Is It Luck? Or Something Else?
During the making of the first faith-based movie I ever made (Do You Wanna Dance?), we didn’t have a lot of money to make the movie and one of the most expensive items was purchasing the actual film. We needed thousands of feet of different kinds of film stock.
Then, right as we were beginning filming, a production company called up and said they had finished a film and had an enormous amount of leftover film stock.
They gave it to us. For free.
A couple weeks later, we were filming in a gym, and needed to get the lights set up high on the ceiling but we had no way of getting them there. Someone mentioned there was a construction crew next door.
We asked them if we could use their forklift. They were happy to help.
And the lights went up.
The entire filming went this way. Over and over again, we would need something, and somehow, someway… we would get it.
Finally, a Co-Producer came up to me and said, “I don’t want to be around you when your luck runs out.”
I understood what he was saying. I did seem to be really “lucky” in producing that movie.
But, a funny thing happened…
When I produced my next faith-based film (Christmas with the Karountzoses)… I got really “lucky” while producing that film, too.
We could only afford two cameras for part of the filming. After a week, we went to turn in the second camera and the owner said, “Just keep it for the rest of your shoot.” And on it went… time after time, during that filming, I kept getting “lucky”.
By the time I made Faith, Hope & Love, my third faith-based film, I told the cast and crew, “I know this might sound strange, but whatever you need, just let me know and, if it’s right for this movie, we will get it.” I got a lot of strange looks. I know what they were thinking, “Really? How is that going to happen?”
The answer was that I had become aware of something: when you are doing the work God has put in front of you, God will provide for you. Yes, there were many nerve wracking moments, but in the end, God always provided what we needed.
The best example I can give you on Faith, Hope & Love? 40 days (interesting number, no?) before we began filming, we had hired an actress who was skipping rehearsals. I had spoken to her manager multiple times and told him that if she skipped one more rehearsal, I would have to let her go.
Sure enough, she skipped another rehearsal.
They never thought I would follow through on what I said. But, I did.
I let her go (I’m trying so hard not to use the word “fired”).
The casting directors freaked out. They told me there was no way we could find someone who could dance and act in 40 days.
It just so happened, that week, Peta Murgatroyd, had finished her season on Dancing with the Stars. She came to the last audition we had. She told me, later, she had a rough morning and was downstairs and almost didn’t come upstairs to the audition.
She read with me and she was outstanding. Some of you may have seen the video of her audition on our social media sites.
Everyone tried to talk me out of hiring her. They all told me that she had never acted before. But, that “voice” (yes, Holy Spirit) inside of me said, this is what God wants you to do.
So, I hired her. And I got “lucky” again. She was absolutely fantastic.
My point in all of this is… whatever your work may be, if you are doing God’s work, He will make the crooked path straight and the narrow road wide. He will also send angels from on high to strengthen you for your journey. The journey is not easy, but God never leaves you.
I bear witness to that.
I have just completed my latest film, “A Marriage Made in Heaven”, which comes out August 27th! So, did I get “lucky” again?
Yep.
I’ll be telling you all about it, next week.
Keep the faith…
Robert