Have you ever been on a roller coaster blindfolded? That’s what I’ve felt like the past few weeks. Twists and turns are all around me and under me and ahead of me…you get the picture.
A week ago, as I write this, I was in a maximum security prison telling guys about Jesus. Before that I was on a set for a television series about the life of Christ. In between I’ve been hauling mattresses and mail equipment in and around Texas to pay my bills.
I’m making myself dizzy just typing that out.
I realize there are some lessons I learned while on the set of The Chosen that I should share with y’all. Just a friendly reminder that we’re sworn to secrecy about some of what we saw, but this is what I can tell you.
The guy they picked to play Jesus is a lot closer to the real deal than anyone knows. He just might be omniscient. Let me explain.
When the actor came over to thank us investors (which they’re still needing more of so they can complete season one…hint, hint) he noticed I had my name on my coat. Since I knew we were going to be there til about midnight I knew I would need layers of extra clothing so I wore an old work coat that I left my name label on.
I introduced myself as Wade. He checked my name label and made a remark that it was good that my real name wasn’t Fred instead of Wade.
My siblings will get a kick out of that comment immediately because my dad used to ask for Fred whenever he needed help on the farm from one of his sons. He apparently didn’t care which one of us came out, as long as one of us did. Neither of us was named Fred.
Only someone with the omniscience of Jesus would make that connection with me being mistaken for Fred. Me thinks.
The director of The Chosen is named Dallas Jenkins. You probably heard of his dad, Jerry Jenkins. You’ve heard of him, if you ever read any of the Left Behind series of books. Oh, come on now. They only sold over a gazillion and one million copies.
Anyway, Dallas and his crew are meticulous when it comes to details. They put so much emphasis on everything because they know this is being offered to God to help build His kingdom.
I mentioned the boats I saw when I first walked on the set in a previous blog post. While the props are important the way things are said and shown are even more decisive in telling the story.
I saw this firsthand in what they called video village. It’s actually just a tent with a monitor and headsets folks in there wear to get the view of what folks will see on TV. I guess only people with the creative imagination of making a television series would call a tent a village, but it’s their set so I just went along for the ride and smiled.
Dallas got a lot of exercise from going out to the set giving directions to the actors then running into the tent/village to see how it got recorded. When they were having Jesus calling Simon and Andrew to follow Him I watched Dallas’s reactions as they recorded this scene for the umpteenth time. It was all going smoothly until Jesus got to the critical moment when He says, “Follow Me.” At that precise moment a gust of wind blew the cameraman off balance. Dallas almost fell out of his folding chair, which he probably considers a throne. The next take was the keeper, or whatever they call it.
There was another scene where Simon and Andrew were on the lookout for some other fishermen who were out after dark. Since the Jewish day back then began at sunset that meant they were working on the Sabbath. This is all to show Simon before his encounter with Jesus. They had recorded this conversation from several angles at night. I watched them do a few takes and thought one of them would be the one they’d use. Dallas stepped out for a few minutes. All of a sudden he reappeared in the tent and the guys hit it out of the ballpark. I don’t know what he told them but they got the “moving on” sign after that.
“Moving on” means they’re done recording that scene and need to set up for the next one. It’s also the phrase too many folks need to say in their own personal life. Don’t stay stuck repeating the same life experiences. Move on to the next phase. Please.
All I can say is this is going to be one incredible experience for everyone who sees any part of this series. That’s the goal for everyone involved.
They’re done recording the first four episodes. They couldn’t have done it without the financial support of investors like me. I happened to have a small amount of inheritance money at the time they began to seek investors. I now wish I would have discovered this a few weeks sooner so I could have invested more.
If I come into some more money soon I will. You can become an important member of the team, too. They call it everyone putting in their loaves and fishes to see how Jesus will feed the crowd.
Go to their website thechosen.tv and watch the pilot episode. This is the perfect time of year to see it because it follows one of the shepherds who heard the angels’ proclamation of the Savior being born. They’re accepting investments of $100 or more. They still need over two million dollars to record the next four episodes. Do what you can to see this project move on to the next season and see how Jesus feeds the crowd with your loaves and fishes.
I’ll see you later. Wade
