I’m In “Pendragon—Sword Of His Father” !!
I should have titled that I Might Possibly Be In The Movie “Pendragon—Sword Of His Father”, because I don’t know how the film editing will go. But that title is a bit ponderous, so here we are.
My son and I had the wonderful opportunity of being extra’s during filming last Wednesday night until 4am. It was supposed to end at 1am, but the filming took longer and we got a late start. Regardless, though, it was a fun time, and a privilege to be part of such a worthy endeavor.
When I first heard about this King Arthur movie being made by a Christian family, I posted about it here.
And do you know what? This post is about to break into my “Most Popular Posts” list in record time! Hardly a day goes by without someone Googling for this movie and visiting my blog.
Not only that, but “Pendragon: Sword Of His Father” is becoming an international sensation: people from Britain, Australia, Hungary, and even Japan have been coming to my blog after searching for information about this movie!
After writing that post, I did not realize that half the Burns family lives in the St. Louis area (with the other half in Michigan). Because of this, it turned out that they were going to spend one week in St. Louis filming, and needed extras.
And what an opportunity for me! How often does a newbie, unknown author writing on a somewhat obscure subject like King Arthur get to have the chance of being included in a movie on that same topic?
So what were we filming? Since it was a night scene, I had visions of being involved in a small battle at some little village—but it was much more important than that! But since I don’t want to give away any plot, I better keep my mouth shut. Just let me say that something very somber had just happened.
The amazing thing about the scene that they filmed? I had just written this same scene in my own book! Now, the characters are different, and the plot is different, but the core is there. So what I had just tearfully written I was able to experience.
Surreal.
What was the highlight of the evening?
Being struck in the abdomen by a live, flaming, torch! And no, this was not planned, and it was not filmed. We were all watching things finish up on a set, and I was standing to the left and behind Nick Burns, who plays the villain Cadeyrn. I decided to get a better vantage point from his right side, and moved there at just the moment when he decided to swing his torch backwards! Thankfully, my costume did not catch on fire, and he was very apologetic.
Still, it was like having one of my own villains swipe me with a torch!
My biggest impression from being part of the filming? How much hard work, dedication, professionalism, Christian character, blood, sweat, tears, and money this family is putting forth to make this excellent movie.
Pray for the Burns family as they finish up the filming and the editing prior to the November 1st submissions deadline for the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival, which now boasts the largest monetary award in the world for any film festival—secular or Christian.
Well, that’s cool! Right up your alley, too. I took a quick look at the web site, but I’ll have to look more another time. I look forward to seeing it some day. Give us more details as things progress.
So that was my fun announcement I told you about! Sorry I didn’t get to blog until now, as we were out of town, and it was really busy around the filming.
They dipped the torches in tiki oil … which seems fairly safe as it won’t really light unless there is some other material to burn. For instance, to renew our torches, we would dip them in a plastic bucket of tiki oil, and it worked great … until one torch head fell off into the bucket and it lit on fire. After smothering it, the bucket melted to half size!
There were a few other close calls, and I got singed here and there, but it was fun to hold a real torch.
Are you done with appearing in the movie? Will you get to wield a sword? Such a cool thing to appear in a movie. I hope after editing you are still in and can see yourself in the actual movie.
That’s funny about the torch.
Yes, I am done. Last Wednesday was the only shoot I was able to attend. They were also filming Friday and Saturday, but I couldn’t make it because we had plans to be out of town.
Either way, I think there is a good chance that I will be in the film—at least in one part. There I ended up behind two other guys—one a main character, Brotus. These two were being filmed by a second camera. They conferred together, and then took off walking right past me, and no matter which take they use, I should be in there. But you never know!
My son should also be in it, as he was a soldier much closer to the action than I was. He had a sword, but did not draw it. Originally, I did not have a blade, as I was a villager. But I found a cool dagger by accident in the bottom of a barrel on the set and stuck that in my belt. Villagers have to cut their meat up somehow, right?
They’ve been working on the film for almost 3 years, so to only have to wait four months or so isn’t bad.
Oh, yeah, one of the close calls was that one torch fell apart and landed underneath some guys cloak. He was facing away and didn’t know what was happening, so I pushed him away before he caught fire! He was one of the villain’s henchmen, and dressed in all black … a little like a Nazgul.
i dont know if this is the pendragon book series, but even if this isn’t them……..it looks like a great movie!!!!!
CC, thanks for stopping by!
No, its not based on any book, as they wrote their own script from scratch, did all the filming, acting, scenery, sets, editing, digital effects, and even wrote their own music score!
It turns out I’m in two different sets of camera shots, one shared with my son. Then my son is in another camera shot where he is *really* close to the action.
We’ve watched the film twice now and like it better and better each time.
It is REALLY excellent!
-Robert