Filming a Blacksmithing Scene

Posted by Shannon at 9:51 am on Jun. 19, 2007.

Over the last four weeks of filming the Lord has blessed us in countless ways. From smaller blessings like good weather to bigger blessings like new friends who have helped push the production value of the film to a new level, the Lord has been faithfully providing for the needs of this project. It is exciting to see Him bring so many people together to make this happen.

We are on a three week editing break right now, but we will pick back up with the filming the second week of July. Friday was our last filming day for the trip. We filmed the very first scene of the movie. In the scene, Artos and his father (Justinian) are forging a sword. We were originally hoping to film the scene in a real blacksmith shop, but there were no shops conveniently located with accurate historical equipment. (The only completely accurate shop we could locate was in Greece!) That is why Nick and Aaron decided to build one in our backyard! Rather than make an entire shop, they built an outdoor smithy completely working hearth. It’s really neat.

We had five extras to work in the smithy for the establishing sequence. They were all extremely helpful in getting the scene done. Because we were filming a night scene, we started rolling the cameras around 11:00 p.m. and were planning to finish around 3:00 a.m. Unfortunately…things took a bit longer than anticipated, and we finished at 5:00 a.m.! After that, we all ate ice cream and went for a walk. (our after-dinner desert was only a little bit late.) Thankfully this is the last shoot for a while, so we can all get some sleep! We were very pleased with how everything went this past month and look forward to more. We would appreciate your prayers as we make plans and prepare for upcoming shoots.

Artos’s father, Justinian

The smithy hearth that Aaron and Nick built

Playing basketball at 5 a.m. after we filmed all night