Children of Men

Finally found some of my Children of Men camo so I'd thought I'd take a couple of posts to show off the bits & bobs I've collected - I'm fortunate to know two of the guys who worked on the film in the wardrobe & armourer's departments & so had access to props & some insider stories & anecdotes.

Anyone familiar with the movie will remember that there was a unique *original* pattern designed for the film - consultation & production took place in 2004-2005 & the wardrobe designers wanted a unique 'futuristic' camo pattern. It was decided that one of the new-fangled digital patterns was the way forward & so the design guys took a photo of british DPM, pixelated it & changed the colours to a more 'urban' colourway. It was called 'digital dpm' throughout the project, but with Viper releasing their absolutely horrific commercial digital dpm a while back it's been called 'COMpat' by a few of the guys i know who own sets.

as far as I know only 150 sets were procured & manufactured, there were only about 100 actors/extras at most using it, but they made a few extra sets.. 50 small, 50 medium & 50 large. The camo sets consist of a helmet with cover, a jacket, trousers & body armour. The LBE/webbing that was used was a really cheap nylon copy of standard olive green PLCE - They actually approached my friend Lee to procure them 100 sets of real o.g PLCE to use, but it was pretty scarce on the surplus market at the time (& still is!) - so they sent a couple of the sets off to china to get copied. The movie made sets wouldn't stand up to *any* abuse, they were just filled with packing foam to look full! (Ironically a couple of months after filming finished, Field Textiles was filled with mint *full* sets of O.G PLCE - a warehouse full had been found in Kuwait & finally disposed of - it had been sitting there since the OP Granby/Desert Storm build-up but was never needed!)

Enough writing, on with the pics..

The Jacket, sturdy YKK zipper & 4-pockets with canadian buttons.


Close up of pocket


Inside showing waist adjustment cords


The 'Body armour'



Inside showing label & where the 'soft armour' goes (actually a foam mat of some sort..)



Trousers (which only have 2 cargo pockets, no back or slash front pockets, they would have put the budget even higher than it was )



will post more bits later on..

Very nice pattern and interesting back-story!

Yes, very interesting, thank you for sharing your knowledge!

Well done Killa. You are adding value to this forum.

Right, on with the post.. The next few bits & bobs aren't really camo related apart from one big bit at the end..

I managed to snag a few of the berets that were used by the police/refugee camp warders in the film - remember that nasty Scot who sneaked them into the refugee camp?



Don't know if it's his or not, but I like it!

Close Up of the badge, notice the King's Crown rather than the currently used Queen's crown - a nice touch!




I have got some paper props that were used, but am having trouble locating them - there were newspapers & some of the Fishes propaganda posters & some very ominous 'Big Brother' style banners - I did find one of them, ominous huh?



Notice the King's crown again?

I also picked up a couple of the I.D cards that I presume everyone had in the film, I can't really remember seeing them, but the ones I have are really nicely constructed out of metal & plastic, not flimsy at all



The one item I *really* treasure from the movie was the boots the soldiers wore - When my friend bought all of the uniforms we were rather pleased to find 40 spanking new pairs of Gore-tex Elite Magnums - hardly worn but covered with fake dirt to 'age' them! I still wear them to this day! Very comfy..



Did you snag a pair as well Sean?

Finally & possibly the grand prize was this..



A whole bolt of the camo material!! My trader friend Andy has the rest, I think there was another 3 or 4 rolls of it

I bought one off him to make some things, but my sewing machine skills are still in their infancy.. I did make this however



Hope I haven't bored you guys with this lot - when I find the Helmets (Camo & Police) & the other paper items I'll share them too..

You are making me regret not buying a complete set of kit, including webbing and boots, back when I had a chance to. But the asking price was too much for me at the time (IIRC GBP 300??). Since I only collect government issue stuff I couldn't bring myself to part with it.

The other bits from the movie are fantastic. The ID card and beret... wow.

