Military Advisor / Co-Ordinator for Film and TV
After a 24 year career in the UK Armed Forces I set out in the security industry as a close Protection and surveillance operative.
My knowledge became directly required on several high profile productions.
My vast historical military knowledge makes me a valuable asset to any production from Script Consultancy during the prep stage, through shooting, to project completion. Training large battle formation set pieces.
Key advisor in the following:
Script Consultancy: 24/7 advice to writers, producers, directors,art dept and all necessary crew with technical detail and terminology.
Conduct Bootcamps, assisting with the selection of extras suitable for the production. Training and advising lead cast.
Work with all departments on special action sequences to ensure the correct effect is achieved in a safe environment.
Deliver a realistic look from present day battlefield drill and tactics to historical battles.
AD support and on-set advice on correct military protocols, crowd marshalling and contextual behaviour
So, I thought I would delve deeper into the subject if only to help settle the blood pressures of our armed forces community and help the costume department as a point of reference for the future.
Firstly, the recipe on how to shape a beret.
1. Take the beret and stick it on your head first, to make sure it’s the correct size, ensuring the bow is central to the back of your head, and Pull the access cloth to the right and see how far the beret pulls towards your right ear. It should not cover the right ear.
Ensuring the brim sits straight across your forehead, 2.5 cm above the eyebrows
It’s not always easy for some.
2. Adjust the bow, so the beret is not too loose, but equally not too tight around your head as it’s going to shrink a little after point 4.
3. Fill two bowls, one with warm/hot water and one with cold water
4. Dunk the beret in warm water first, but do not completely submerge. Keep the leather band from getting wet as much as possible by holding the beret by the inner liner when dunked. Once satisfied, the outer is completely wet, take out, and gently wring the beret to get rid of any excessive water.
Don’t overdo it with the wring, or you might stretch the fabric too much.
5. Repeat the same process with the cold water.
6. Fit the damp beret on the head, ensuring you fit it as in point 1. Adjust the bow at the back again to the desired size. Place your cap badge over the left eye just above the leather band. Get a mate to lightly mark where the badge holes need to be made.
7. Take it off, then place small holes with a knife where the marks were made. Most badges come with a backing to help hold the badge up straight.
8. Once the badge and backing are fitted, replace on the head as in point 1.
9. While holding by the cap badge backing, pull the beret cloth to the right and down towards your right ear, ensuring you dont pull down so hard, you end up stretching the cloth over your right ear and shoulder.
At the same time, smoothly shape the left side over and style around the cap badge to your desired style.
10. Once satisfied, keep on your head for a few hours if possible, adjusting every now and again. This will help mould the beret in place. If still not satisfied, repeat steps 4 and 5, but with the badge in place. Don’t pull down at the back if it feels uncomfortable, or you will get this.
11. Once dry and happy, cut away any access bow and tuck away inside the leather band. Some units like to sow a beret backing over the band entrance to ensure no lose ends fall out.
12. The final touch is to gently shave the beret of any fluff.
The style of the beret can depend on several factors, mainly the country and unit represented and time period depicted, so the way in which the beret is shaped and worn varies.
what might be the norm now might not have been the same in the 1940s!
Other nations styles
United States.
Spanish army.
French Tarte Chasseur.
All those steps are easy to follow if you have the time, but now, for the realities of filmmaking.
Costume departments are always up against it with longer working hours than most on set. Cast, Stunts, and Supporting Artists all need to be dressed ready for an 0800 call time. So with 500 people to get ready, you can imagine their workload.
It’s understandable if beret shaping is the last thing on their mind when a director wants to start shooting at 0800, not 0801.
If I identify scenes where berets are worn during the script notes phase or on the shoot I will always try to flag it up early and offer to help the costume department where I can, but you need to offer help, not rush in, and do it without asking. Set etiquette. Very important.
At times, costume suppliers will send the berets, brand new with even the plastic inside and a few days before a shoot and will stipulate the berets have to be returned as new or the productions get charged the full price. Not always the case, but I have witnessed it a few times.
If the budget is tight, it causes problems as the costume department will be reluctant to allow the berets to be shaped correctly, worried it could affect the suppliers’ returns policy.
It’s not the costume departments fault, of course, as most would not know how or why there is a need to shape military Berets or how it won’t really affect the return policy.
As long as the productions hired a military costume specialist or advisor, that is!
However, on rare occasions I have had time with the costume department in advance and managed to convince them to allow me to take the berets out for a few days before a shoot and shape them to the respective heads during a boot camp.
On other occasions, we have simply not had the luxury of time, and the berets have turned up on the day of the shoot. The Gentleman is a prime example of all departments working together under limited time constraints.
