On the set of "Josephine"
A few weeks ago found me on an adventure in the woods of Virginia, helping to support a worthy project: the filming of the movie, "Josephine."
Long time fans of the country duo, Joey + Rory (Joey and Rory Feek), have heard their wonderful song, "Josephine," the story of a Confederate soldier's letters to his wife, Josephine. What is amazing is that someone saw the accompanying video and realized, they had Josephine's letters back to him. That person brought them to the attention of Rory Feek and Aaron Carnahan, Joey + Rory's manager - and the two men sat down and penned a screenplay, telling an incredible love story inspired by the letters.
And now - it will become a movie. Well, it has become a movie, except for all the post-production. In the mean time, its director, Rory Feek, wrote a blog post on his experience filming it and released this video, showing "behind the scenes" images. The video has one of the lovelier versions of "Dixie" that I have heard.
I am honored to have received mention and see some of my images in the video. This really was an extraordinary experience as it not only allowed me to see the hard work that goes into making a movie (two people on screen and a small army out of the range of the camera), but it allowed me to meet some beautifully talented people among the cast and crew.
UK actress Alice Coulthard in the title role
The story is simple: Josephine, who has not seen or heard from her husband in months, decides to enlist in the Confederate army during the Civil War in the hopes of finding him. Remarkably, close to 1,000 women did this in that war, for various reasons. The story becomes one of the power of love and sacrifice - and for some, redemption.
Actor Boris McGiver, who has appeared in the film "Lincoln" and the series "House of Cards," plays the older soldier, Talley.
Actor Jessejames Locorriere appears as the antagonist, Sturgill Marks, a vicious career soldier.
I would be remiss if I did not thank the person who said, "Why don't you come out ands shoot?", my friend and mentor, Bryan Allen, the Director of Photography. B.A. (as he is known) is a character who is always challenging me to "find the magic" when shooting. I hope I did him proud with these images.
Bryan Allen (far left) and Rory Feek (far right) have worked together on the Joey+Rory music so expect to see that magic and talent seen in those to come to life on the big screen (and shout out to Nick whop can fly a jib like no other)!
Slaves watch a plantation home burn.
Filming is hard - and often very hot - work .
Get the shot, but . . . safety remains paramount, especially when scenes require special effects using fire.
Producer Aaron Carnahan makes a cameo app[earance. And if you think you "just add a horse," you would be mistaken - you hire one, complete with its own assistant, who remains off-camera but ready to step in.
One of the re-enactors hired for scenes. See that grass? You know what lives in that grass? Ticks. My tally was 9 pulled off of me, including 3 lone star ticks. But . . . I got the shot.
Actor and Civil War re-enactor Nathan Hoffman, whom I also found to be erudite in the matters of history.
Actor Linds Edwards
Actor Drew Matthews
And let me just add an observation. You can tell from Rory's blog post, this is something to which he gave his heart and soul. I am an early riser - always have been. I happened to know that Rory would go to bed in the wee morning hours . . . and coming into the kitchen of the house where I stayed with the crew at 5:30 in the morning, I found him already up and working on the shot list for the day.
I am eager to see the final cut and I hope I can do more work for Hickory Films in their future projects.