Making Bread And Cheese

Creating the Bread

Starting with a block of expandible polystyrene (white in colour) I then drew the desired shape onto the top so that I had a guidline to go by when shaping.  From here I the used files of different shapes and sizes to start carving the polystyrene towards the final shape that I needed.

Once I had curved all the edges so that I now had the overall shap of the bread that I wanted I could start creating the indents into the top to make it look more realistic and like a loaf that had just been baked.

From this point I now had to put a layer of fabric over the polystyrene so that I was able to paint over the top. Using muslin and the combination of PVA glue and water I coated the whole thing in a layer and allowed it to dry leaving a solid surface that I could then start painting on.

  

Once the loaf had dried I was not able to paint on in to make it look realistic.

Creating the Cheese

To make the cheese I used non expandable polystyrene however I still used the same process as when making the bread. Once I had covered the whole thing in muslin and PVA again I added a layer of scrim onto the end of the cheese to give the rind the rough taxture that you would find on cheese.

Once dry I was then able to paint onto the surface, allowing that to dry then I had completed both the bread and cheese props that would be able to be used on stage.

Jules et Jim film review

Jules et Jim is a french film directed by Francois Truffaut in 1962 which was adapted from a novel written by a 75 year old man called Henri Pierre Roche. The film follows the relationship of two men (Jules and Jim) and their involvement with a woman (Catherine), set just before the first world war until the time around the great depression. The film has many time settings and was aimed at the younger generation with Truffaut’s passionate understanding of life and love creating this defining film of the French New Wave.

I found that the scale of time and dominate elements of each period were also shown within the film clearly, this was due to it starting off slowly building up the men's relationship with each other as well as Catherine. It then brought to the audiences attention that both of the men were attracted to Catherine due to her presence and look on life, creating questions in the audiences mind already on how this was going to work out. Then during the middle of the film all the main action occurred the same time as the war would have been happening linking the time period with the elements of the film strongly. Finally at the end there was the loss of characters and others having to rebuild their lives because of the loss which links to the final time period where soldiers are lost and people have had to adapt due to their loss as well  as the depression taking place. I feel that this link worked well as it made you consider the lives of the families and friends and not just making you focus on the life of a soldier.

Within the first few scenes it was clear that the narrator played a major part within the film, bringing all the static shots and freeze frames together to make sense of the story line. Without this the audience would have been left wondering what was going on due to the images jumping time eras at many points throughout, showing the audience flash backs. I also feel that within the narrators speech he hinted about the trouble that was to come which created suspicion in the audiences head drawing them in.

From all of the movies I have watched so far this was the most helpful to reference costume, as I was able to see the changes through out the years with the focus being on every day clothing in that time era instead of the main clothing being the soldiers army suits. This will help me within my research as well as there being more sets and props in the film that i will be able to reference within this project. On the other hand the storyline was not appealing to me and several scenes left me wondering why that event had happened or even laughing as they were so unrealistic at times. This was mainly because I couldn't believe that these events could have happened in real life for example when Catherine was in bed then suddenly pulled a gun out from under the coveres aiming it at Jim. (see image above)

Overall i feel that this film was helpful in terms of the references I took and has helped with my research ideas, however it is not a film I would sit and watch again unless I was finding scenes to show the inspiration I got for my project.

All quite on the western front film review

All quite on the western front is a 1930's American epic war film directed by Lewis Milestone and based on the Erich Maria Remarque novel of the same name. The film follows the journey through war for several young German soldiers who all decide to go together and think that it will be fun and wont last long making them men. Starting in a classroom all the boys are encouraged to join by their teacher who gives them a patriotic speech about honour and heroism making them think about what war could mean and do for them in life, and ending in the trenches with them dying.

The film didn't shy away from the action that would have occurring the trenches which really drew me and and i feel this was one factor that made the film so successful and helped towards the many awards it won. This was so different to many other war films I have watched as many tend to put a happier look on the situation however by this film showing the audience how it really was they were able to connect to the character. The film showed many of the characters deteriorating and going insane which was both interesting and upsetting to watch however it allowed you to understand slightly what they were going through in certain situations, which I don't think would have been possible if the film wasn't true to what was going on. The film is a disturbing yet intriguing account on what the war is really like and makes the audience feel many strong emotions through out which for me I didn't feel in several of the other films I have watched based on war. 



The visual journey of one soldiers boots to me had the strongest hidden message and when I worked out what I believed it meant it really made me think. They first appear when one of the soldiers is showing them off to the other men making them all envy him. You then follow the boots with him wearing them until the soldier becomes injured learning he has to loose his leg, it is here that many of the soldiers then discard the fact he is hurt and only seem to think about his boots. This highlighted how the soldiers are only thinking of themselves at the end of the day and if them boots were going to protect them better ten they would do anything to try and get them. The boots are then passed onto to one solider that stood up for the hurt man moments before he dies, then when that soldier dies they are passed on again. This to me gave the message of how insignificant the soldiers are in the grand scheme of war and if one dies then they will just move on and recruit another with no real guilt for what they are doing.



The scenes where the soldiers are chasing rats, swapping bottles of spirits and sharing them between each of their gasping mouths and the memorable scene where one of the soldiers is blown up leaving just his hands behind on barbed wire (see image above) really showed the harsh reality and the gritty side to trench warfare, and not just the bit of fun that the young men first thought it would be. Between seeing all these young men coping with death, being driven and becoming killers the physiological aspects of the film are just as captivating as the visuals.

The final scene was one of the most touching parts to the film and was the part where I really felt for the character and what he had been through. It was the combination of the delicate butterfly and the innocence of the soldier (see image below) that showed the harsh reality of war to me as it was during this act of kindness that his death occurred as he reached out to save the butterfly. This is one of the parts that really stayed in my head after watching the film and really effected me emotionally.

This film really made me think and overall I really enjoyed looking at the real life situations, this was due to the fact it really opened my eyes to what went on in the trenches and war life. It has helped to get my head around situations that some of the the films didn't and the fact it was so true to what was actually going on for me worked in the films advantage and from this I can not widen my research ideas within my project.