While on location in Turkey filming The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare a new scene had been written depicting a UN monitoring team from the British Army.
A platoon commander and his platoon Sgt moving between VCPs when the main character gets an unexpected call.
It was the opening scene to the series, and first impressions last, so the main cast member Theo James needed to look the part as much as the production would allow as with the rest of the soldiers on set.
Making something work with only a few days to order gear and get it either flown over or found locally was not an easy task to as much right in the time given, and considering we were already working flat out on the movie in the same location, the team did not do a bad job.
For example, finding the correct weapons and vehicles in turkey as the export times for licenses to fly from the UK can take weeks.
MTP uniforms, boots, webbing, berets, correct rank, and beret badges all needed to be flown over once costume was satisfied with my suggestions.
On the day of the shoot, the berets had just arrived via a flight the following night.
All the berets were brand new and of various sizes.
I received the Supporting Artists and Berets, including the main cast, 20 minutes before the shoot.
All the badges were the same standard UN badge, but there were no officer versions, so there was nothing we could do about that.
There were no badge backings, so I made one out of stiff cardboard and showed a costume assistant how to make the rest up quickly.
Luckily, the costume designer had the hot and cold water to shrink and shape the berets as best I could in the time given.
Each man was lined up as I went through the various sizes to match each head, including the main cast.
Then, I began the shaping process as described above but left out sowing a bow backing and shaving them.
But job done and on the van to set
The hard part is encouraging the actors to not pull the back of the beret down throughout the day. Something I needed to closely monitor and correct after each take.
There was a lot more to do, and make do, with what was supplied on the day, but this blog is about berets.
Some things you just have to get on with and do your best, and there will always be the armchair nit picker desperate to impress on social media. It’s just one of life’s mysteries.
So there you have it. Employ a military advisor or military costume specialist and avoid the most hated debate amongst the veterans community, because as much as some people think it doesn’t matter, it will when a lack of planning and thought makes the headlines for all the wrong reasons, which can ruin all the hard work making drama only remembered for one thing.
A short video highlighting some of the bootcamps I have worked on when preparing supporting artists, stunts and cast for War and Peace. Vanity Fair and Napoleon.
I along with the historical advisor read the script, providing notes detailing any errors and providing workable suggestions to get the same artistic effect, but closer to reality.
Remember, an advisor can only advise they can not demand to a director to do it the advisors way, Its not your train set and you wont last long in the filming game if you stamp your feet at every inaccuracy . However, I always try to move the drinks cabinet closer to berlin during filming. Some I win and some I lose.
I then set about writing up a boot camp training plan, depending on the year being filmed.
For the British army I used The drill manual The Rules and Regulations for the manual and platoon exercises, formations, field exercise and movement 1807 addition. The Dundas manual and the Imperial Bayonets for the french etc.
Depending on the action or scenes, I will take from the manual what is required and apply it to the training program. I may only have four days to get 300 men to a respectful level of competency in drill, musket training, and cannon training before filming.
Not everything can be covered in the time I am given and some drill needs to be more generic so not to confuse the volunteers to much with information overload.
Health and safety, and working time directives are added to the mix, just the make the job even harder.
Try training 300 men during a productions strict COVID policy. start at 8am, every one is tested and can only start training once everyone’s results are clear, around 10am. one hour lunch break, and I must have all weapons handed in and the volunteers heading home by 1700.
During the boot camp, uniform fitting will take place which gives me even less time with each volunteer.
I run a selection day a week before the bootcamp. This insures the volunteers understand what they are letting themselves in for, and allows me to asses their suitability to attend the boot camp.
Good fitness is a must as filming days are long and can be physically demanding when required to perform intense action sequences.
The selection day allows the costume department to ensure the Volunteers can fit in the uniforms provided.
I have put together some of the action from Vanity fair and Napoleons Battle of waterloo and War and Peace Battle of Borodino. Its not a great edit, but hope you enjoy.
That’s a wrap for all Team PB teams. It’s been another smashing year for the company starting in Riga, Malta, Turkey, Morocco, Malta, Budapest, Malaysia, Croatia, and back to Malta. Have a happy Christmas, and we look forward to a busy new year.
A small snapshot of work and premiers this year with a few hints to next year.
Firstly, a big thank you to all the hard work and resilience of the supporting artists who helped make this movie.
My job is to train mass numbers in the basics of drills and tactics of the projects target period in the shortest time possible in a safe and controlled environment.
Everyone is required to go through a rigorous assessment to ensure everyone is fit and healthy.
Prior preparation and training before a shoot ensures everyone knows their role in the bigger picture on the day.
