Meanwhile, at the Northern Burns house, Marilyn and Aaron have been busy on the soundtrack. As the editors finish a scene, they send it on to the composers. Aaron and Marilyn are studying orchestration and continuing to learn to understand the composing software. They have finally completed the majority of the preparation work, and are beginning to compose themes.

 The sound studio

Composing music for a scene.

Artos astride Prince

One of Artos’s pursuers. 

As the crew looks on, Artos is hotly pursued. 

Lisa holds a horse between takes. The Atherton family provided dinner and hospitality for our crew—what a blessing!  On Saturday, we were rained out in the morning, but God was gracious and by early afternoon, the sun was shining.

Nick checks the shot list.

 Eponine tries on a new pair of shades.  

Chad, Kyle, and Dusty review the footage on location.

Rebecca and Marilyn’s costumes were not very warm, so between each take, they put on wool coats.   

Besides one small scene, we are not doing any daytime filming on this trip. Our schedule is very “unusual.” We get up around 2:30 PM and eat first breakfast. Then, after working on set construction and film prep for several hours, we have elevensies (at 8:30), after which we start filming at dark. In the middle of the night (roughly 12:30), we bring a bedlunch out to the crew, which they eat during a short break. When filming wraps up at dawn, we make a second breakfast.

Aunt Tracey making grilled fish  for elevensies.

Chad compared our meal schedule to that of the lumberjacks.  

As we celebrated our country’s birthday, our crew took time off to attend a patriotic picnic.

The muffin girls were busy in the kitchen whipping up a festive dessert—berry cheesecake.

Aaron and Uncle Ray on the bluffs.

While the crew was away filming, the rest of us began organizing and repacking the trailer. This job took us longer than we had expected. At dusk, Chad set up the HMI (the most powerful light we own) so that the work could continue. Aaron, Marilyn, and Ashley will be leaving at 6:30 tomorrow morning, and they will be taking the trailer and its contents back to Michigan with them.

At present, Chad, Nick, and Ethan are busy editing, until next week when we will all be back in Michigan.

The two Aarons

Two crew members

Ashley was so helpful! Her energy was incredible throughout the entire shoot. She not only worked as a crew memeber, but also got in costume to be an extra.

      Much of what we filmed in St. Louis is top secret information! The director will not allow us to reveal details about locations or sets until the movie’s release. We had a very successful week of filming. 

Thankfully, for most of the week, the weather was not typical St. Louis heat.On Saturday however, it was definately very warm! 

Two of the extras cooling off in the fountain

Many wonderful extras and friends came out to help. The Santoyo family brought lunch on Friday. (Thank You!)

The boys practicing their fight.

We spent more time on the set for this scene than any other scene. We built an army camp in the Northern Burns’ swamp. In order to do this, we had to pump out the water and dig a trench to let it drain. All hands were called out to help with this major undertaking. Mr. Burnham was able to come over and help us out with the set and props for this scene. It was great to be able to see him again.

The swamp before it was drained.

We used this trash pump to drain the water. 

We made many bedlunches for the crew this week. (Bedlunch is a meal served between supper and breakfast)

The Lord definitely had His Hand of protection on us as we filmed this week.

Many thanks to all of our great extras! They made the scene a sucess.

Eponine Ledden enjoys a messy peanut butter sandwhich 

John-Clay is back in Michigan!

The set

Detail on the props

 Muffin Run

With the alarm set, your authors (Sara and Shannon) headed off to bed at the extremely early hour of 11:30 PM. After a few hours of rest, we fumbled to suppress the screeching noises emerging from the plastic device—the time was 3:30 AM. We tiptoed to the kitchen. Upon arrival at the affore mentioned destination, we began to rummage through the pots to evacuate the mixing bowls. With our creations safely stowed in the oven, we took a moment’s repose on the sofa. When we next became aware of the welfare of our handiwork, we discovered them to be…“thoroughly baked.” Hastily packaging the warm delicacies, yours truly rode down to the set to make our special delivery. Our timing was perfect. The crew was in need of a warm snack. They gratefully devoured our muffins and then returned to the task at hand. Our work was a success.

Aaron and Erik waiting for the call to action

Cadeyrn rides through the ranks of his men.

Chad instructs the extras.

The pizza arrives!