After Hudson arrived here safely, we realized something. Shaye was helping to produce this massive collaboration of YouTubers that was going to be a world-record-breaking nativity scene and a music video on The Piano Guys' channel. The producers already had a baby Jesus, but he was 9 months old, and we knew the perfect baby to play the role. I kept little mitts on his hands around the clock those first few weeks because I wanted to make sure he was ready for his close up.
We drove up to provo on December 1, and when we got there I kind of wondered what on earth I had been thinking. We knew that the nativity would be outside, but the producers had told us we would be in a VIP area with heated tents. When we got there, we realized that us and about another 100 people were "VIPs" and it was totally crazy and load. The event was very well organized, and was catered with Cafe Rio and all sorts of goodies, but it was hectic nonetheless.
Looking back, I feel a little silly because I didn't know how famous some of the people there were. Most of the YouTubers were people we had heard of or knew through Shaye's work, but some people, like the entire Shaytard family, I somehow hadn't heard of before. When I got home, I realized I'd been sitting right by this family who has millions and millions of followers.
The whole event was truly interesting. There were people there of many Christian denominations and there was a clear emphasis on inter-faith and sharing a message about Christ that we could all agree upon. There was a clear feeling of spirituality there, but this was also combined with the feeling of a lot of artistic people looking for recognition, if I'm being honest. The people were all interesting and kind, but the collaboration was about a lot of people networking and being seen, which gave the event a little bit of a distracting feeling.
Of course, everyone kept asking why we there and then I would tell them that our son was playing baby Jesus in the nativity and people would fuss over him. With all the people saying, "He's 11 days old and you're bringing him out like this???" I started to feel really guilty. I just kept praying that he wouldn't get sick. He didn't, thank goodness!
The folks from Guinness came and declared it official-- it was the world's largest nativity! All of the 900 or so people dressed as angels were singing carols, and there was a heavenly feeling there. I wondered how Mary must have felt with all the countless angels celebrating her son's birth. I felt overwhelmed that my little baby was the center of this nativity, so small and insignificant in comparison with the real thing.
Steve Jarvie was there and took these amazing photos! It is a doll in both of these photos, though I like to pretend it was Hudson. They actually filmed everything with a doll and just filmed Hudson for about 15 minutes for some close ups. This was a huge relief because I wanted to eliminate his exposure to the elements as much as possible and it was about 40 degrees out and it got much colder once the sun went down.
When they were ready for us, we laid Hudson in the manger and a hush fell over the set. I remember Alex Boyé tearing up when he saw him in the manger. "It's a real baby! I'm going to cry!" There were probably 15 people working the set, mostly men, and some of them got emotional too. It all just pulled on my heart strings. The personalness of the experience made me think of Christ's birth and the celebration of it in a more personal and experiential way.
The crew was so considerate and wanted to make sure I was at ease the whole time. They kept showing me the monitors so I could see the gorgeous shots that the head videography, Jake Schwartz, was getting. Whenever I'm on set, Shaye is always filming and directing The Piano Guys videos, and since he wasn't spearheading this operation, it was fun to just be able to hang out and let someone else stress.
0 comments:
Post a Comment