More photos will be posted in due course.
We can advise, not dictate.
Historical advisors are on hand to advise on the history of the project.
Military advisors are on hand to assist the director in forming the supporting artists to the desired look of his direction.
Advisers can only advise. We cannot insist as its not our train set.
A common phrase used during my days as a crow at Depot Para in Aldershot was “Train Hard, Fight easy” and from research, the Romans were no different.
From studying the Roman Army you can see where the British Army adopted its training and doctrine.
The first training objective for all new recruits is how to march as a body of men. The historian Vegetius tells us that it was seen as of greatest importance to the Roman army that its soldiers could march at speed in formation.
Any army which would be split up by stragglers at the back or soldiers trundling along at differing speeds would be vulnerable to attack.
Those who have attended one of my bootcamps will understand why you were required to pass a selection process before being considered.
Fom day one of recruit training the Roman soldier was trained to march in line at the same pace and to keep the army a compact fighting unit on the move.
One of the Romans most famous formations was the Tortoise (testudo). Testudo is the Latin word for “tortoise”.
The soldiers in front and sides interlocked their shields. The soldiers in the back lines placed their shields over their heads to form a protective “shell” over top of the men.
For this, we are told by Vegetius, during the summer months the soldiers were to be marched twenty Roman miles (18.4 miles/29.6 km), which had to be completed in five hours.
In the British Army we call this a TAB Tactical Advance to Battle.
Vegetius mentions running, long and high jump and carrying heavy packs.
During the summer swimming was also a part of training. If their camp was near the sea, a lake or river, every recruit was made to swim.
Next in line, after the training for marching and fitness, came the training of handling weapons. The correc use of the gladius and scutum.
For this they primarily used wickerwork shields and wooden swords. Both the shields and the swords were made to standards which made them twice as heavy as the original weapons. Evidently it was thought, that if a soldier could fight with these heavy dummy weapons, he would be twice as effective with the proper ones.
Train hard, fight easy
Dummy weapons were at first employed against heavy wooden stakes, about six foot high, rather than against fellow soldiers. Against these wooden stakes the soldier trained the various moves, strikes and counter-strikes with the sword.
Only once the recruits was deemed able enough in fighting against the stakes, were they assigned in pairs to train in individual combat.
This more advanced stage of combat training was called armatura, an expression which first was used in the gladiatorial schools, which proves that some of the methods used in training soldiers was indeed borrowed from the training techniques of gladiators.
The weapons used in the armatura were, though still of wood, of the same, or similar weight as the original service weapons.
Weapons training was deemed of such importance that weapons instructors generally received double rations, whereas soldiers who didn’t achieve adequate standards received inferior rations until they had proven in the presence of a high-ranking officer that they had attained the demanded standard. (inferior rations: Vegetius states that their wheat rations were substituted with barley)
After completing the initial training with the sword, the recruit was to master the use of the spear, the pilum. For this the wooden stakes were put to use again as targets. The pilum used for practice was, once again, twice the weight of the regular weapon.
The Modern day army being live firing tests.
Vegetius notes that weapons training was given such importance that in some places roofed riding schools and drill halls were built to allow for training to continue throughout the winter.
Like my time at Depot Para, Physical conditioning and skill at arms was the bread and butter of soldiering. Without getying to grips with them you would not last long or be able to progress forward.
The Roman Army recruits were progressively trained to a high standard as you can see from the following. The British Army are no different.
Roman army training objectives.
Swimming
Jumping
Cutting down trees
Carrying heavy packs
Vaulting onto horses–mounting and dismounting from both the right and the left with their weapons drawn or holding their pila. Wooden horses were used until the recruits became proficient. Then real horses were used
Running in full armor
Digging defensive ditches
Erecting ramparts and palisades
Other camp construction activities
Taking care of equipment
Erecting tents
Giving first aid
British Army training objectives
Attestation (a formal ceremony to join the British Army), kit issue, administration, Drill calling out the time until you pass off the parade square at week 4. weapons training and Exercise Icebreaker (teaching Exercise) – your first night in the field. Exercise first fence.
Military skils aptitude tests.
Drill
Weapons
Tactics
Military Swim Test.
Nuclear and biological warfare
Progressive physical development. Running, upper body conditioning and Tabbing. ( running and fast walking with equipment.
Basic wales
Introduction to blank Firing at section, Platoon and company level.
Training cast how to TAB in South Africa.
Advanced Wales
Bringing it all together with Live Firing at section, Platoon and company level.
My final training test on Salisbury plan 1989 not knowing back then I would be back 30 years later advising on 1917.
Physical tests P company
The Author during his early Basic training day in Depot Para Aldershot.
