St. George’s Anglican Church in Clarksburg may have looked a little different last week. With the windows blacked out and a flurry of activity coming to and from, the church was transformed into a movie set.
The film in production is entitled Pray for Me. It is a paranormal thriller with a PG rating with an undeclared release date.
The driving force behind the film is Damian Lee, a Canadian film director, writer and producer who splits his residency between The Town of the Blue Mountains (TBM) and Los Angeles.
Lee’s previous work includes the films Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe, No Exit, and Ski School.
Pray for Me is written by Lee and Laura Daans, directed by Henry Less and Lee and produced by Scott Paterson and Lee.
So, why was St. George’s selected to be the site of Lee’s next great film?
“We got talking and Damion started to describe the movie script and I was getting more and more excited, and then he suddenly asked me if I knew of a good church where filming might be feasible,” explained TBM councillor Paula Hope.
She says St. George’s Anglican Church was the first that came to mind and she immediately made contact with the Rev. Grayhame Bowcott.
"St. George's church is honoured to have been sought out as a site location for director Damian Lee's film,” said Rev. Bowcott, adding that when he was first approached about using the church for a movie set, he consulted with the church’s leadership council.
“There was a long conversation that we had with the leadership of the church. First off, the genre of the film, It's a supernatural thriller,” Bowcott said.
He explained that, from the church’s perspective, the main concern was if the script was respectful of the institution of the church and religion in general.
“Things like, are the actors and the characters in their roles treating each other with a sense of dignity? And, we found that that was the case all the way through,” he said. “We did have some changes to the script that we requested because this is sacred space.”
Bowcott says Lee was excellent to work with and was very open to adjusting the movie script and taking the church’s concerns into consideration.
“His willingness to work with the situation was amazing,” he said. “The Anglican Church of Canada, and the Diocese of Huron have also both proofed the documentation.”
With the movie set in place, the cast and crew were still in need of more space for staging and storing equipment - enter the Marsh Street Centre.
“This is an outstanding demonstration of how different members of our community can work together for the greater good. We are thrilled to be working with the St. George’s Anglican Church and Lee. It’s a special occasion when someone brings a project such as this home,” said Steve Gorton, president of the Marsh Street Centre.
The Marsh Street Centre is one of many community-run organizations that has been hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gorton says the ability to rent the centre to the film crew will help in balancing some of the fundraising dollars they are currently unable to generate due to pandemic restrictions.
“We're having difficulty raising funds in our conventional model, because our conventional model has been to have 200 people in our fundraising event. We can't do that anymore. Any opportunity for a little bit of additional revenue, obviously, is very useful at this time,” Gorton added.
Bowcott says the church will see a direct benefit from the film as well, as production crews have upgraded the church’s audio-visual equipment.
“This project has allowed us to improve our facility that will be used by our church and other groups as well,” Bowcott said.
Filming is expected to wrap up on Saturday and both facilities are set to undergo a deep-clean on Sunday before welcoming back members of the public.
COVID-19 safety precautions were observed throughout the filming process, with face masks and contact tracing taking place at both facilities.
“This is exciting news for our community,” said TBM Mayor Alar Soever. “Film production is an activity that can be carried out safely with proper protocols in place. This project gives the community and these two very worthy institutions a boost when we need it most.”
Hope says she would like this film to be a launching point for TBM to attract other film opportunities in the future.
“I am really pleased to have been a part of bringing this important project to TBM. With its many picturesque and charming locations, TBM is perfect for small town or rural film settings,” she said.
“We all hope that this is putting the town on the radar of the film and television industry so that TBM will be seen as a potential future location for all sorts of things,” added Gorton.
