July 14, 2011

Pendragon post 1



''ARFON''
Photo by ESB, 2007

I hope that every one of you has seen the movie Pendragon: Sword of His Father!
But if you haven't, now is not too late! Please visit above link, and watch the trailer!
The movie, made by our friends the Burnses and cousins, is fantastic!
While they were making the movie, we thought of a place near our home here in Missouri: Fort Bellefontaine, and we were sure the Burnses could use it for something in their movie!
So...Elodie took pictures for them....and of course they were inspired! They put a lot of cleaning up work into it, and made it a perfect place for several scenes in the film!
(By the way, you have to buy the behind-the-scenes book, which is filled with amazing photographs and interesting stories! We enjoy reading it over and over again!)


Photo by ESB


Photo by ESB 2007


Three years ago in June 2008,
We went over to the Fort for the Burns' all-night film shoot of the funeral scene!
It was a very interesting experience, and I'm glad we got to be involved a little!

 Very important: Now you can find me, my very own self, in the funeral scene:
Here I am descending the steps.

 
You can find Sam next in the funeral scene: he's the one I labelled ''Sam''
Try to find us in the movie!

A friend, Joshua S. is on the left, with Erik D (''Brotus'')

So....have you seen the movie?
What did you think? (What was your fav. part, or fav. character?)
Following is what I wrote in my journal after the filming.....(beware: I was in too much of a hurry, being always behind with writing, to write very well. If it had been a school project, I would have written a very nice article....but it wasn't. )




June 18 2008
Tonight was the filming at Fort Bellefontaine…..When we got there and slowed down at the security box at entrance of park, a lady came out and peered at us. Papa yelled ‘‘They’re going to be famous!’’ (the common belief of most first-time extras. Not that we are classed among the most…..) She replied ‘’Oh, go on down.’’ We did, all laughing. When we arrived, Lisa came running up to greet us each excitedly. She set about finding us costumes, which we added to the clothes we were already wearing. I had my doubts….with one outfit I looked so funny! Aloud, I wondered....‘’don’t I look like a fat old cook?’’Peter kindly assured me that ‘’it was a thought’’. hmmm....
I ended up wearing a thick skirt made of much soft-yet-strong fabric, a tunic shirt, a thick rough ‘’vest’’, and a nice shawl! Next, came the make-up, which made each of us look a little ghastly. Sam looked pretty good, but mostly because of his fall out of the tree a couple days ago. He had a convincing scratch beside his eye. Soon us girls made our way down to the bottom of the fort, then down (or up, depending which way you wish to journey) the road a little ways. It smelled so good and nature-y! We came to a scene location where the one wall is.
It was now a place of bustling commotion, with bright lights, cameras, helpers and extras. The first scene we did was with the ‘’villagers’’ following soldiers and coffin bearers- and the princess, to…..where, I don’t know yet! (I will have to wait until we see the movie!) Much time was spent on this scene, in which we extras held candles and flaming torches. Next, all the equipment had to be transported to the foot of the fort, where the next scene would be filmed, in which the procession walked down the steps a bit. The torches, which were surrounding me, were roasting, and kept having to be re-doused in the fuel! (Aaron hurried around with a bucket of the fuel, and the boys had to dunk their torches in.) Finally, we walked that scene over and over again. It’s kind of funny….I have not glasses on, we’re all quiet, it’s warm and drowsy, I’m carrying a soft, warm candle, and we’re all being so serious. We all oh, so quietly walk down until Chad whispers (his voice is going-not too comfortable a thing for a director.), on the amplifier ‘’Cut. Back to one, please’’!

Despite the mosquitoes, it feels so chimerical, because of the whispering and all!
There were other scenes…but for the last, we stood around looking as mournful as possible (which wasn’t that difficult since by now the mosquitoes were pretty bad!), as the princess swept slowly up to the coffin, weeping….(I still hardly know why! Who is the funeral for? We shall just have to be patient, and wait until the movie cometh out!)


