Meredith – What to do with your Hair?

The following 1920′s haircare article by Broadway and Hollywood actress Ann Harding was  taken from a 1927 issue of the Ladies Home Journal:

“Training the Hair to Curl.

1927 BOBBED HAIR TURN to Nature, and Nature will repay your efforts, if 1 only you are patient and persistent in your efforts. Your hair will become more curly gradually, and it is work that is best done at home. A beauty-shop operator, for instance, will usually discourage you from taking a water wave if your hair isn’t almost so curly that you don’t need a wave. In a way she is right, for the good that water waving might do is discounted by the fact that she puts a hot-air dryer to your hair, thus taking away the natural tendency to curl.

In addition, a commercial operator must give you what you pay for, and finger waving only begins to show results after a year’s steady efforts. It takes about three years to train the hair to curl in definite, unmistakable ringlets. Three years may seem a long time when you are looking ahead; looking backward it doesn’t. We want to have everything happen quickly; but isn’t it worth while to have vigorous, gleaming, natural curls at the end of three years’ treatment, instead of weak and brittle hair for one’s pains?

Any woman can learn to water wave her hair at home. Every single time you wash your hair train it with your fingers. After shampooing the hair and thoroughly wiping the water out of it, give the scalp a thorough massage with the tips of your fingers until your whole scalp is loose, and tingling and warm with circulating blood. Then comb the hair out, part it, or comb it back, as you prefer to have it trained. Then, where you want your first wave, put your finger against the hair and push it toward the scalp with your finger until a wave is formed. Put a comb in firmly where you have your finger. There are slightly curved water-waving combs you can buy for the purpose. Make the next wave with your finger, again pushing the strand of hair against the scalp until a wave is formed; again put a comb in in the place of your finger. Make the next wave, put a comb in there and keep on until your whole head is in waves that are held in place by combs. Leave your head that way until the hair dries. When your hair is thoroughly dry take out the combs. If your hair is straight the operation will seem a failure. But do not be disappointed.

This is one thing you must try and try for a long time until you begin to see the effects of your persistence. After several months the finger waving will have become a habit, and you will go on with it until, after a year or so, the results will show in so certain and definite a wave that you will keep on with the finger waving out of sheer happiness and gratitude for your curly locks. I recommend women with slightly waving hair to try this method.”

Link to the full article plus pictures: http://www.1920-30.com/fashion/1927-hairstyles.html



Director’s Blog – In Praise of the Camera Lady

Selecting the Director of Photography for a lighthouse film required careful consideration  and rigorous testing. We put Anna through her paces by demanding that she dislocate her legs from her hips, swing them about in the air like a rag doll and then pack herself into a suitcase.  Her former life in the circus saw her came through this test with flying colors, and yet still I find we must endure her muffled whimpers as she once again manages to smack her skull against the lantern room gantry struts whilst panning an actor through shot. The other day she narrowly escaped plummeting twenty feet through the service room staircase, and yet still had the temerity to speak somewhat harshly to me as it seems my sturdy (size 11) work boots had found their way into shot.  “Darl!” she hissed at me, at the end of  a magnificent performance from Rohan and Marton, “could you have placed your feet in a worse position?!”

Anna Howard, our intrepid and long-suffering dp.

The lighthouse lantern/service room is a small and poky space, dominated by a whopping great First Order lens smack in the middle. It does not slide out of the way to make room for camera, nor do the stone walls “float.” Any time we have to move the camera, everyone must pile out onto the lighthouse balcony, where we find the weather has (finally, inappropriately) turned nasty.  When we shoot a scene in the service room, Paul (continuity), Mark (boom), Dean (standby props) and I are exiled to the gantry above, where we are forced to assume the most taxing of yoga positions in a bid to keep our feet out of shot. I don’t mind admitting that often we are in extreme discomfort – limbs going numb, pins and needles etc – and yet never once has the Camera Lady taken that into consideration. “Darl!” she hissed at Paul as he tried to re-arrange his limbs for Eka Pada Rajakapotasana,  “I’m trying to take a light reading here!”

Here I am attempting to direct one of the finest actors in the country while suffering complete loss of feeling in my lower limbs.

Some of Meredith’s Favourite Recipes

Some simple delicacies she may prepare for Mr Fleet:

Cold Meat and Rice Shape

Lumps of Delight

Kiss Cakes

All made wtih ingredients that can be found on even the most isolated island.

Producer’s Blog – in praise of the line producer

There is nothing wrong with our line producer:

t

Pictured here in a hat of her own creation, I need to point out that the rumours regarding her condition have clearly been exaggerated. Yes, she has had pneumonia but we’ve put her on lighter duties:

...executive janitor

and she seems to be recovering well.

We’re hopeful that soon she will return to her multi-hyphenate job: accommodation co-ordinator, part time location manager, executive janitor, sometime line producer. A necessity imposed by the stringent budget we’re working with which allows us to amend her salary according to the hours spent performing each job.

Her final credit is currently under review and we’re hopeful that arbitration won’t be necessary.

On Set Today

Whilst sitting on set today we had a sighting.

