Correspondance from the front! *new pics on page 3*

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archerynut

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hey everyone. well we've been on the set of Passchendale for a number of days now. the battlefield looks amazing, with the dead forest and fully reconstructed pillboxes up on the hill. i'm part of 6-section and we're part of a core group of 25 soldiers who have substantial firearms experience and/or military training. we have a number of active military personel who have recently completed tours of duty in afghanistan. so without further ado, heres a few shots from the set!

Passchendale3.jpg


this is our section with 16 soldiers. most with some military background or personal experience with lee enfields.

Passchendale.jpg


yours truly during a break in the action. all the rifles we are carrying are live and fully functional but for any shooting scenes, we are using blanks of course. but theres still a pretty muzzle flash! we are all portraying soldiers from the 10th battalion that was based here in calgary during the war and Paul Gross'(who is directing, starring and producing) grandfather was part of the 10th battalion("the fighting 10th", as we're known)

the outline for the screenplay was based on a story told to paul by his grandfather about his experiences during the first world war.

Passchendale2.jpg


heres a shot at the casualty clearing station, a couple poor souls who were caught unprepared during a gas attack.

so theres a few pictures for now, when i get a chance, i'll see about some shots of the artillery pieces and the battlefield itself. thanks for looking.
 
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You know, it'd be neat to one day see a historical film that properly portrays people as short as they were in those periods. I'm not tall at all (5 foot 6), and going through some old European fortifications and facilities from the 15th century had me watching doorways very carefully.

I don't think it'd possible without relying on CG though, modern folks are just the wrong size.

Back on topic, who's supplying all of the SMLE's? :D
 
Some questions:

1) Why is all the webbing dark green?
2) Who shined up all those CF parade boots at the dressing station???
3) Why are so many ww1 Tommys carrying Ishapore Lee Enfields made in the late 1940's with the wrong forestock re-inforcement, wrong stock contour, and broken off handguard ears?
4) Did they at least get proper ww1 era SMLE's for the closeup shots in the film? Preferably with unit discs?
5) Where is the 10th batallion's vickers gunner?
 
archerynut said:
we are all portraying soldiers from the 10th battalion that was based here in calgary during the war and Paul Gross'(who is directing, starring and producing) grandfather was part of the 10th battalion("the fighting 10th", as we're known)
Click to expand...

As a side note, the 10th was one of 16 battalions created in September of 1914 as a war-service infantry battalion from the hundreds of Militia battalions that concentrated in Valcartier to form the CEF. Made up of volunteers from throughout Canada, it was prodominently made up of men from the 103rd Calgary Rifles (majority) and the 106th Winnipeg Light Infantry. Both units today perpetuated by The Calgary Highlanders and the Royal Winnipeg Rifles.
 
Claven2 said:
Some questions:

1) Why is all the webbing dark green?
2) Who shined up all those CF parade boots at the dressing station???
3) Why are so many ww1 Tommys carrying Ishapore Lee Enfields made in the late 1940's with the wrong forestock re-inforcement, wrong stock contour, and broken off handguard ears?
4) Did they at least get proper ww1 era SMLE's for the closeup shots in the film? Preferably with unit discs?
5) Where is the 10th batallion's vickers gunner?
Click to expand...

wow...you would be fun in the theatre watching a war film....:runaway:
 
Thanks too! I figure it's nice to see someone at least taking the interest and time to make a movie about canada in ww1. I just wonder how I miss out on opportunities like that!
 
Claven2 said:
Some questions:

1) Why is all the webbing dark green?
2) Who shined up all those CF parade boots at the dressing station???
3) Why are so many ww1 Tommys carrying Ishapore Lee Enfields made in the late 1940's with the wrong forestock re-inforcement, wrong stock contour, and broken off handguard ears?
4) Did they at least get proper ww1 era SMLE's for the closeup shots in the film? Preferably with unit discs?
5) Where is the 10th batallion's vickers gunner?
Click to expand...

I think most of your questions would be better directed at either the director or the guy who is in charge of the historical aspects of the movie. the fact that a large majority of the rifles are WW2 production came to my mind as well, but they do have a few rifles with WW1 furniture. i kept asking where the rifles were coming from, and when they said India, i thought Ishapore, but one of the advisors told me they were Lithgow production.

not sure about the vickers gunner, we havn't started filming those scenes yet, they're just filming the sequences where we come up the road and prepare to take our places at the front line. more pictures to follow.

the boots weren't exactly shined up, if anything they were covered with a film of mud, wich is gonna get worse as we go on. the
 
The uniforms look pretty good; the amount of dirt I mean, though it's obviously daubed on. Are any of these guys old enough to shave? Need some more crusty looking characters with bad teeth. How's the bolt manipulation skill level? The best way to make these guys look right is to start clean and then keep them living in their funk holes for a couple of weeks eating whatever they can cook over an old primus in a mess tin, washing in shell holes and going on wiring parties at night. Machonachies (sp?) and an couple of ounces of dark rum should keep them going alright. ;-)

(I wonder if you've got any period billy cans for bringing up rations etc? I've just seen a couple for sale. The oval ones with a lid and tinned interior.)
 
They haven't asked for a Vickers.Our Mg 08's and Lewis guns will arrive in a few weeks for the main action sequences.Grens Vegter will be out with the machine guns for a month or so and I will likely be out towards the end of october for a week or so.
 
for the first few days of filming the pre-lim battle scenes, they had us jump and roll around in a mud puddle to get our uniforms authentically muddy. but i escaped that after they had to send 3 people to hospital with hypothermia, wasn't the smartest thing the first AD ever told someone to do. my uiform will only look better towards the end of the production.

we had a couple days with the rifles to learn them(i already knew them)but the others who serve today have never held an SMLE, but they're all proficient with firearms. theres a real wide age range on this shoot, theres a couple 16 year old kids, theres me(i'm 24)and theres some guys into their 40's and 50's looking suitably grizzled. i havn't seen what wardrobe has done with their teeth but they do have a couple recent amputees who were comfortable with showing off their recent wounds. that takes alot of self confidence.
 
- At least they have Enfields, I sold some Isaphore bayonets (to short I told him, he said they just weld them with a piece of steel to lengthen them and use them in background shots) to one of the Armorers working on the film at the last Montreal show and he told me the Germans will be armed with Turk Mausers!!!!!!!
 
"they will at least put fake lang-vizier sights on them?"

Not worth the trouble, most people won't know the difference is the attitude of most movie people in the long run.
 
Unfortunately, Re-enactors and historians rarely decide what money is available for proper kit in movies, even more so in small budget Canadian productions. From the photos it looks like the same kit we had for the CBC Great War production last summer, so do not expect to much from an authencity point of view. Hopefully, with Paul Gross at least the Canadian point of view on the Great War will be told, even if the kit won't be proper.
 
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