The Cross

Hi Trevor here with my next lot of news from the shoot. We have been extremely busy here in the last few days, which has been an emotional roller coaster, from Jesus' glorious entry into Jerusalem to the the dark crucifixion.

We started on the Monday of week two in Morocco, by shooting scenes not in chronological order. So first we filmed Jesus being given his cross and forced to carry it to his crucifixion. There was some really great acting, particularly by those in the scene where Jesus meets the woman on the way to the cross. The scene was shot in the picturesque village of Ait Ben Hadoun, build almost entirely of mud and straw bricks, dating back centuries and a UNESCO world heritage site. The streets made an excellent Jerusalem!


On Tuesday we had some more peaceful scenes to shoot. The day began on a road lined with palm trees; we were filming Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem, surrounded with people waving palm branches as Jesus rode a donkey into the town. We had a slight problem in that the donkey wasn't at all keen to walk on the cloaks laid down by the crowd for Jesus to pass over (as specified in the Gospel). It seems that donkeys won't walk on unfamiliar surfaces, so it just walked round the cloaks to avoid stepping on them! Being notoriously stubborn animals we really struggled to get the donkey stepping over the cloaks. After that we filmed Jesus walking with his Disciples, walking was their main form of transport, the footage will come in handy for between scenes.

The days here just seem to fly by and before long it was Wednesday, a big day for all of us because we were filming the crucifixion. I guess none of us were looking forward to filming this particular scene and several of us got little sleep the night before. Anyway the day came, the extras arrived in costume, three crosses had been made up on the hill over our Jerusalem and a crane was built to allow eye level shots of Jesus on the cross.
When it came to it the day wasn't as feared, although the focus was purely on Jesus' suffering we were all so busy working 110% to get the shots done before the sun went down we didn't have time to lament. We absolutely needed the second film unit to get all the shots and it took all our 'English' politeness not to ruin shots on our lists. We finished with just a few minutes to spare, it was a very intense day but not one I will forget!

We have just a couple more shoot days left now before Shoot Three is over and we head back to the UK for the editing and post work on what we have shot. We have had two editors out on this shoot - Tim and Ben who have been working on the film as we make it, we have a lot of editing work to get this film ready in time for Easter which is an early March Easter this year and will hopefully be back out in February to carry on filming and then will need everything ready for the beginning of March on our Website.

It's going to be a very busy couple of months coming up for the Big Book Media office and Post Production team.

Well that's all from me again for now, Trevor.

Arrested Development

Hi all, Trevor here with another blog from Morocco.

We've had an interesting few nights here trying to film against the cold, wind and dark but have managed to get some really great scenes done.

On Thursday afternoon we filmed some lovely donkeys, including a baby donkey, for a scene where the disciples collect them for Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, we remember this every Palm Sunday. The donkeys didn't seem to mind being filmed and loved being fed in between each shot.

The shot on the left is a couple of our 'actor' donkeys!

The following night was an evening shoot with Jesus under arrest by the temple guards, who take him to the High Priests house. It's amazing how much work and attention to detail goes into every shot, braziers were lit, the set dressed and the lighting arranged which all takes hours before the filming even begins. It was then time to film Peter's denial of Jesus, I have included a photo of the actor, who was superb.

On Friday we went to a location where we filmed scenes of Jesus and the Disciples at the Garden of Gethsemane. This is where Jesus goes to pray just before his arrest. The Disciples fall asleep whilst Jesus is praying. Selva's portrayal of Jesus' agony as he prayed was electrifying and all the more impressive because the weather was so representative of the mood of the scene.
Selva being arrested in his role of Jesus in the photo on the left.


We were approaching Saturday with some trepidation, putting more and more layers of warm clothing on, the night shoots have been really cold - once the sun goes down in the winter here the temperature drops a surprising amount. Luckily Saturday night wasn't so cold as previous nights. We filmed the arrival of the temple guards, coming to arrest Jesus. The scene where a kiss is used by Judas to betray Jesus was quite moving and touching, both know it's a moment of treachery.


So we have now been out filming three nights in a row, in some quite extreme weather conditions(well compared to the weather of previous shoots, pos not quite as extreme as the snow that has fallen over the UK for days now).
I have been seriously impressed by the determination, commitment and professionalism of the crew and cast who get truly great shots even when the conditions are very difficult.

Lastly I thought you might enjoy a picture of me, in suitable local attire for a cold night!
I'll be back with news of the rest of the shoot in a couple of day.

Trevor

Another Shoot Birthday - Selva's Today

Today was a great day. I managed to learn how to fold a reflector. Now this may sound simple but trust me it's a skill! I've been working on my technique for the whole week and I've finally perfected it. We were shooting all exterior stuff today. Mike had created the most beautiful market scene. We also had the Donkey's back on set, although I don't think they were the same ones. I think these guys were new on the scene, much more relaxed and completely happy to pose for pictures and be interviewed!
Photo on the left is a piece of film memorabilia at Atlas Studios.


