This short film represents the transformation we experience when we step out in faith to the powerful gift that Jesus gave us while on the cross. Because of His sacrifice, we can shed the sorrow, the defeat, the emptiness, and the despair we face because our own sinful nature. It is truly a transformative moment when we surrender our own pride and seek God and the love that He shared with us.

Motivation

Pastor Cary Nelson of our church had asked if I could do a sequence of images that portrayed someone going to the cross, dying, then rising up again. Without doing a photo shoot, I didn't think I could throw something together that would do it justice. Being a filmmaker (yes, I actually am one), I decided to go all out and just shoot the movie.

With some reluctance from Josh, our sinner-turned-saint, I manufactured a tattered shirt out of a couple pieces of fabric and a few safety pins. When I pulled out the mascara for the facial makeup, he almost refused. I promised him that it wasn't for his eyes... just to make him look dirty, he finally obliged.

We located the cross from our film Through the Eyes of a Soldier and Cary dug a hole so we could stand it up.

As we were working, the idea of having the shadow play a prominent role in the film came together.

Technical Details

Journey to the Cross was shot on a Canon 7D using a 1:3.5-56 18-70mm stock lens running at 24fps and 1/60^th of a shutter. I also used a Tiffen polarizer and Tiffen ND filter. The only other equipment used was a reflector to provide some fill lighting and a butterfly to cut the direct sun.

For stability, which was minimal, I used a home brew shoulder mount rig made of PVC. The camera work wasn't as smooth as I had hoped, but it was a quick shoot. While I did try some stabilizing in post, I ultimately abandoned it and went with the original footage.

Very little color correction was done in post, just minor Levels adjustments.

The verse section was done in After Effects using CC Particle World with a setting of "Twirl" to get the movement of the dust-like elements. Music was from Video Copilot's Pro Scores package.

We shot the film in two and a half hours on a Saturday afternoon with Josh, Cary, Anna (Cary's daughter), Zip the dog, and a couple curious horses all in attendance.