Our set decorator found a group of Indian tourists, visiting the splendours of Cape Otway lighthouse – hovering near him. With camera’s partially raised – hesitant but polite knowing that there was a film being shot in the vicinity – they finally gathered the courage and asked:

“Are you the actor that played Gandhi in the movie?”

our very own Gandhi

Director’s Blog – an incident

Occasionally on set, in the stress and chaos of filming, small incidents flare up – feelings are hurt, and minions sacked forthwith. Although the South Solitary set is usually one of harmony  and laughter, we recently experienced an incident of our own.  Several days passed in which the Dept in question was left to stew in its own juices, and finally a formal apology made its way to my  seat at the Lunch Table.

For interest’s sake, I attach below:-

Dear Ms Barrett,

On behalf of the whole dept, I would sincerely like to apologise for
the behaviour of our Standby, Ms _____.
Although I was not in attendance, I truly believe she was completely
out of line in expressing her personal appreciation of Mr Dean
Sullivan, and his finesse with the said mop and was extremely
indiscrete to make her feelings known publicly.  I can only surmise
that “from one standby to another”, she was trying to support a
fellow comrade at Lucille’s Cove and that perhaps the extreme
weather conditions had affected her faculties.

On top of that consideration, her many dealings with Sausage on that occasion may have confused her mental faculties when dealing with”real” actors (thus mistaking a mop for a horse, and its acting abilities.)

I believe, as Head of Department, that although there was never any
intention of Ms _____ to cause offense, her actions need to be
reprimanded as I have dutifully done.

You have my utmost word that such lapses in protocol will not be
tolerated for a second time.

Yours most sincerely,

Edith Head Kurzer

Although I felt it unfair to implicate Sausage as somehow to blame  for the brouhaha, the apology was ultimately accepted and the matter  put to rest.

Sausage - somehow it was all his fault.

Producer’s Blog – in praise of the office

I feel the need to explain the photo above.

Through thick and thin, through sun and heatwave, through negative fogging and missed auditions the production office have tirelessly rebooked hotel rooms, cancelled flights, rebooked them and found additional grips assistants as the schedule changes. Each day the call sheet goes out only to be abandoned at breakfast because the sun has risen on another perfect day: it’s not really a call sheet more a list of suggestions.

And then they sacrifice their few remaining personal hours to entertaining the crew in the local hostelries.

The strain on them is extraordinary…..

Director’s Plug – Egyptian Magic

The weather here at Cape Nelson is very taxing. It is either very sunny (when we wish it to be cloudy), or playing at being cloudy/sunny when we wish it would just make up its f**king mind. Our first a.d. (known to us as JP) and our gaffer (Adam) are very short-fused about the whole weather situation, and  inclined to either snap tersely or swear at us when we ask them their view at to whether we should commit to either sunny or cloudy conditions in which to shoot. But luckily our divine Make Up Ladies Kirsten and Cheryl and Danny are always sunny of disposition, and  ready to proffer small vats of mysterious substance known as “Egyptian Magic” (apparently excavated from Tutankhamen’s actual Tomb) in which to immerse our battered complexions apres-shoot. Which is why we all look mysteriously much much younger than our actual chronological ages*.

* (insert photo here of us looking much much younger than actual
chronological age) – PHOTO PENDING -

Producer’s note: Suggest we provide Adam and JP with tubs of their own Egyptian Magic – guaranteed to take their mind of the weather and improve their mood.

Barry Otto’s Blog – Waiting….

We have travelled so far!! To beautiful Portland. Now where are our cloudy, grey skies!

We beg, we hope, we pray, for some grey overcast skies in Cape Nelson: our constant weather report “Mostly Sunny”.

A shooting schedule nightmare!! It makes it all so difficult for our 1st AD John Powditch and 2nd AD Tod Embling.

Head Lighthouse Keeper Mr George Wadsworth (Barry Otto)

We want all seasons, but not on the one day !

As for being an actor on “film” how fussed over are we! Dressed, make-up, fed, our every whim catered for.

We have such a great bunch of people on this film and some adorable animals.

Lovely to be on location with “Miranda”.

Our wonderful director, Shirley Barrett’s laugh is a delightful sound.

Aprons

Here’s a brief rundown of the “Age of Aprons”. For Fairview’s Judy Vetrovec, the history of aprons is as important as their beauty and practicality.

Origin:

The English word “apron” came from “naperon”, the old French word for napkin or small tablecloth.

Twelfth century: Who wore aprons first? Men, as hygienic, protective wear.

Fourteenth century: Dark-coloured aprons started to be worn tied at the waist.

Sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: Colours denoted the trade of the wearer. English barbers wore a checked pattern; butchers and porters, green; and masons, white.

Seventeeth century: Romantic notions began to blossom. Your beau is thinking of you if the apron becomes untied and drops off.

Eighteenth century: The pinafore apron was “pinned” to clothing.

Nineteenth century: Cooks began turning the apron only once before washing. Any more, and the stains weren’t hidden.

1900-1920′s: Long aprons cover and protect clothing.

1920: Straight- line aprons are the style.

1930: Beautiful prints with bright sashes, along with crocheted aprons, make an appearance.

1940: Printed half-aprons tied around the waist, and aprons made of handkerchiefs, are popular.

1950: Full-skirted plastic aprons, and ones with cross-stitch designs, gain popularity.

1960: Half-aprons with attached hand towels are sure-fire hits, along with aprons sewn with plastic hoops or valance material.

1970: to present: Barbecue, anyone? Grilling is a popular design or theme for modern-day aprons.

Some samples from the South Solitary collection (circa 1926)…..