MAKING OF - Extras and Costumes

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

After placing an ad in the Townsville Bulletin calling for local men between the age of 18 and 45 interested in playing soldiers in Beneath HIll 60, we held our Open Extras Casting Call on Saturday 4th in the beautiful Tropic Sun Theatre.

Ian taking measurments. Stick our your stomach!

Puff out your chest!

Stand up straight!

We were inundated with local interest and many prospective WWI soldiers turned up on the day for photographs and measuring. Looks like we have a very strong army of soldiers coming together - but we'll see how they hold up at boot camp!

THE COSTUME DEPARTMENT
The Costume crew arrived on the 15th of June. I took them one and a half days to completely empty a twenty-foot shipping container packed with gear, constructed racks and unpacked costumes.

Our Costume Designer, Ian Sparke (himself an ex-soldier and Military Collector) has an enormous passion for all things WWI. He has shipped in many pieces from his incredibly vast and unique collection of military costumes for us to use on Beneath Hill 60 - uniforms, webbing, helmets, boots and Period civillian costumes.

Costume Department: BEFORE

Big empty shed for costumes.

Starting to set up the costume racks.

Unpacking the costumes.

Costume racks set up and bursting with uniforms.

Ian makes sure every costume is unique - they all have a slight variation in colour, just as they would have done back in 1916.

Period Civillian Costume rack. This is just a small selection as we have a Civillian Costume Designer on board separately, Wendy Cork.

Helmets and webbing.

Alex Becconsall mending costumes.

Costume display set up at the Extras Casting Call, Tropic Sun Theatre.

Costume Designer, Ian Sparke.

Ian was very excited with the arrival of some new boots, with studded soles.

Tyler Giudes dressed in a uniform with Producer Bill Leimbach and the Art Department: Ian Sparke, Luke Sparke and Alex Becconsall.