Getting It Right...

Perry’s Blog

Getting It Right…

Film-making is fraught with many, many difficulties – and one of the classics problems we face is sourcing authentic props, especially when filming period productions. Sometimes we have to cheat things!

I remember working on the (fourth) remake of The 39 Steps for BBC TV, which was set in 1914. Following transmission, several people wrote in and criticised the use of motor vehicles which were registered in the 1920s. These ‘expert’ viewers pointed out the anachronism: but they were unaware that licence fee-payer’s money was being saved by not using the older, more unreliable vehicles. In the end everything comes down to money – and the Producers decided that the potential cost of repairing the machines (not to mention paying for the cast and crew) was not worth it.

Decisions sometimes have to be taken like this. If items are very rare and expensive, it sometimes becomes necessary to use more modern substitutes. Of course, artistic licence can be invoked as well – sometimes things just look and feel better, despite being historically inaccurate. For instance, the aircraft used in The 39 Steps were also out of period, and mounted with machine guns despite the fact that this technology simply did not exist until later on in World War 1. Prior to wing and fuselage mounted machine guns, the navigators (or, in single user aircrafts, the pilot) would simply lean out the cockpit and shoot enemies using their Webley pistols or SMLE rifles. (Eventually, Vickers and Lewis guns were mounted high on above the propellers and fired remotely.  Later on in the war, technology allowed guns to be mounted directly in front of the Pilot, and operated on a timer to actually fire through propellers themselves.)

To create the right look and feel, anachronisms do have to be tolerated – especially when they avoid needless spending!