Out of the Ordinary Christmas film - behind the scenes

Christmas for most people starts in November, maybe October if you’re really keen. But for those of us involved in church-wide campaigns, Christmas starts in February. It was early February when we met as a team to start ideating for this year's Christmas campaign. Very quickly the theme of ‘Out of The Ordinary’ was developed and the team set off to produce various resources to help bring the campaign to life.

My task as Digital Content Producer was to form a team to create our Christmas Film. I was joined by a talented collection of colleagues who helped develop the story, concept and vision of our film.

It’s quite difficult to craft a film for a campaign such as this. In one sense, there’s so much freedom to develop an idea, and on the other, there is the ‘box ticking’ exercise of making something ‘Christmassy’, suitable for both internal Church and external audiences and building a narrative that is universal enough that people from a diverse range of backgrounds can connect with it.

My aim whenever developing a film is to think about the opportunity of emotional connection. All great films tug on something within us that is quite simple really - care. Do we care about the characters in our film? We don’t always have to relate to their situation or stage of life, but we do need to care. My second aim is to leave enough space within the film for a viewer to implement their own narrative within it – you get what you give. Great film isn’t preachy, it is invitational.

Our story focusses on a young woman, pregnant and struggling with the cost of living - a universal experience many of us have faced at one time or another or may have seen others face. It would be easy to design a narrative around this idea that sees our Character find wealth, happiness and all she ever wanted – but that’s not real life. Instead, we wanted to create a narrative about internal development – a change of perspective – how can our Character perceive her situation differently? How can she feel ‘Out of The Ordinary’ when her situation is quite the opposite?

I saw a comment on Facebook the other day in response to the film launch that said ‘Methodism gives you wings’ - a quip to the Red Bull motto. It’s funny but incorrect, if anything – Jesus gives you wings is the metaphorical motto of this story. When you consider many of Jesus’ interactions in his three years of ministry, one thing regularly stands out - he rarely talks about situational security; livelihood, money, shelter – he does however consistently talk about spiritual security; to know and be known. It strikes me then that our jobs as Christian storytellers isn’t always to point at a problem and solve it, but to point to a new way of thinking.

Our Character, disappointed by her situational circumstance, is internally (perhaps spiritually) transformed by a chance encounter. How many of those glimpses we see into Jesus' ministry in The Gospels, were the same? Simple chance encounters that had immeasurable impact on the individuals he interacted with. We were very fortunate to have Alisha Hart play the lead role in this year's film who conveyed the emotions of this story so tangibly. She was joined by her fiancé Joshua Gould as the grouchy comical shopkeeper and a collection of extras from Chapelfield Road Methodist Church in Norwich. As director, I was joined by freelance filmmaker Ben Lambert as Director of Photography and colleague Maddie Du Boulay as production assistant.

Film is a visual medium, so we wanted to create a scenario that allowed the viewer to be visually transported into the internal journey of our character. The idea of VR Goggles came up early, and we combined that with a beautiful animation created by Norwich artist Megan Yaxley. The journey our character takes ‘gives her wings’, but her emotional journey is much more than that, it’s a change of self-perception that we see in the way her eyes light up at the end. Megan’s artwork is so subtly beautiful and captivating – it was incredibly special to see it come together.

Methodist Conference in June was a hub of activity, and it was here that I had another chance encounter that led to the soundtrack of this film. Several members of the Evangelism and Growth team had been working on the written resources for the campaign and mentioned that they would be using lyrics from the well-known Christmas Carol ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ as part of this. This sparked a little sense of excitement within me as to the possibility of recording a version of the carol for this film. The lyrics ‘yet in the dark street shines an everlasting light’ tied in so well with our story that I was compelled to explore the idea further.

As a musician myself, I went about finding a way to modernise the carol, adding in a new Chorus and updating the tune to work with a more indie folk approach. Then came the question, who can we get to sing on the track? That’s when we decided to hold an auditioning process to be the voice of our Christmas single. I was blown away by the amount and quality of the entrants we had. One voice stood out as particularly right for this record – Izzy Wellings from Truro in Cornwall sent in a fantastic acoustic audition, and I knew that she would be right for the part.

In October I took the train to Glasgow to work with producer Iain Hutchison at his studio GloWorm. Iain has a fantastic ear and ability in music and together with Izzy, we were able to shape the song into the Methodist Churches first ever Christmas single ‘Be Born’.

Our aim going forward for large campaigns is to have a focus on invitational storytelling. To encourage those who would perhaps never engage with church to enter into a dialogue about spirituality and faith. This year's film is a small step along that journey, and I hope you’ll use it to reflect on your own spiritual development and as a resource to speak to many about how their lives can be internally transformed – how they can be ‘Out of The Ordinary’.

Ben Lawrence works as the Methodist Church Connexional Team's Digital Content Producer.