Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Filming The Chosen  Season 5 :  Second Day , Confronting the Pharisees

On the 2nd day when I was wearing my Orange and yellow headdress that I had braided myself, I was standing in the crowd while Jesus went up to the Temple entrance and confronted the pharisees when he says he would tear down the Temple and rebuild it in 3 days, and when the pharisees asked by what authority Jesus responds, “My own.” That is my character's conversion point and I follow jesus out of the temple shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David!” and walking directly by Atticus. We did the scene so many times that I must have walked by Atticus about 20 times. Nice guy!

What follows is the view to my right and then my left that day:
 Above you can see the entrance to the court of women where the pharisees were standing when jesus confronts them.

PLEASE SEE LATER POST WITH SCREENSHOTS OF THE EPISODE ONCE IT IS RELEASED.


Filming The Chosen Season 5 :  On Set in The Court of Women


We were only allowed to take pictures for a few minutes the first day, and only in the waiting area which, today, was The Court of Women/Gentiles. (This would actually be the main Set the final 3 days.)

Here are my 2 prize pictures from this area (more about them in a later post):

in thw background of this shot was the rooftop where other extras were standing in the final 3 days.

PLEASE SEE LATER POST WITH SCREENSHOTS OF THE EPISODE ONCE IT IS RELEASED.

Filming The Chosen Season 5 : Day 1 & 2 Jesus Flips the Tables

The first 2 days of filming we participated in "the flipping of the tables" scene in the temple. We were right there when Jesus flipped the tables and cracked the whip! 
My "background reset" set the first day. The sheep fold is to the left. Jesus would appear with the whip right above the shoulder of the lady in front of me.
Then when to the right of the sheep-fold, here was my totally illegal shot. After one take, through the wood bars of rhe fold,  I took this picture of Jonathan Roumie walking away with Dallas, the director, to the left.
 Then above is the view to my left on the 2nd day of filming when I was in the crowd, and below is the view to my right on the 2nd day of filming. This was when Jesus confronted the pharisees, When he told them that it was by his own authority that he would rebuild the temple.

In review;  Over the first 2 days I was standing in a few different spots one was right behind the sheep fold by the 2 children, 1 was to the right of the sheep fold when Jesus frees the sheep and says we're part of the problem, But the main one for the full 2nd day was in the crowd in front of the sheep's fold. In each case jesus cracked the whip and shouted at us and then confronted the pharisees before walking out with us shouting, "Hosanna to the son of David!" I must have walked back and forth by Atticus 20 times.There was even a part where I am in the background of a stunt where the bird vendor falls into his cages and the birds are set free.

Some of the time, I was standing right by the sheep-fold and obtained 4 small "props" that were truly trash: some hay from the sheep-fold, some tiny dried flowers from a clay pot that was thrown down, a few stones from the outside of the temple tracked in from outside.: And my prize posession: one of the tiny coins from the flipped tables. On a later day, they announced that we weren't supposed to take those (the rest of the items I had would have been swept up as trash), but I already had the coin back in Salt Lake, So i wasn't able to return it. I made a large donation to The Chosen instead.

PLEASE SEE LATER POST WITH SCREENSHOTS OF THE EPISODE ONCE IT IS RELEASED.

Monday, April 29, 2024

Filming The Chosen Season 5 : Roman Soldiers

 Right before they stopped us taking pictures in the waiting area of the court of women on the 1st day, I saw someone taking a picture with the Roman soldier and the temple guard. I saw my chance! I ran over there with Shana and ask nicely and the 2 guys were happy to take the picture!
Shana was obsessed with Monty Python's Life of Brian and was convinced she looked just like Brian's mother (Brian=parody of Jesus, Mother=parody of Mary) and she kept saying,
"Brian, your father was a Roman solder, he was." And smiled like the mother in the movie here. 

Filming The Chosen Season 5 : Jonathan Roumie on Set in Solomon's Porch (The Temple Entrance)

 Yes, I totally shouldn't have taken this shot but it is my pride and joy! When I was to the right of the sheep fold and in between the wooden bars, I snapped the shot after one take of Jonathan Roumie walking away with Dallas,  the director, on the left.  Quite frankly, security was SO high that I didn't Feel comfortable taking any other pictures.

Filming The Chosen Season 5 : Walking to Set Each Day

Day 1
It was pretty cold each morning, but it always warmed up to the 60s each day. Great weather!
There was a minute or two when the camera drive flew over us. You can see the cast member trailers and then the set on the left. 
Day 2
Day 3-5. The guy on the left was celebrating his 60th wedding anniversary with his wife. They were in military ministry.

Filming The Chosen Season 5 : Teaser Video of the Filming of Season 5 (Pre Production)

I couldn't figure out how to post the teaser video for The Chosen Season 5 filming, so here is a screenshot where to go in the next link. Begin at exactly 01:29:00 to see the few second lead-up to the video!

