Day 24

Hi Everyone:
Today we shot a whole variety of scenes in and about the United Nations. I don’t want to tell you much because these are the climactic scenes of the film and I want to keep you guessing.

Now, we are down to one day left. That’s right, God willing, by the end of tomorrow every frame of film will be ‘in the can’ as they say. Then we go to work on assembling all those pieces, adding the cgi’s (computer generated images), adding the sounds, the musical score and the songs from the musicians. That process will take over four months. I was happy to have some very good discussions with our post audio facility today. We have worked with these guys before and as a matter of fact they were nominated for a Golden Reel Award by the Motion Picture Sound Editors Association for their work on our film Revelation (www.Revelation-themovie.com). If you know that film you may recall how excellent the score and sound effects for the film were. That work took them 5 months. Well, they are about to got work again on Left Behind. This time they don’t just want to be nominated they want to win!

Paul and I also spent a lot of time visiting with Bob Carlisle today. Who doesn’t know his song “Butterfly Kisses”? Well, for you fans out there I can make you jealous. Paul and I got advance copies of his new CD that comes out in August. WOW! It is excellent.

Tomorrow morning Rebecca St. James flies back in. What a story that is. She was here last week for her role in the film. But the night before her shoot we went very late. That meant that the call time (the beginning of work each day) had to be pushed back because you have to give your crew a certain number of hours off (turn around time). But that meant that Rebecca ’s scene could not be shot until later in the day as well. But she had a concert in Philadelphia! No way around it right? Wrong.

As Byron Jones (our Business Development Manager) and I sat with her for breakfast the next morning we were overwhelmed with her enthusiasm with what God was doing through this film. That’s when we looked at each other and said “we’ve got make this work.” The solution was that Rebecca would fly to Philly for concerts on Friday and Saturday night and then get up at the crack of dawn on Sunday and fly back to Toronto for the final day of shooting. I love that Australian enthusiasm!

I’ll even keep these updates going through post-production if you like, maybe we’ll do that on a weekly basis instead of daily – if you can survive that long. But if everyone is going through withdrawal we can give you more regular updates. As we go we can talk about the post production process and also the marketing and distribution of the film. After all, you can make the greatest film in the world but if no sees it… I know I’ve also been promising you updates on our distribution strategy and I’ll do that next week as I get back into the office a bit. Believe it or not I am still struggling with this cold…

Ted Baehr was also here this weekend. Many of you know Ted from his MovieGuide Magazine. Ted is a great friend of ours and will be working with us to strategize on our theatrical plans for next February. Ted was of great to help to us a couple of years ago when Revelation was about to hit the theaters. Two weeks before the release date we were advised that the Motion Picture Association had given us an “R” rating. What??? We were outraged. We appealed by telephone and were declined. But the ruling made little sense. They said one scene (where a guy was shot) was too violent. We knew this made no sense. So we sent Ted and Byron to LA to appeal in person. Ted was terrific as was Byron. The decision was overturned 14-1 and by the end of it a bunch of the panel had subscribed to MovieGuide. Ted knows what he is talking about. By the way – the one panel member who had caused this whole thing just argued that such films (you know, Bible films) had no place in Hollywood. So the battle does still rage…

Kirk and Chelsea put in anther terrific day today. They are so good. The other night we went so late that Kirk was literally falling asleep between takes. I have never seen anyone look so tired. This guy has been in virtually every scene of the film. He has worked almost every day. 16 hours a day. He has never complained. Never pulled a temper tantrum (very rare) and never hidden in his trailer. He has been on set. He has visited with everyone. Done every interview (lots) we’ve asked him to do. He has prayed and prepared. I could not be more proud to be associated with anyone. He is true warrior for the Gospel and one terrific actor. Thank you Kirk.

And Chelsea. What a princess. She is gracious and kind. Like Kirk she has been totally accessible and a wonderful testimony for the Gospel. She prays and so sincerely wants the Lord to use for his glory. These are stars unlike any I have ever met. Thank you too Chelsea. Anyone know why Paul and I are on Cloud Ten?

God willing, we’ll talk again tomorrow! Pete

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