David filming in the cemetery at the National Shrine of St Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, MD
After an early breakfast in the cafeteria, we began with shooting my scenes in front of the camera in the cemetery. St. Elizabeth Ann lost a good majority of her family members during her lifetime, so she was not unfamiliar with death, sadly.
While it wasn’t raining, we were sort of immersed in a cloud. But I thought it would be perfect cemetery weather. A bit gloomy. Not bad. And the cemetery on the grounds is just beautiful.
We shot outside until lunchtime. By that time, our fingers were freezing, and we did start to see our lenses get a bit watery.
After lunch, we decided to spend the day in the Basilica, shooting B-Roll, or everything that doesn’t include me in front of the camera. It’s a good thing we devoted the rest of the day to the Basilica, because the place is just huge, and there is SO much to see there! The docent at the Basilica was very helpful in pointing out things we needed to see. It is a glorious place, full of symbolism and history. One of my favorite things about this basilica are the stained glass windows that show the many titles of the Blessed Virgin, taken from the Litany of Loretto. Check out our photos page for pictures of them.
After the Basilica, we had dinner, then dragged ourselves over to the Stone House to shoot the rooms. It was getting dark, and we were SO tired at this point, but we only had one day left, and we still hadn’t shot the White House, the Visitor Center, or the exterior of the grounds, so we had to check this off our list.
It was neat being in the Stone house at dusk. This building was the first permanent home of Mother Seton, her daughters, and the first Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s in Emmitsburg.
After a long day, we watched some TV—funnily enough, Rick Steves was on TV, and they showed how they shot his travel show. Must be nice, having more than 2 people on your production team… LOL!
And then we got some much-needed rest for our last day of shooting.