One of the best movies I've ever seen, yet I couldn't get past the first few chapters in the book. I thought the book was awful. The screenwriter is a genius for taking the basics and making it a much better story. The only other time I've ever seen this happen was Planet of the Apes. The book wasn't horrid, but it was (like Children of Men) not a well crafted story IMHO.

Steve

I found my Helmets!
The Soldiers Helmet & camo cover, the helmets inside are PASGT style plastic helmets - I was told that they came from an airsoft supplier in Hong Kong - A friend of mine Dave worked alongside the Armourers on the shoot - most of the weapons the soldiers carry (SA80's & G36's) were Airsoft as there were no deactivated/blank firer replica's or approved section 5 firearms for film use available at the time.



Notice the fake dirt! The vests & boots were all 'grimed' up..




I have one of the police helmets too, not as interesting but still nice to have - weirdly enough none of the police black uniforms were ever disposed off or offered for sale I have only ever seen Helmets, Armour vests & the Berets - I guess the uniforms have been re-used in countless productions since!

Wow this is absolutely awesome. This just calls to my love of collecting militaria and movie props/costumes.

english_voodoo wrote:I found my Helmets!
The Soldiers Helmet & camo cover, the helmets inside are PASGT style plastic helmets - I was told that they came from an airsoft supplier in Hong Kong - A friend of mine Dave worked alongside the Armourers on the shoot - most of the weapons the soldiers carry (SA80's & G36's) were Airsoft as there were no deactivated/blank firer replica's or approved section 5 firearms for film use available at the time.



Notice the fake dirt! The vests & boots were all 'grimed' up..




I have one of the police helmets too, not as interesting but still nice to have - weirdly enough none of the police black uniforms were ever disposed off or offered for sale I have only ever seen Helmets, Armour vests & the Berets - I guess the uniforms have been re-used in countless productions since!

The helmets I believe are VIPER ones made for Airsoft / paintball and are about £10 a throw. The helmet covers scream without a doubt made in china or fashioned on china made , check all the HK Airsoft sellers and the covers are all made same way.

Just picked up full set of movie prop webbing for £6

english_voodoo wrote:

bravo_2_zero wrote:Just picked up full set of movie prop webbing for £6

as they say, Pics or it didn't happen I know what the webbing looks like, but i'm sure the rest of the forum would like to see it - I never bothered buying a set myself - I already have a full set of real OG PLCE!

I won it last night on eBay , £12 delivered.

Listed as ARMY WEBBING , looks OD PLCE. With the ammo pouch QR fasteners.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Army-webbing-/161023064785?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT&nma=true&si=cx9xfflsq8u%252Fqi0ydm%252Fnj7SS054%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

Same guy who sold me the suit emailed me today and asked if I'd like body armour with filler.

english_voodoo wrote:...

I'd love to own one of these, but before I pay a cutthroat price for one, I'd like to know, who effective is this Pattern in RL?

Sometimes movies have better Camo than some countries do but other times, nothing more usable than in fantasy.

Set finished





Not bad cost me £50 for the whole lot.

Should have a complete set with me tomorrow,cost a dammn sight more than £50 though

My contribution to the thread, as I was finally able to snag a set of these. The price was good and offered free P&P, couldn't say no! Not military by any means, but I've wanted this camo ever since I saw it. Seeing other sets posted here didn't help!



No labels aside from the ones mentioned above. Canadian buttons are of same style as found on British clothing, but the quality is cheaper...doesn't feel like the sturdy ones used on issued kit. Overall still very pleased with the set, and the added dirt effects are a nice touch as well.

I like this camo very much. Guess it won't get easier in the future to find one....

Congrats! It is a nice piece of movie history to have in your collection. As I said earlier in this thread, I just couldn't bring myself to spend the mountain of money the original liquidator was asking. Seems you got it for a lot less. Lucky you

Steve

That's a sharp looking pattern. It has more urban concealment merit than a whole slew of other wonky pixel patterns developed for real forces.

Nice uniform, looks quite well made. Boots are good as well.