As many of you are aware, we’ve finally gotten The Chase: Episode One available on DVD and digital iPod versions. What you may not know is a bit of the early thoughts and inspirations that helped shape and define what we now refer to as a sort of short film.
When we started out on the first taping, we actually had no idea what we were going to shoot. It was such a liberating experience to just ‘go and see’ what would happen.
For nearly 20 years, Dan and I had produced tv programs, and for this project, we saw that as a liability- not an asset. It took a lot of discipline to NOT do this show the way we knew how to do it; to avoid the way we always did things. There was very little planning, no rundown, no real treatment. We, along with EJ and his sister Karin, wanted to experiment with a God breathed…what…not really a “vision”, cause honestly, we didn’t see what it was going to be. I guess, the best word to call it would be a God breathed ‘collaboration.
It was an experiment in letting go of what we knew, and forcing ourselves to break out of our box of experience, to be spontaneous. I think that was the biggest challenge of all- to not rely on what we knew, and to try and do things differently than we were used to.
Of course, the style and personality of both EJ and Dan come through no matter what they do. We weren’t trying to change the core of that– so the challenge was to not ‘construct’ the method used to capture that personality, but rather just let it ‘develop.’ As far as a plan of what to shoot, what segments to include, how it would fit together, none of that was formulated.
The only rules were to be true to ourselves, to capture what makes us unique and to find our own voices. We believed that God had put inside each of us something to contribute, and if we would trust each other and each stay true to who we are and not try to be something else, it would all come together- somehow.
We did prepare and ‘research’ by studying other projects we found impressive. We watched great cinematography, took in some fine art museums, and tried to figure out just what was it about these things that drew us in.
While these were sources of ‘inspiration’, our goal was NOT to imitate it, but to discover what in ourselves responded to these things, and why. We felt if we could find what in us connected to great work, we could be inspired by that connection, beyond the art itself. Basically, we needed to ‘know thyself’, before we could ‘express thyself.’ However, it wasn’t a seeking after inspiration as much as it was seeking after what inspired us.
Some of you may have figured out the Bourne movies had some influence on our own Chase- as did the BMW Films and Hillman Curtis short films.
It was surreal at times to watch it come together in editing, with types of music we’d never used before. . In the edit room we often had the sense that, ‘this is creating itself, we are just guiding it along.’ It really did feel like watching a baby develop- each session brought joy in new discoveries and yes, often pain and frustration as well.
The whole creative process was kind of like painting in the dark.
Not that we consider this first episode a ‘masterpiece’ by any stretch! But we do consider it our first real step in letting the Creator use us to produce something that is far more significant than what we could have created ourselves.
-Raven
