The Filming of The Chosen’s Feeding of the 5000. A Personal Experience.
By Bicky Tolar
oday was an amazing experience at the filming of The Chosen’s Feeding of the 5,000 scene! The production was orchestrated beautifully… everything flowed seamlessly in spite of the huge numbers of people who attended. Hundreds of volunteers did everything from getting a Covid test to serving food to driving buses. While we waited, TC provided entertainment from big name live Christian artists like Big Daddy Weave and Shane and Shane, which was so awesome to share with people literally from all over the world! While we only had to drive a couple hours to Midlothian, some people came from Canada, Hawaii, and Costa Rica to be there.
We were pleasantly surprised that they bumped up the production schedule due to the expected heat this afternoon, which we were grateful for, as we had to arrive before 5 am for our Covid test! We got to start filming at 9 am instead of having to wait until 1.
I loved the pilgrimage on foot to the site of the sermon, with everyone in costume. It was cool to imagine what it was like in Jesus’ day, with people meeting on the road and sharing their stories! We came around a ridge and saw men dressed as Roman soldiers on horseback. It was so impressive! Right after that, we got to shake hands with director Dallas Jenkins, who was greeting the extras. Kate was lucky enough to snag a selfie with him!
When we arrived and got set in our “crowd” position, Dallas thanked us for coming and reminded us that we were there to re-enact a moment that really happened thousands of years ago. It was so moving.
A few minutes later, some of the main cast members appeared, including Jonathan Roumie who plays Jesus, and Shahar Isaac who plays Simon Peter. Elijah was close enough to get some good pictures, including one of “Jesus” taking a drink of what Elijah guessed must have been living water.
It was so awesome to be a part of this project that is reaching the world almost like no other in modern times. They have 400,000,000 views so far, but they are well on their way to their goal of reaching ONE BILLION PEOPLE after with their planned seven seasons. It was a joy to give to this ministry in the medium that is really the literature of our time. It is waking people up to the truth about Jesus afresh… both old and new believers alike. If you have not watched it yet, RUN to see it, and then share it with your neighbor! The world desperately needs light.
When they called “action,” Jonathan Roumie as Jesus began speaking to the crowd, and I was moved to tears to be in that setting. I thought to myself how this DID really happen… God became man! And hundreds of people flocked to see him from everywhere. What God wanted was to be found… and to feed the people.Thank you, The Chosen, and thank you, God, for feeding me.
