and finally

and finally .... below is a picture of the very nice hotel pool, which sadly I saw very little of because we all worked from dawn to dusk, incredibly hard. I know working on a film sounds very glamourous but I can tell you that it's hard work, yes it's in some beautiful locations but the work came first and that was true for all the crew and cast. Above is a picture of Tasha and me in Casablanca, we had some free time on our way out of the country so we did a little shopping and sight seeing.

These are some photos of the on set catering, as you can see there was a large colourful tent next to the shoot where food was cooked and served. There was also a refigerated van which was just to provide everyone with chilled water, which at over 40C on most days was absolutely essential. You can see from the photo at the top that this particular day, Selva ate with his disciples; now that's what you call getting into the part !

What are you doing ?

For those of you who asked what on earth was I doing ? The answer is that I was the assistant producer because Hannah (the Producer) was away for part of the shot in Spain, and the pictures above show me assistant producing !! The bottom picture is me watching the filming on the monitor, we filmed with a high definition digital camera, the end results were amazing and of course availalbe immediately; infact whilst were in Morocco some of the editing was already being done and I saw the nativity scene which was beautifully done. When you see it I promise you'll be truly amazed.

John baptises & the baptism of Jesus

Then we shot John the Baptist, see above, looking rather splendid in his camel hair clothing, at the river Jordan baptising people. And also Jesus being baptised, which as you can see used a camera on a long counter weighted arm, which gave a shooting zooming up as Jesus came up out of the water. I can't wait to see the finished and edited scene of this I'm sure it will be absolutely amazing. I thought I'd also tell you that the actor playing John the Baptist has, over the years, played every part in the biblical story, including Jesus, except John, so now he has the complete set !

It suddenly got very busy

Well as you may have noticed there wern't any live blogs after Tuesday PM because it suddenly became very busy indeed and I just didn't have to time to post anything. So to finish off I thought I'd post the remaining photos and describe them. Above you'll see Selva, playing Jesus, in a wilderness scene which is going to accompany the John 1 reading. The same location was used for the preaching of John the Baptist. You can see how many crew are working on the project and you can see the track which the camera runs along to a moving perspective.

Tuesday AM / PM

It been a bit of a strange day today, I've been shorting out problems whilst everyone else has been on set. I certainly didn't appreciate how many people actually work on a film behind the scenes, literally. See a picture of Vicki our production accountant keeping the books and payments in order with Tasha. There's also a picture of some extras waiting around a street corner for the shout of 'action'. I also took a picture of the extras waiting for thier call in the town square. All this has given me an appreciation of what a collaberative / team effort making a film is, everyone playing thier part.

Monday PM

It's been a very busy day, although the crew take it all in thier stride, I'm really impressed with thier professionalism. The was a fabulous shoot at the city gate with lots of action and extras, see picture. The animals in any scene are hard to control, see the picture of the sheep and goats, very biblical. There was also a scene of Jesus as a young boy talking to the teachers in the temple, see the picture of the boy playing the young Jesus. There was some great hand held camera work by Ben our Director of Photography, following Joseph and Mary, see picture, pushing thier way through the crowd.

Monday Morning

Got up 6.30am. It's a alot cooler at this time of day. Had breakfast and discovered 50 extras waiting for costumes in the hotel garden. Walked down the road to the shoot, the first scene is Mary greeting Elizabeth, see the picture. I watched the filming through the monitor and I was really impressed by the quality of the acting and the look of the scenes, I think the end product is going to be amazing. I took a picture of Mary having her make-up adjusted, she looks very young, although the actress is 18, probably the real Mary was around 12 to 16.

Sunday Evening

We arrived in Ouarzazate and were then driven to Tamnagat where we're filming tomorrow. It's quite hot, 38C and the air con in the hotel where we're staying, see picture, dosen't work, but there is a pool. Had dinner with the crew and had an early night.

Just arrived in Casablanca

Well I've just arrived in Casablanca very late, after a slightly too long flight from London and then a 2 hour wait for the luggage, got to the hotel at 2.45am. Tasha travelled on a different plane because her flight was booked later than mine, she has gone straight to Ouarzazate, where the first week of filming has been taking place. I'm accompanying Selva who is playing the part of Jesus in the film and we are staying overnight in Casablanca. We all meet up tomorrow lunch time. Casablanca evokes wonderful sepia images of Humphrey Bogart and Rick's Bar ! But the sad truth is that the whole of that film was shot on set in Hollywood and Casablanca is just another town but now with high rise tower blocks and nothing even remotely romantic about it. It's warm here about 22C at night which isn't too bad, I know that Ouarzazate will be alot warmer. The pictures are a view from the hotel in Casablanca and Selva looking quite despondent waiting for his luggage. Busy day tomorrow, so going to get some sleep.

Going to Morocco

Today I'm off to Morocco, with Tasha. I'm going on location with Big Book Media to the shooting of the Lectionary Project. We are filming the Sunday Gospel readings and over the next year hope to cover the whole three year lectionary cycle. The films will be available to churches and individuals from Christmas 09. We chose Morocco because of its similar look to ancient Israel and the various sets in the desert such as 1st C Jerusalem and Herods Temple. Hopefully if you're interested be able to follow progress via my blog;-

http://trevorcritchlow.blogspot.com/

http://www.bigbookmedia.com/
.