. (You will know when it has cooled when you push your fingernail into the plastic and it doesn't dent.)

• Unclamp the frame and take the plastic from the plaster mould.

• Cut your plastic mould around the base of the hat. 

And there you have it!

The White Ribbon film review

The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke (2009) is about the mysterious events that happen in a small German village just before World War 1. Whilst Haneke has said that this film is about “the origins of terrorism”, I see it more to be about the treatment of children at the time.

I’ll be honest; I didn’t expect much from this film from hearing the overview however I was more impressed by the way this film was shot rather than the storyline.

I found that the use of black and white really made this film and was particularly effective when close up shots of faces were used. The crisp images (resembling the clarity of Chuck Close’s work) made me feel like the characters were right in front of me. The black and white provided strong contrasts in colour, similar to the contrasts visible between classes through the set.

The set really demonstrated to me the difference in lifestyle for people at that time. The poorer housing was small, had paint peeling from the walls and had wooden shutters for the small windows. On the other hand the rich housing had wood panelling, rugs, pictures and tapestries on the walls, large windows and curtains and patterned wallpaper.   I also noticed that the scenes of  the poorer civilians had them all crammed into the frame, (to demonstrate how they were crammed into houses perhaps?) however the shots of the rich housing tended to have lots of negative space in the frame; showing that they can afford to own bigger houses.

The angles used in some of the scenes were interesting e.g. when the farmer sees his dead wife on a bed the audience see the view from the corridor. The audience can only see her feet and part of the farmer as he leans over his dead wife, only suggesting to the audience what is happening. I found this very intriguing as situations were only being suggested, leaving the audience to think about what they were seeing and come to their own conclusions.

A lot of scenes were also of doors in corridors again leaving the audience to interpret the situation, but this could also be a reflection of how people did live in silence and behind closed doors at that time (this was also clearly demonstrated when characters knew that the Doctor sexually abuses his daughter yet they didn’t say anything). Use of silence was also very effective throughout this film as the moments of quiet did bring tension and made me feel uncomfortable throughout.  There was also no background music at all which for me gave the film a sense of realism. As with modern films there is a soundtrack telling you how to feel, The White Ribbon relies on the viewer to interpret and think for themselves.

Finally, I liked the way that this film put doubt into my mind. E.g. the title of the film The White Ribbon symbolises innocence and purity. The Pastor ties white ribbons in his children’s’ hair and around their arms however his children are constantly doing things that are contradicting this. I also liked that how by the end it is suggested that the children of the town are the ones who are causing these incidents, again contradicting what The White Ribbon stands for and yet again leaving the audience to come up with their own conclusion.