Filming The Chosen Season 5 : 3rd Costume & “Woe to You Scribes & Pharasees! Hypocrites!” (Days 3-5)

Because we would be filming the exact same scene for the final 3 days, they asked us to wear the same costume. Again, I was so proud to tie these scarves myself! You can also see my background extra lanyard.

I must have heard the dialogue from the sene 50 times. It was so moving and full of tension! The scene is completely biblical and is the longest scene in chosen history where there is the parable of the talents and the parable of the vineyard as well as the woe to you scribes and pharisees altercation.

First is the parable of the talents where Barnaby and shula are interacting with Jesus as he tells the story, but the pharisees enter the scene before he can finish.

As jesus talks to the pharisees including Shimuel, they decide to ask him about taxes and jesus asks for a Caesar's head coin and eventually says to give to caesar what is caesars. He also says that paying taxes allows us to have good roads and safety. I never thought of that before!

Then came the parable of the vineyard owner who sends his servants and then his son to have them all killed while the servants try to take the spoils for themselves. The vineyard owner of course  Fires the servants and finds better workers to tend to his vineyard. This scene was masterfully done with the apostles playing a small play on the steps of the Temple to Demonstrate this parable. It reminded me so much of the way they did the parables in Godspell! 

Finally there was the huge confrontation with the pharisees where Jesus yells, "Woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites!" He says this 3 times before the pharisees run out and we end up following Jesus through the temple shouting hosanna to the son of David.

 It was amazing to see Jonathan Roumie prepare for the scene! Each time he would pray, genuflect, and do the sign of the cross and sometimes drawing either the catholic fish or the Chi Rio (PX) in the sand. Then he would either make an angry sound to prepare or he would run up to the pharisees and say something angrily to prepare. What they would do is have us all get into position before Jonathan came to the set, and one time he walked right by us into the middle of the circle.

Here is another description with more info:

On days 3-5 we filmed some teaching in the temple in The Court of Women (or the Court of Gentiles). This scene was 16 pages long and the longest single scene in The Chosen. It contains the parable of the talents, the parable of the Vinyard Owner (done as a play by the apostles), and the HUGE confrontation between Jesus and Shimuel where Jesus shouts, "You give burdens too hard to carry" before screaming "Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees! Hypocrites" 3x And calls them a "brood of vipers." He also uses the denarius (the Caesars head coin) and tells us to "Give to Caesar things that are Caesars an to God things that are Gods." And he gives the 2 greatest commandments and tells us that "You belong to Him." We are standing right near the pillar by the Pharisees and were less than 5 feet away from Jonathan Roumie (Jesus) for the entire 3 days. We were considered part of the "inner circle" which contained mostly darker-skinned people ... and us. We are in the second row with our heads between an Israeli lady in a blue veil (Edna) and an Indian lady in a mauve veil ... and right in front of 2 of Herod's priests. At the end, we follow Jesus with me again shouting, "Hosana to the Son of David" with raised hands. The photo is from the same Chosen Season 5 teaser where we actually found us in the shot!

 I also need to say something about this guy, dubbed "Stan the camera man." Each scene was shot about 20 to 30 times because they were all from different camera angles. Some of them focused on sound, some of them focused on different characters, some of them were close ups, some of them were far away. Whenever it came to close up work it was this camera guy who did it every time. I was amazed about how heavy this camera was! 

 Another interesting thing was this big tarp that they brought in to simulate cloud cover, they also had other drops that would darken or lighten the scene depending on what was needed with lighting.