Editor’s note: Mount Vernon residents Joe and Marcy Rinehart won a trip to Georgia to the movie set “Courageous,” and are writing about their experiences.
Thursday, June 10
We are wrapping up Day 2 of our visit to Albany, Ga. The people here are just amazing. We have felt right at home and made some wonderful friends.
We started the morning by heading to the day’s crew call at 9 a.m. Today’s filming took place at the Sherwood Production House. This building is actually the old Albany library and sits right behind the Sherwood church building. The church recently purchased the building and has plans to renovate it into a youth center for teens. For this summer, it has been turned into a production house, where all indoor shots are filmed for “Courageous.”
The day started with devotions and prayer — an important part of the Sherwood routine. We noticed small groups gathering for prayer throughout the day. These crew members, many of whom are church members volunteering their time and service, pray over the actors before a scene is shot. There were also set hosts available to reach out to the guests (including the Rineharts). They served us lunch, snacks and spent time praying for each of us.
A movie set is an interesting place. There is so much action with numerous people doing very specific jobs. The day’s call sheet lists every actor that is needed and when they need to report to set. It also lists any props that are needed for the scenes, the sunrise, sunset, weather and times for lunch and dinner. We found out that the Sherwood Call sheet is a little different from the typical one found in Hollywood. It includes a scripture for the day. Today’s verse is Phillipians 4:8.
The director will spend a good amount of time setting up the shot — getting the right lighting and angle. Then he will try numerous different shots to make the editing process a little easier. Today, the work focused on two short scenes in the movie (about 30 seconds each) and the shooting took over six hours. I was amazed at how many different looks you could get with two guys talking in the evidence room.
Here is some movie set lingo we all learned today.
Video Village — the “guest area” where people are watching the movie shoot.
Still — everyone on set and in video village must be completely still and not move.
Shut it down — all noise has to stop and everyone must be still.
Rolling — the cameras are on and recording.
Action — the scene starts
Cut — cameras stop and everyone can move and talk again.
We had a chance to meet with Stephen Kendrick this morning — the producer and co-writer of the movie. And, he showed us some scenes. WOW! You are going to love this movie. Even though we were seeing very raw production, our entire group was moved to tears. This ensemble cast of actors really brings the storyline to life and everyone can relate to at least one character. The passion behind this project is to reach out to fathers from all kinds of backgrounds and show them how to be a father with purpose.
Check out the pictures on our Facebook photo album called “Rinehart trip to Courageous.”
Next, we are headed to see Sherwood’s 82-acre sports complex, which is used for community outreach. We also get to see a scene with all five fathers featured in the movie before we head home.
Today was shoot day 24 of 35. Don’t forget to check out www.courageousthemovie.com for video updates from each day of shooting.
