When?

Our first movie short, “Joan of Arc,” was made in about six hours. Slapping together a three page script, filming shots in sequence, and staging a few bloopers didn’t take long at all. We had fun, and made the mistake of believing that bigger projects would be just as simple.

Wrong!

“The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” was made over the course of 18 months. Because the cousins live four hours apart, we couldn’t hop over to each other’s houses every time we felt like filming. Thus, Cousin Camp was born, a week of summer break spent sleeping over, playing, and for the most part, filming. In 2005, camp was held at Uncle Ron and Aunt Marilyn’s house, where we filmed things like Mr. Tumnus’s cave, the Beaver’s dam, and the journey to the stone table. Over the next few months, we shot a scene here and a scene there, when one family would visit the other for the weekend. We even filmed several hours on Christmas day! Then in summer 2006, camp was held at Uncle Bob and Aunt Karla’s house. We finished shooting that week: scenes like the stone table, the battle, and the witch’s courtyard. Finally, filming had wrapped! We were on the home stretch. Right?

Well, editing took a bit longer than we anticipated. Actually, a LOT longer. The novelty soon wore off, and each time Lauren or Aubrey walked past the computer, they tried to forget that there was hours of footage just waiting to be clipped and cropped and split and chopped.

But in the end, two years after the idea was first suggested, our movie finally came together. (Don’t even mention the words Prince Caspian.)