Behind the Scenic Design
The Making of Joseph: Light of Patriarchs
Before we begin, a quick introduction… Hello there! My name is Lindsey Bruno, the newly appointed Creative Director for Catholic Stories for Children; and I have had the pleasure of developing, writing, and directing Joseph: Light of Patriarchs, the newest installment of the Songs of the Saints series on YouTube. Walk with me as we wander through my thought process in developing the scenic design for the short film.
Desert, wilderness, wasteland, badlands… Even if we’ve never been to one, we know in our spirits what it’s like to be in those spaces. For forty days every year during Lent, we accompany Jesus “in the desert”. We experience deprivation, ardor, heat from our examinations of conscience. We get thirsty, tired, and contemplative as we await the Passion. This was the setting for our short, Joseph: Light of Patriarchs.
When considering what moment in Joseph’s story to zoom in on for Songs of the Saints, I was captivated by the time when he was called away from ordinary domestic life, and into an epic adventure full of danger, a long journey, and evil tyrants. As a new Catholic, I observed a lot of depictions of Saint Joseph at his workshop being a dutiful dad. This was beautiful and I loved taking time in meditative prayer to ruminate on the Holy Family of Nazareth in their daily lives. For myself however, my vocation has been not so conventional. I’ve lived in several states and regions far from home (some not so safe), been largely on my own, and my work in film has taken me on many an adventure far from a domesticated life. I’ve always been drawn to characters who quest, who wander, and who’s lives are far from ordinary. When I thought I couldn’t really relate to the Holy Family (my parents are divorced and I myself am unmarried), I believe St. Joseph himself in his kindness and care for me illuminated a part of his story I could connect to… The Flight to Egypt.
In the story of the Flight to Egypt, Joseph is instructed in a dream to uproot his wife and infant foster Son from their home because there is a bounty on Jesus’ life. The angel instructs him to go to Egypt… A place of trauma for any Jew. I can’t imagine what it would have felt like for him to have to take the Son of God and Our Lady to a place that holds such weight in the hearts of Israel. His obedience is astounding, but he was human, so there’s not a chance it wasn’t extremely difficult, despite the grace of peace I’m sure he was given. I imagine he considered how the Israelite slaves had been rescued OUT of Egypt via passage across the Red Sea, and now he had to cross the dune sea of the desert in order to return to this dark place. All of this emotion, I tried to communicate in the background design.
In the film, you’ll notice that the sun is in the west, were home was. There are dunes blocking the path home and Joseph finds himself with his family past the point of no return. Egypt is to the east (signified by the pyramids) and it is shrouded in darkness. Joseph has no idea what is to come for them in Egypt. How he will provide, what will happen to them. But he knows he’s bringing the Light there, and that comforts him. He’s bringing the Messiah, the Promise to the darkest place he can image: Egypt.
In our story, he takes a moment to himself (like all introverts need) to pray while his family rests. We see home losing light at sunset to the west, Egypt in darkness in the east… But the moon is there at the center. A symbol of Our Lady, who reflects the Son/Sun. Joseph seeks consolation from the psalm of Mary (who we imagine shared the treasure of her heart with her Holy Family). In the psalm, we hear the echos of dozens of generations of Israelites declaring the faithfulness of God. To drive the gravitas of this psalm home, we wanted the scenic design to echo God’s promises. The background is sand made to look like the sea, and a sky full of stars. Sound familiar? Sounds like God’s promise to Abraham doesn’t it. Mary speaks of this directly in her song, and Joseph remembers this particular portion of the promise.
”16. By my own self have I sworn, saith the Lord: because thou hast done this thing, and hast not spared thy only begotten son for my sake: 17. I will bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is by the sea shore: thy seed shall possess the gates of their enemies.” - Genesis 22:16-17 (Douay Raimes)
Here’s Joseph (named after a Patriarch who God was also called back to Egypt to bring light and help) bringing the Divine Seed through the gates of an old enemy to flee a new enemy, Herod. But I imagine Joseph was reminded that his Son would be safe until His time came to be the Passover Lamb as he looked a the sand and stars surrounding him.
On a cinematic level, I was inspired by several iconic deserts, and passed those influences along to our layout designer Brandon Warren, concept artist Gabi.Illus, and our painter Maureen Narro at Mako Animation Studios. We looked at scapes from the desert planet of Tatooine in Star Wars a New Hope, The Mandalorian, and The Force Awakens. As I mentioned in previous blogs, I worked on the Tatooine set on The Book of Boba Fett, so that place holds nostalgia and tactile memory for me. We also looked at The Prince of Egypt which captured Moses’ flight FROM Egypt so beautifully. I’ve always loved deserts, being of ancestry that descends from the Fertile Crescent. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley (a desert) and had the great privilege of working on an update project at Walt Disney Imagineering for Mission Space, which takes place on Mars. We got to team up with Nasa and experience live VR on the martian planet, which solidified even deeper, my affinity for deserts and their mysterious beauty.
My hope is that when you see our little film, you are drawn into the hope and resilience of Joseph when he faced “the desert”. I hope that through the art of animation and the story of St. Joseph, you can sense God’s majesty and beauty in whatever trial you may face. That the call to adventure would spur you to courage in anticipating God’s mighty hand in the face of your enemies. That you would turn to Our Lady in temptations to despair and turn to St. Joseph to lead you always back to Christ and to protect you from harm.
If you would like to support the funding of this film, so we can finish it and share it with the world - please head to our kickstarter campaign: www.kickstarter.com/projects/catholicstories/saint-joseph-animation.
You can also share this blog post to folks who might resonate with this story.
Christ Be With You…Always,
-Lindsey