ABOUT "THE CHOSEN"
A couple weeks ago I was on the set for the AMAZING tv show called "The Chosen"
A really high quality production series following the Life of Jesus and those around him.
It is the most touching and well acted production involving the stories of Jesus I've ever seen and it was a privilage being a part for a few days last month.
FREE TO WATCH
They are the largest crowdfunding series ever made and they have made it ALL FREE
https://thechosen.tv ... https://studios.vidangel.com/the-chosen/
They're filming season 2 and have planned I think 7 seasons. With many series you never know how long it really lasts but seeing the crazy ramp up in interest and knowing those involved I expect it to go the distance.
Knowing the owners of their partner VidAngel and as I've gotten to understand their Director Dallas I have 0 doubts they'll make all 7 seasons happen. What they are doing is amazing and people are obsessed with their content and purpose.
BTS
Technically I was there to do Press Kit / Portrait images of all the main characters for Season 2... BUT... I was there the day before those shoots just being a fly on the wall and getting these behind the scene images and getting used to the amazing set they got special permission to use in Utah.
Behind the Scenes stuff is a lot of fun though very long days... i was there from about noon to midnight most of the days and so was most all of the crew.
They have an actual full time BTS team that is there every day. Like i said i was there mostly for the Press Kit stuff. Their full time BTS team is doing an amazing job and pumping out intimate looks on set every single day on pretty much every social media. (We should get them on PeakD.com)
I hope my style of shooting just gave them a slightly different style and view even during a random day of filming.
THE SET
The story of how this series got to use this set in Utah and how it impacted for good their whole project is pretty miraculous. They have videos talking about it I believe. The set is perfect for them and everyone involved with the production seems giddy everytime they talk about it.
Kudos to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for changing their policies to make this happen.
MAKING NEW FRIENDS
It was a unique experience being on set with so many talented people... I like to think that I made some fun new friends and some connections for a while.
This is Dallas Jenkins the Director with Jonathan the actor who plays Jesus.
HOW I ENDED UP ON SET
It helps that I have done many photoshoots for the Executive Producer for many years now and I am the type of photographer that is free on little notice pretty frequently since I spend the other half of my time working on other projects like peakd.com. But I jumped at the chance and even drove from a pretty far distance each day to get there (i was up in the mountains at that time for fall colors)
I feel like I was a great fit because I am great at event photography and portraits and I'm very low key, low stress and work well with their style of actors who are very down to earth and creative. My style is very PERSONALITY driven and fits the needs of the chosen I assume.
THE PORTRAITS
From what I know The Chosen has some special use case for the hundreds of portraits I did... it was basically like doing a dozen different portrait shoots in 2 days time. There's a ton... we'll see what they do with them and then we'll see when I can share them as well.
Some of the BTS i guess feels a bit like portrait shots...
At the time of these BTS shots I didn't really know any of the actors yet (now i do) but I got along great with actress Yasmine so she ended up with a bunch of pictures that day.
HEADING BACK... tomorrow
Took my covid test on tuesday and just got back the results today so I'm heading back tomorrow for some pickup images... I guess it's good news that they loved the shots so much they wanted some more.
Last year when they were filming things were much different but Covid has changed so much. Being relatively lower budget (2 million) they don't spend much on marketing so they love when people with a lot of reach can come in and be a part or share the message.
If it were a normal year I'm sure i could come much more easily and frequently but this year takes a lot of advance notice and adds to their cost with every covid test we take.
MORE IMAGES?
I have a bunch of images I can share (I've been given permission at at least the BTS stuff) if you're interested let me know I'll add dozens of more images from when I was there.
Excited for the day I can share the Press Kit / Portraits. They're an extremely open project showing intimate looks of everything they do.. and heavily relying on social marketing.
PICTURES WITH PURPOSE
Let's not pretend that I'm proud to be connected to this series in some small way.
It really is a privilege to be part of this series... not just another paying job for me... it's super meaningful. Not only am I helping to create content that will help them succeed in their mission of getting a BILLION people to watch the series and in turn connect with scripture better. I realize that maybe some of the images I'm taking may help people very specifically in their lives. Some of the pictures of Jesus may end up as desktop/mobile phone images or even wall art and may help people connect more with Christ in an indirect way and that means the world to me.
