Movie time

 A deserted beach and a pirate ship might be something you’d expect to find on the island of St. Thomas 200 years ago but for us, it was all part of a day’s work.

 It all started when our Mission President, President Boucher emailed us and asked if we could help a movie company from the church do some filming on the island.

They were doing a film about the young man who translated the Bible into Portuguese. They were looking for a beach that had no buildings that they could film on. They also needed actors.”

We soon became casting directors enlisting the Markham family and the Hale family, all local members of the church, as actors. We met the film crew at the airport on a Wednesday afternoon and made arrangements for work to begin the next morning. The actors met the crew early Thursday morning and they were all decked out in 17th century costumes.  The set designer brought five large suitcases and everyone got a costume...right down to period shoes (cute black flower and lace on the boy’s shoes).   

 Members of the Markham and Hale families show off the period costumes they wore for the filming

We had an appointment so we had to leave for a while.  Meanwhile, the film crew and actors headed off to a deserted beach we had scouted out for them before their arrival. It was hard to get down to the beach if you didn’t know where it is, you would miss it, but it was perfect for the filming. No tourists! Which is amazing this time of year. More filming was done at an old church located on the island. 

 The following day the film crew rented a “pirate ship” and went to sea for more filming. They took  the pirate flag down for us and the (crew) had period costumes so they wore them.

The film crew used a second boat owned by Brother Pickett, a local member, which raced up from behind then circled the pirate ship, for about 2 hours. It was all so fascinating. The film crew was back on a plane that afternoon headed home.  It all happened so fast and was just a neat experience.  We will never look at a film again in the same way.