been away filming a movie about the Great War (due for release next April). I have a few PMs to catch up on, and a fresh batch of shirts waiting for me at the printer. Those of you who have not yet received shirts, they'll be going out in the next day or two.

 

Is it that CBC docudrama where they used relatives of actual soldiers that fought in the war. They show up on the set and they took away their shirts and pants and issued them traditional fatigues for the duration of the filming???

 

That's the one. Unfortunately they didn't replace our items with period-correct ones, such as wasboards, oil for the feet, etc. Nor a camp medic, so those of us dressed as medics who had combat first aid or civvie EMT training had to band together and run a functioning clinic with no supplies as people dropped from heat stroke or infected foot blisters. They also had us performing stunts (leaping into trenches lined with rusted metal, running past air cannons, running with fixed bayonettes, etc.) and casialties ranged from gashed hands requiring 16 stitches to dislocated shoulders and hips. I imagine ACTRA will be looking into things.

 

I guess it was more than just a job then!

Did you meet Justin?

 

Yeah - did a couple of scenes with him, helped coach him on how to climb into the trench without hurting himself, and just generally chatted. I avoided bringing up his father at all costs, since that's usually all the media asks him. "How would Pierre feel about you being in this film?" etc.

It's kind of odd working on set with someone, then flying out through a major international airport named after his dad though

I got to know one of actresses portraying a Nursing Sister (female medic officers working as nurses) who happened to be the great-grandniece of John McCrae (1872-1918) who wrote "In Flanders Fields".

For those who don't know it, In Flanders Fields is a poem Lt. Col McCrae wrote - in about 5 minutes - sitting on the back of a field ambulance beside the Canal de l'Yser, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres after witnessing the battle of Ypres salient in the spring of 1915. He was killed in action in 1918, just before the end of the war. It's because of McCrae and his poem that Commonwealth citizens wear poppies on November 11th in rememberance of the fallen.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

 

Neato way to spend your summer.

 

Turns out Paul Gross is making a competing film focussing on the battle at Passchendale - I put in a call to see if they need help on that one, too