Finally….the work was done for the night, and we drove home with Mrs. Burns, Sara, Ashley and Aunt Mary.
Ahem…when we got out at our house, still in our strange garb- the sky was pale blue with pink clouds : DAWN! Goodness. Papa had left for work! (5 :30 am)


This is truly a picture from that 5:30 am!





7 comments:

Belley Family said...

That was fun to read the description of your night! I will not relate mine, but I believe you did find me lying on the sofa when you arrived! (P.S. That's "chimerical." (:

P.I.C.'s by Breanna said...

I loved Pendragon!! I thought it was really good!! I haven't seen it for a while though, I'll have to go back and watch it again to see you in it!! :-) I thought the Fort Bellefontaine was really neat! :) I haven't seen the behind-the-scenes book! It sounds neat!! I'll have to look into that! :)
Umm... My favorite part was probably the sword fight at the end, and my favorite character is probably Cadeyrn (I know he's the bad guy :)but I usually judge fav characters by voice, I'm weird like that... :-), though I liked Brotus and Chad's character (can't remember his name) and all the other characters too. :)
What is your favorite part and character??
Neat Post! Thanks for sharing! It was fun to read your journal too!! :)

Mazzou said...

Another Pendragon post will be coming soon!
(You might want to wait to look at the movie again, as I will show you where we are in other scenes! :))

I'll answer about Pendragon characters later....

Beth said...

I really enjoyed Pendragon - all of my family did as well! I liked the whole movie, but I really enjoyed the horse- chase scene (I love horses! :) ) and the sword fight- that must've taken a lot of work!
I am sorry- I haven't been on my blog for a very long time, and I just found your comments!
Thank you! I hope you had a good graduation day! I did- I loved the ceremony, and I am so glad to have been a part of it. I'm also sorry I didn't get the chance to talk to you afterwards, but it was quite chaotic down in the basement, and we had to leave far more quickly than I wished! Anyway, it was fun graduating together- hopefully I will be blogging some more in the near future, and we all look forward to attending the ball this year as well-I know I will most likely see you in person there! :)
God Bless!
-Bethany S.

Sarah said...

Hello, Lady Mazzou!
My family and I really enjoyed the Pendragon movie and can't wait to see what else the Burns Family Studios will produce. I didn't know they had already begun on another film! It sounds great! Anyway, it has been a little while since last I saw Pendragon, but one of my favorite scenes is when Artos turns to the lady and says, "I beg your mercy." =] I don't know why but that is one of my favorite lines!
Thanks for visiting our blog! Hope to "hear" from you again!
Joyfully His,
Elisera

Unknown said...

Pendragon is my favorite narrative movie to come out of the Independent Christian Film movement-next to Fireproof and Facing the Giants.
We couldn't believe what a fantastic job they did with Pendragon and I'm excited to hear about their next film-I am sure they'll hit it out of the ballpark. The setting and time period is already very intriguing.

Mazzou said...

Hello everybody! Thank you very much for commenting! Glad you enjoyed the post. I had fun doing it.

Personally, I find it hard myself to decide upon a fav. part in Pendragon! I just LOVE the horse chase scene, like you Beth!!! :) It's SO beautiful. And I think the theme music is great. I also like the sword fights, and the scenes later on in the movie with ''Artos and Wenneveria''....
Actually, a scene that really pleases me is when Wenneveria and Caderyn are in a candlelit room of the castle, and Cadeyrn says ''....you used to love to play.....'' The lighting, music, angles and Marilyn's hair/costume are lovely in that scene.

As for characters, it's hard for me to decide on a fav, since I know all the Burnses! I think Nick did a scary-good job on Cadeyrn. That is NOT the real Nick Burns! So that's impressive. The character that Aaron portrays as Artos has always been a favorite style of main character to me. Yes, Aaron and Brotus are fav. characters. I like the parts Mr. Burns (the Pendragon) plays, too!
Enough said for now, I guess....
Feel free to talk about Pendragon later, too!