YOU CAN SEE US IN THE TRAILER! ....The following screenshot is right before Dallas says, "We are back!"
This is from.day 3-5. You can see Jesus in the center. And if you look closely near the obelisk on the right ...
HERE WE ARE! You can clearly see my pink and blue braided headdress! It can also give you a good idea of how very close we were to Jonathan Roumie all 3 days!

Filming The Chosen Season 5 : Costumes , Location & Set


Being an extra in the TV series, The Chosen (a show about Jesus' public ministry, and the largest crowd-funded project in history) is becoming my legacy. It is one of the most exciting things I've ever participated in and that I'm most proud of. Here I am with Shana on the first day of the shoot, in our first costumes. 

First, filming the Feeding of the Five Thousand (where the vibe was self-described Christian Unity) and now filming Flipping Tables and Pharisee Confrontation (where the vibe was just like the scene, tensions were running high).

I am proud to say I designed and tied my braided headscarves the second half of the week myself! It was fun to mix up the costumes for fun.

Because Season 5 takes place in Jerusalem (beginning with Palm Sunday and going through Holy Week), filming this time was on set in Goshen, Utah which is about an hour from Salt Lake City. It was filmed at the Mormon Jerusalem Set (which is used for all of their religious films and they originally let the Chosen use for free, until this season). 

There are many parts to the set, but the relevant parts to us were 1. the outside of the temple (called Solomon's Porch) where you can see the columns and the money changers tents (which we used for the first 2 days when Jesus flipped the tables & confronted the Pharasees) and 2. The Court of Women/Gentiles where there are 4 prominent obelisk, and stairs leading up to a gold door (the entrance to the interior of the temple). We used this for the last 2 days of filming the "Woe to you Scribes & Pharasees" scene.

The video here (and the photo screenshots) were taken from a short Season 5 teaser included with the first episodes released of Season 4 in June 2024.

It is also important to note that all visible phones and all photos were forbidden on set after the first hour (because of people abusing the system). Security was HIGH I think because of the war between Israel & Palestine.

PLEASE SEE LATER POST WITH SCREENSHOTS OF THE EPISODE ONCE IT IS RELEASED.
Monday, April 29 (Day 1) Flipping of the Tables Day


Tuesday, April 30 (Day 2) The Confrontation with the Pharasees (very end of Episode 3 of Season 5) ... and a few more shots of the table-flipping.

Wednesday-Friday, May 1-3 "Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees" scene, all filmed in the Court of Women/Gentiles. They asked us to wear the same costumes because we would be standing in the same place all 3 days.
Here you can see BOTH parts of the set we used. On the right is Solomon's Porch, where the flipping of the tables was filmed. You can see the tents & tables of the money changers. The gold tent on the very bottom was a special pyrotechnic tent that would catch fire! On the left, the room with the 4 obelisk is The Court of Women which is also called the Court of Gentiles . This is where we filmed the "Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees" scene the last 3 days. You can also see the blue screens used to insert the special effect background of Jerusalem.
The front of the Temple & steps in Solomon's Porch. ... The vantage point (to the right) of where I was standing the first 2 days. The rules were ABC (Always Be Crossing) unless we were told otherwise.
The door to the Court of Women/Gentiles view from Solomon's Porch. Vantage point (to the left) of my 1st 2 days.
Near the sheep-fold, another one of my "background reset" point behind the 2 professional children actors (the only ones on the set) who began the "Hosanna to the Son of David" chant that I continued and followed Jesus out. There was a big issue with people shouting "Hosayna" in stead of "Hose-ah-nah." So there was a lot of refilming.
Here was my crowning glory, a truly illegal shot I shouldn't have taken. Here is Jonathan Roumie (Jesus) at the end of a shot, and the director Dallas Jenkens (left).  It was really neat to see Jonathan preparing for a shot especially one that was very full of tension in that he would yell out to get in the right mood for the scene and sometimes he would go up to the character he was supposed to be angry at and say something to get him into an angry mode.
Now THIS is an empty view of  The court of women or the court of gentiles where we filmed the last 3 days. I was standing in between the 2 obelisks on the right. And jesus was about 8 feet from me. To the left was the golden door leading to the inside of the temple with steps where the apostles filmed the parable of the vineyard.. To the right was the exit door Is leading to Solomon's porch and the outside of the temple.
AND HERE WE ARE!  In the next picture I have circled our head dresses. This is from a shot from the teaser of the shooting of season 5. And you can see how close we were to Jesus in these scenes.  We stood here for 10 hours a day 43 full days, and it was the hardest physical work I have ever done. It ruined the outside of my feet. They would never be the same. 


 When the court of women was the holding area and we were shooting on Solomon's porch the first 2 days,, There was an awesome opportunity to take a picture with one Roman soldier in 1 temple guard. I am so glad we got this picture!

For the video, click this link and FF to exactly 01:29:00 to see the teaser!