Here are the first pictures from the production in LA. This is only a small part of the wonderful scenes we managed to shoot. More to follow.
Update, November 18:
Because I was flying back home all day yesterday, I wasn’t able to actually add anything to my post to describe the shoot. Here’s a little bit now.
On our the first day (Sat Nov 14), we filmed exterior shots in Waterman Canyon in the San Gabriel mountains just north of LA. It was a lovely spot, just perfect for replicating Thuringia in St. Elizabeth’s time. The leaves in CA evidently don’t turn in November, so it seemed almost like summer, which was when St. Elizabeth’s farewell with her husband actually took place. This in particular was the scene I had always dreamed about filming, and it turned out beautifully. The student actors from Azusa Pacific University did a splendid job, we had a great cinematographer (Michael), and the most beautiful location possible. Only the costumes were a little problematic, due to lack of budget and time. We had to make do with costumes borrowed from the Theater Department at APU, and some we rented from a local costume shop. We had to take what we could get, whether ideal or not.
We didn’t have to pay anything for this location, as it was a state park — at least no one showed up to object :). It was a bit different on Sunday. Michael and I had spent all day long Friday looking for an interior location without success (and he had spent a week previously looking). They all wanted insurance, which was too expensive for us, plus mucho $$$ for filming. Finally, on Saturday night, Hollywood Presbyterian Church (the founding church of Act One) agreed to let us do it for $500.00 plus insurance. We still had no insurance. But Michael got a cinematographer friend of his, Brad, who is quite experienced and has insurance, to come and be second cameraman on the shoot; we presented the church with his insurance certificate and paid him as well (still less expensive than purchasing insurance, which we might not have been able to get at the last minute anyway). Whew!
This second day went great too, but they only allowed us to have the place for 3 hours, which meant we couldn’t shot some things we had planned. But the lighting job Michael and Brad did was stupendous, and the second camera was helpful in moving things along faster. My brother Pat (with whom I was staying in Hermosa Beach) and his girlfriend Vera, had roles. Members of Michael’s family came along and filled in as extras in the church scene where Elizabeth lays down her crown. This was a grueling day, but well worth it.
More later.
Update: November 26, Thanksgiving Day, I’ve had quite a week catching up with work. Only now am I able to put up some more images and correct the ones I had already done.
The time is here at last! After months of frustration, everything has come together. I will be filming the final interview and the historical re-creation shots for the St. Elizabeth documentary A Woman for Our Time. I will be leaving November 12 for LA, and will stay until November 17 (St. Elizabeth’s feast day!). The recreations and interview will be filmed by my cameraman from Hungary, Michael Eaton. He is one of the up-and coming Hollywood cameraman with an expertise in digital video and has worked on a number of Hollywood productions, so it was difficult to coordinate with his schedule.
Please pray for this work. I could also use financial support. This trip is likely to drain all my funds, and when it’s done, I will will still have a lot of expensive post-production work to do.
You can donate online through credit card or Paypal here.
Please note that PayPal always adds $3.75 to your donation, because for some reason it always treats a donation in the same way as the price for a book, to which postage is to be added. I have no idea how to stop them from doing that. I don’t think it necessary to charge postage for a donation for a DVD. So if you want to donate only a certain amount, just enter $3.75 less than you want to give into the online box, and you’ll be all right.
Or send a check to Lori Pieper, Tau Cross Books and Media, 30 W. 190th St., Apt. 6N, Bronx, NY 10458-2553. Make the check out to Tau Cross Books and Media. Be sure to include your name and mailing address. Everyone who donates $10 or more will receive a free copy of the video. The actual price when released will be much higher. This is sure to be a very high-quality documentary and an excellent investment. Include your e-mail address for continuing updates on the video.
Pope Benedict isn’t just welcoming Anglicans who are swimming the Tiber to Rome — he’s building them a bridge. That was my first thought when I learned early today of the new structures the Catholic Church will soon have in place to care for the traditionally-minded Anglicans who want to be in full communion with Rome. There are many of them - the Traditional Anglican Communion, some 400,000 strong, has many members who want to return to Rome. They have become increasingly dissatisfied with the Anglican Church as it has discarded more and more of the ancient Christian doctrines and practices, and ordained openly and actively gay clergy.
It was fifty years ago that Pope John XXIII, in announcing that he would call the Second Vatican Council, expressed the hope for the reunion of Christian Churches. Four years later, on his deathbed, he continued to murmur his greatest wish: Ut unum sint (that they may be one). Today, Pope Benedict has brought that dream a giant step closer to reality, at least for Anglicans. Of course, the majority of the Anglican Church will be cut off, perhaps more than ever, from seeing eye to eye with Rome, but they are fast losing all credibility as Christians, even among their own flocks. Benedict’s bridge will no doubt see more and more traffic in coming years.
The Anglican converts will keep much of their own liturgy and spiritual traditions. This move is at one with Benedict’s wise understanding about the traditionalist Catholics in our own fold — “we can be different but still united.”
I wonder whether the reason the date for John Henry Newman’s beatification has been delayed is so that the Catholics and newly in-communion Anglicans can jointly celebrate the Mass elevating this Anglican convert to the altars. If so, what a grand day that will be!
“It seems to me there must be some divine purpose in it. It often has happened in sacred and in ecclesiastical history, that a thing is in itself good, but the time has not come for it … And thus I reconcile myself to many, many things, and put them into God’s hands. I can quite believe that the conversion of Anglicans may be more thorough and more extended, if it is delayed – and our Lord knows more than we do.”
Prophetic words indeed.
And it seems that St. Therese of Lisieux, whose relics were on display very recently in England, may have had a large role to play in all this. The whole story is worth reading.
Here is the (more or less) final version of the trailer for A Woman for Our Time: St. Elizabeth of Hungary. With many thanks to Fr. Amando Trujillo-Cano for the use of his great song “Santa Isabel, Ensenanos a Amar.” (St. Elizabeth, Teach us to Love.”
Stay tuned for more news on the film as it takes shape.
Here it is - it’s taken a lot of work. This one was based largely on the interviews done in our last round of celebrations in Hungary, but covers a bit of every place we shot in. This time, the interviews were almost all in English, so I made this an English-language only trailer.
This is really a rough, unfinished version; there are still a lot of problems. One of the biggest is due to the fact that Michael was unable to use his light package in Hungary — his high-powered lights blew out the fuses in the place where we were staying. So we couldn’t move around for interviews, and had to gather as many of the lamps and other lights the Manreza Center could find for us all in one place — Michael’s room. So every interview was shot in the same spot, and from almost the same angle. It can be very tiring to look at. I hope there will eventually be some way to fix all this in editing, or at least not to have so many of the interviews with the same background one after another.
On the other hand, this one uses a greater variety of images, and is faster-moving and more visually exciting than the first trailer.
There will be more edited footage as time goes on. So keep checking back.
Pausing to look at all the sights on our way to Jerusalem. . . Mainly about faith, the Church, film, writing, famous Christian authors, and anything else I'm interested in at the moment.
The photo above was taken at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome in March 2007.
Quote of the Month
"We are talking of peace. These are things that break peace, but I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war, a direct killing — direct murder by the mother herself. And we read in the Scripture, for God says very clearly: Even if a mother could forget her child — I will not forget you — I have carved you in the palm of my hand. We are carved in the palm of His hand, so close to Him that unborn child has been carved in the hand of God. And that is what strikes me most, the beginning of that sentence, that even if a mother could forget something impossible — but even if she could forget — I will not forget you. And today the greatest means — the greatest destroyer of peace is abortion."
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, in her Nobel Prize acceptance Speech, 1979
