On Location to Musings...

On Location, Filming of ‘Book of Being’
It is already several days into this adventure of a different kind. I’ve never been in a movie before. Granted, this isn’t your big Hollywood production with a projected audience of millions but we’ve realized that whether or not you put out less-than-admirable films or quality stuff the same amount of work is involved and the same amount of ‘little details’ are involved.

Each of us involved, Nathan Daher, Jordan Niednagel and myself, along with the support we’re getting from Jordan’s older brother Jeremy, have put a lot of effort into this film, some much more than others. The projected venue is a Christian film festival in San Antonio, TX. Our film has a website: www.bookofbeing.com. The plot, a teaser trailer, and some other media is available for viewing.

Today, Saturday, we are taking a rest from our efforts of the last couple of days. Missouri, our location, is very humid and hot this time of year and the amount of clothing we have on for our costumes only serves to amplify our toasty surroundings. So far we’ve been able to get some key things filmed and I’ve been pleased with my acting ability. There aren’t very many actors with my particular brain type and so I was a little worried that I might not be able to pull this off, but so far I haven’t had too much difficulty.

Jordan Niednagel lives in the Ozark “mountains” right on the border of the Mark Twain National forest. There are huge tracts of land that are pretty much untouched and are available for public access and would-be film crews. The scenery is very beautiful with rolling hills smothered in trees and winding valleys cradling wide streams.

Our movie is an allegorical story depicting the life and struggles of Believers in Christ and is set in a fantasy/medieval world called Being. There are elements similar to John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” as the three different kingdoms in Being are called Mansheart, Mansmind, and Mansstrength. As each kingdom falls away from the other and begin to worship their own abilities darkness and evil, represented by characters called the Aphel (ah-fell) which is greek for ‘darkness’, begin to take over their lands and they experience hardship and turmoil. The king of Mansheart, the head kingdom and one which hadn’t began to fully experience the same problems as the others, decides that a quest must be embarked upon to find “The Prince”, the founder of all of the kingdoms and ruler of the Western lands. Three warriors from each kindgom are beckoned to join in on this quest and together they set off to seek the solution to the danger.

As is the case with 90% of all low-budget films ours is mostly shot in the woods, the cheapest and most abundant of set options. However, we do have great costumes, each of them designed and put together by their prospective wearer. Our equipment is of great quality as well and the footage we have looks very realistic. So far I’m proud of what we have been able to pull off, although of course the final edit is that which shall determine success or failure.

The film festival is one of such a nature that the large bulk of the entries are not ones that we need be concerned of. There are a few that have been announced and that have provided trailers that we have some reason for trepidation but overall we are quite confident of our chances. I am definitely the most optimistic of the three of us, being the good-natured bloke that I am, and there is constantly occasion for me to proclaim my firm belief in our abilities and to call each of us to lay aside our doubts and enjoy these moments we have together and relish the future surety of our victory.

I do believe that I shall be fully exhausted by the time we are through though. While I am used to the heat that assaulted us each day in Darfur I was not accustomed to heavy clothing and certainly not very often the intense humidity and daily barrage of venomous and stinging insects. One must be careful to perform full body searches often so as to locate and extrapolate and exterminate the numerous ‘ticks’ that nestle into the warm crevasses provided by the average human body. Disgusting, but necessary. It is all part of the game I suppose but it further convinces me of the need to eventually settle in a part of our country where these annoyances can altogether be avoided.

Through the course of this fantastic journey I have indeed been exposed to the variety we have within our shores and have noticed several places where I would like to live. Growing up as I did for the five and a half years or so that I lived full-time in North Carolina was a joy (my family has been there for almost seven years) and I wouldn’t have it another way, but I have seen places now that pique my interest and I know that I would like to live there for a time.

One of the other benefits, as I see it, of this trip and the direction that my life has taken over the last two years (i.e. Sudan, et al) is a sudden desire for adventure an ‘non-normalcy’. There has been tapped within me an urge that I did not know existed before and although it is in its infant stages I believe it could be likened to the drive that caused such explorers like Ernst Shackelton or adventurers like Lewis and Clarke to embark on the journeys that changed their lives. I know it is folly to compare myself to such great men but I don’t think it is too bold of me to say that there might exist between us a bond in the form of our desire for the extraordinary.

When I realize these things about myself I then look to the source and understand that God, in His wisdom in preparing me for His plans, has placed a desire in me to go out and lay hold of experiences which will deepen and broaden me as a person. I cannot claim to know what use they will have for me later in life but I know that I can enjoy them while I have them and pray that someday the things I learn from them can be used to encourage others.

There are already brewing in my mind adventures to take that further excite me. I’m not going to divulge what they are right now but they will become known in due time. I’d rather not be a cloud that promises rain but never delivers.