Here we are in rehearsal, getting ready to film some recreations of WW1 propaganda posters. (Check out that genuine 1917 Enfield rifle!)
Propaganda was a fairly new thing during WW1, and some commentators in the 1920s and 1930s felt that Britain and America's enthusiastic embracing of it was actually the thing that made all the difference and won the war. Germany in 1914-18 was quite reluctant to use too much propaganda, seeing it all as a bit vulgar... (that all changed during WW2!)
WW1 posters tell us a bit more about the society that created them than perhaps the makers intended. As well as the overt "Join the Army" messages, there are all sorts of other messages about the roles of women and men, the idea of nationhood, and the question of what is worth fighting for.
When filming, we found that the trick was to keep our scripts short and to the point, and to try to unpick the image and get at the central message at the heart of each poster - "what's it really saying?". It's almost enough simply to present that, without irony - a modern audience can instantly see how much times have changed since 1914. But it's interesting that some of the emotions that these posters play on - guilt, patriotism, fear of not being "man enough" - are exactly the things that modern-day advertising and propaganda draw on as well. There's nothing new under the sun!