Posted by Shannon and Sara Burns at 12:05 pm on Jan. 15, 2009.
This poem was written by Andy Burns, (King Ambrosius) to honor the sacrifices of the Pendragon extras.
The Exploitation of Dan and Me
By Andrew Burns
Dedicated to our awesome extras who made Pendragon possible
There were strange things done
Under the sun
In the quest for San Antone;
The production trails
Have their secret tales
That would turn your heart to stone.
The studio lights
Have seen cruel sights,
But the cruelest they ever did see,
Was the way that Chad
And his Uncle and Dad
Exploited Dan and me.
We read on the net
Of a movie set,
And a film that they were a makin’
And if we came,
They promised fame,
And the glory was ours for the takin’
With our chance so near,
We left with our gear,
Which was little more than our clothes,
And we talked all the way,
Of the parts we would play,
And the size of our starring roles.
When we got to the set,
We kinda started to sweat;
Tim said, “Where’s the swords and the towers?”
Chad said, “Have no fear!
We are glad you are here,
But we won’t begin filming for hours.”
“But there’s plenty to do,
Why, you’re one of the crew,”
Chad said as we signed the release.
Then he tossed me a shirt,
All grimy with dirt,
And so began the great fleece.
In the summer, the swelter,
In winter, no shelter,
How we loathed this silly fool’s romp,
But we didn’t complain,
‘Til it started to rain,
And we stood knee deep in the swamp.
In ninety degrees,
We were on our knees,
“Just one more take,” Chad cried,
But in a moment we knew,
‘Twas too good to be true,
For yet again he’d lied.
Two hours later,
I was baked like a tater,
And I begged for a drink of cold water,
Ambrosius barked out,
“Get busy, you lout,
And carry this box for my daughter.”
Another extra went down,
And Chad looked around,
For a charge on the Saxons they were leadin.’
He looked over at Tim,
And said, “Let’s use him!”
And the next thing I knew Tim was bleedin.’
Then he yelled, “Grab that bum!”
And threw me in the scum,
And an axe hit my head with a thud.
His hands gave a clap,
And he cried, “That’s a wrap!”
And they all left us there in the mud.
When I finally woke, skin all bruised, bones all broke,
A letter lay by my hospital bed.
As we lay there recoopin,’
Our spirits were droopin,’
because of what this letter said.
The note was from Chad,
And it said he was sad,
To recant what he’d told us before.
That despite his best means,
It seemed all our scenes,
Ended up on the cutting room floor!
Posted by Shannon and Sara Burns at 1:18 pm on Jan. 12, 2009.
The time is 1:00 AM. The lobby of the Holiday Inn Express has filled with select guests and friends of the Pendragon project. The TV is turned off and breakfast tables are pushed aside. The SAICFF “shadow closing ceremony” is about to begin…
Andy Burns explains the fire safety manual to the crowd.
Chad Burns accepts the highly coveted Jujube award.
The ceremony included the reading of a special poem written to honor the extras who made Pendragon possible (our apologies to Mr. Service and the Cremation of Sam McGee)
Posted by Shannon and Sara Burns at 5:00 pm on Jan. 11, 2009.
Our good friends the Moores took Audience Choice and the Best of Festival award at SAICFF. Pendragon was very well received by the audience, though it failed to score any awards. Pendragon was a Feature Finalist and shared that honor with Fireproof, Expelled, the Widow’s Might, and others.
The festival was a great experience for all of us. It was so much fun to see Pendragon on the “big screen” and get a chance to spend time with so many of our friends who helped make it all possible. It was a great chance to spend a few days looking back together on all that the Lord has done through this project.
Watching Pendragon in the main theatre!
It was tremendously encouraging to have many many people tell us they enjoyed the film and that they were encouraged by its message and the perseverance of those who made it. We met many new friends and fans.
Faith Alessio helped to set up an interview with NPR.
Very shortly we hope to have an exciting announcement regarding bookstore distribution, and we will be post a 10 minute BTS clip on this blog that played on the Pendragon table at SAICFF.
Chad discussing technical details with a few avid fans!
We all really enjoyed hearing the Von Trapps sing.
Cast and crew fellowship after the award ceremony.
Enjoying the evening with some music.
Posted by Shannon and Sara Burns at 11:48 pm on Jan. 8, 2009.
San Antonio – We are here!
Some of the stars will be available at the table between 3:30-4:00pm on Friday. On Saturday some of them will be in the booth between 1:15-1:45pm. Please come by to see them if you’d like a free autographed collectors card. Hope to see you there!!
Don’t miss getting your signed collector’s cards!!!
Posted by Shannon and Sara Burns at 4:13 pm on Jan. 7, 2009.
After an eighteen hour car ride, we stopped at our cousins house in Houston. The next morning, we woke up to balmy sunshine…ahhh, Texas is beautiful! We spent the rest of the day at the park with our cousins.
Boys playing a game at the park!
Girls playing at the park!
Going on grand adventures!
Nick was enjoying the kiddy toys WAY too much!
That evening we watched Pendragon at our cousins’ church!
Posted by Shannon and Sara Burns at 11:49 am on Jan. 5, 2009.
Last night we had a party at the Southern Burns’s house, our first real party since Pendragon! We really enjoyed just having some good old-fashioned fun together. J
Playing a heated game of Axis and Allies
There was some question whether we could remember how to have a proper party, but after an all-cousin trip to Wal-Mart for party supplies, we pulled it off!
Shopping at Walmart…it was quite the trip!
Since our mothers never let us get junk like this…the boys decided to use the opportunity to stock up! 
Enjoying our time together!
This Tuesday, we’re headed for San Antonio.
Posted by Shannon and Sara Burns at 1:12 am on Jan. 3, 2009.
Hi everyone – Sorry this blog has not been updated in sooo long. We are going to begin regularly updating it again.
It has been quite a year. The Lord has been very gracious to all of us and the film is finally completed.
If you’re coming to the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival, otherwise know as SAICFF – please stop by our table in the vender hall to say hi. At various times Artos (Aaron), Wenneveria (Marilyn) and Caderyn (Nick) will be signing specially printed collectors cards. Please check the blog on the mornings of Friday 23rd and Saturday the 24th to find out what times they will be at the table. Signed cards will be free for all avid fans while supplies last 
Over the past weeks Lisa and Peter have cracked open the significant archive of behind the scenes footage and have begun the task of putting together some preliminary BTS clips. A plasma display will be rolling the first 7 minutes of this project at the Burns Family Studios table.
See you in Texas!
The Burns Family
****
BTS frame: Nick discussing the rigors of being a movie star.
BTS frame: Ethan explains why he’s happy.
