Props and Costumes

Due to the fact that our second scene is set in 1940’s berlin, we needed a wide range of props and costumes to lend to the believability of the scene. Obviously due to it’s setting the Mise-En-Scene has to be carefully considered and thought through to prevent anything appearing in our shots that will detract from the verisimilitude of our film.

Box Brownie Camera:

Because the beginning of the film revolves around the photograph that the main character finds of his grandfather in his attic, we wanted to be able to show the picture being taken in the flashback scene. To do this effectively, we wanted to be able to use a convincing and authentic camera from the period. Luckily, we were able to find one in the history department at our school and it was kindly lended to us by the teacher that owned it.

Swastika Armbands:

Because the two characters in our flashback scene are high ranking Nazi officials, we really wanted them to look authentic. To do this we needed to have the distinctive Swastika sign of the Nazi’s. Because of the sensitive nature of what the armbands stood for we decided it would be best to make them ourselves rather than purchase or find ones, so we were able to create two armbands out of red, black and white felt and elastic that looks much like the real thing when filmed.

Wannsee Transcript:

We wanted the final shot of our film to be that of the Transcript from the Wannsee conference being handed over, so to do that we needed some documents that looked the part. On the internet we were able to find the actual document from the meeting translated into english, and we added the symbol of the Nazi’s to the top of the paper to really emphasise what this document was.

Clothing:

For each of the characters we wanted to have a different look and style depending on the time period, social status and wealth.

Nazi outfit –

For the characters of Lukas and Herman, we used smart suits and fedora hats to show the high position they are in and to display their wealth, giving them the appearance of important and upper class people.

Camera Man outfit –

For our camera man character, we wanted to make him seem a lot more common and appear to be a lower class worker trying to make a living. To do this we used a fairly worn down grey overcoat and a weathered and dirty flat cap. This costume created a decent contrast between the two smartly dressed characters of the Nazi’s and the run down photographer.

Opening scene outfit –

For the opening present day scene, for the character of daniel we just used whatever clothes the actor was wearing on the day to create a more natural feel with jeans and a t-shirt.

Briefcase:

In the flashback scene, the briefcase is used to exchange the Wannsee transcript, and we were able to find an old style briefcase that matched the rest of the props in style and period setting.

For the present day opening scene, the props were a lot simpler than the period setting, as the only real thing that we needed was a photo album for the picture to be found in, and we managed to locate a few days before we began filming.