We then had lunch and another amazing cake (it was Selva's birthday - though he wasn't really celebrating it as he's saving it till he gets home and is with his family) and then continued with the exterior scenes. It was super from my point of view, seeing how the big productions are made. I'm used to shooting in a single room so to have all this amazing space to play with just seemed too much. I don't know how David decides where to put the camera because there are so many beautiful positions to choose from. However the position that was chosen for the last shot of the day quickly got scrapped when David realised (by testing it himself) that the place he wanted to put the camera was on top of a very suspect fibre glass room, which you had to climb an even more suspect ladder to get to. We wrapped half an hour early. The Photo above shows Ben, the camera and some crew in the Ouzazate countryside setting up a shot.

In the evening we all went out to this funky little restaurant on the edge of a cliff. As you walked in there were pictures of all the famous people who had eaten there, including a photo of Laurence Fishbourne (the actor who was in the Matrix)! We had dinner on the roof terrace with a little speaker to provide music, we all had a fantastic meal and celebrated a great first weeks shoot.
J

Happy Birthday to James

What up all! Well I have had a true birthday to remember.
Hannah, Charlie and I spent the morning as extras dressed up in robes and sitting on the most uncomfortable floor ever, very prickly and lumpy! We spent all morning as extras on set - Hannah didn't let it stop her working though - she was on the phone between each take working hard on all UK projects. The photos are Hannah and Amp to the left and myself to the right! A great way to spend a birthday morning and I think when you see the film you'll agree that we made top class extras!!

After my morning of being an extra we had a break for the best lunch ever - I was given a huge birthday cake (photo below of me and the large chocolate layered cake) and everyone sung to me (it was brill).
After lunch we went back on shoot and spent the rest of the day shooting on a robin crane. We used this for the sweeping shots of Jesus walking over mountains.
We have over 50 extras on set and the diva donkeys were back today! Kathy the Photographer spent ages trying to get a picture of them but they're moody and very uncooperative and were not willing to play the game at all! It was pretty hot today and tomorrow is supposed to be boiling hot so I will be in full sun cream and hat.

Thanks so much to the Big Book office for my lovely card and present it really has been such a amazing birthday - won't ever forget it! More updates tomorrow but until then I'm off to have a relaxing birthday evening.


Hi Liz here with a little additional bit of info to James's blog. A little update on what the Brighton office have been up to while the Production Team are away. Amory and Tim have spent the week up at Halo in London doing the final post work on our films, so we haven't seen or heard too much from them - they are holed up there and not allowed out till they finish!!
Alec, Robbie and I have been e-mailing, posting and phoning people inviting them to our launch party. The photo on the left is Robbie by a pile of invites with a Big Book Envelope label on his forehead! We have more work on this tomorrow and next week.
We are having two parties - one in London and then also a smaller one in Brighton so lots of planning to do for those. Alec has also been up with our website company in London getting that ready to go fully live at the end of October.

I have got a pack of our Christmas Cards from the company 1973 so I will put a picture of those in tomorrow's blog along with the final 3 Wise Camels logo which Guy has finished working on,he's now working on our Sunday School packs.
.

Mud Mud Glorious Mud

Well not the title I thought I would be using for my first blog for the second Big Book Media film shoot in Morocco but given that I have been the wettest today that I have ever been in my life it is definitely the most appropriate! James here (Big Book Media Production Assistant - photo of me on the left with clapper board) blogging and trying to dry out after a wet day in the desert!

As well as getting soaked through I am also as red as a lobster, so have managed to get both soaking wet and sunburnt all on one day - I've done well! We got caught in two monsoons while shooting today - we spent all day jumping over rivers of rain working their way through the once dusty now muddy landscape and sheltering under trees when the rain got really heavy to try keep out of it a little bit (not that it worked really as we all still got soaking!). The photos above are Ouzazate and the mud before the rain and on the right hand photo rain clouds gathering above our team!

The weather put filming behind a bit so we had a quick ten min lunch and then Deane our DTI guy, Charlie and myself put together a second unit for filming to go out and re film an earlier scene which needed a re-doing. While the first unit carried on shooting through today's script. It came out really well.
The children who are amongst the extras on set seem to be having great fun - the donkeys and pigs however not so much! Yet again whoever was responsible for casting the donkeys has given us another set of absolute Divas, they are terrible at taking direction from David (our Director!) and are making the usual outrageous demands (fresh lillys and all white scented candles in their dressing trailers - the usual diva stuff!). As for the pigs, well, it took ten guys six hours to catch them and there has been a lot of infighting so Charlie has had to have words with them all and threaten the end of their contract with us if there are anymore problems on the rest of the shoot. The photo above is of some of our Moroccan crew with all the pigs finally in a cart being moved to the set.

All in all I had a great first day, and even though everyone got very wet and muddy spirits are high and the footage looks great. My last photo shows Kathy our photographer's foot covered in mud having taken off her shoe at the end of the day!
I will e-mail again tomorrow with more shoot tales but for now I desperately need to wash off my days mud and get ready for a potential lot more tomorrow!