Bright Ones - Light Up the World
Matthew 5 has that very well-known scripture that talks about being the light of the world, the city on a hill. A couple of years ago, a creative partner and I, Fred Vassallo, we started working on this project called 'Bright Ones', it's the fulfillment of a prophetic word over Bethel. In fact, it's the first feature film to come out of this house and this story is actually about a group of young performing artists, singers, dancers, and actors that in trying to put together a show in only two weeks, they find their voice and they discover their destiny.
I'll never forget when we were sitting on location with Joel Taylor, the CEO of Bethel Music, and he had just seen the dailies of this scene between two young actors that have never done anything like that before. He looked at me and he said, "David, do you think we can put together a movie?" I said, "Well, I think that's what we're doing." He said, "No, no, like a real movie, like a feature-length film."
Now, the truth of the matter is that this thing was actually going to be a backdoor pilot. A backdoor pilot is a 45-minute short/long film that maybe points you towards a future series on TV, but Joel saw something in those dailies, in that rehearsal footage between these two actors. What he saw between them was the chemistry that birthed Bethel's first feature film. On April 22nd, in 700 theaters, the fulfillment of a prophetic word is going to come to pass.
But it happened in a backroom between two brothers that were trying to figure out as creative fathers how to lead the next generation into their creative destiny. Even though it had been scripted as a 45-minute, we asked Holy Spirit to fill in the other 40 and something beautiful happened. Even though it took us 21 days of principal photography to shoot the first 45 minutes, Holy Spirit gave us a download that provided us with enough story to finish that film. In fact, we shot the last 40 minutes of Bright Ones in five days.
A few years ago I heard Shawn Bolz. He came to The School of Creativity and he said something that changed my life as a creative. He said, "Your provision lies inside your creativity." Not that you provide for your creativity, but that actually within your creative nature, that thing that God put in you, is actually this thing called 'provision'. Just remember this call in Matthew five to light up the world, it's not yours to do alone. He's in you, so light it up.
Check out the Bright Ones website for more information on how you can see the movie!
