‘Full Armour‘ is a 20-minute, short film set in 90AD during the reign of the Roman Emperor, Domitian. A young Greek boy, Timothy, from Corinth has been kidnapped after his parents’ villa is sacked by Roman soldiers imposing the Emperor’s Imperial Cult. Timothy meets a mysterious Caledonian woman, Miriam, in the cave where he is being held. She equips him to escape and helps him to understand how “The Truth can set him free”. Timothy learns what it means to stand firm, even when the conflict is most fierce, and discovers that hope glimmers even in the darkest places, and through the most unlikely of allies…
The majority of the film centers around a dialogue between Miriam and Timothy interspersed with bursts of action. Miriam is a Caledonian woman whose husband was a Roman soldier and secretly a Christian. Both she and her husband were martyred in Caledonia but their legacy lives on through the soldiers who they influenced during their lives.
*potential spoiler alert!*.
At this desperate and fragile time in the history of Christianity (as expounded in the book of Revelation), ‘Full Armour’ imagines that there is a Divine intervention in which Miriam is sent back to intervene in the plight of Timothy, a young Christian boy who has been kidnapped and is soon to be handed over to the Romans. Miriam is a strong woman with an unshakable inner peace. Her maternal instincts give her a deep desire to protect and comfort Timothy but she knows that what he needs more than anything is the Truth that can truly set him free. The part is wonderfully portrayed by Mae MacDougall who perfectly captured the curious combination of mystery and maternal compassion unique to the character of Miriam.
Timothy is an intelligent and spirited 11-year-old boy. He often finds his rational and logical mind at war with his passionate heart. As the story progresses, he learns that he will need both his heart and his head in the challenges to come.
Timothy is played by the incredible young actor Rafi Wilder. Rafi behaved like a true professional throughout the entire process of preparing and filming ‘Full Armour’. Although off set he behaved very much as you would expect from any energetic and playfully cheeky 11-year-old boy, as soon as ‘action’ was called it was total focus and immediate concentration.
The sheer amount of dialogue Rafi had to learn and deliver, to say nothing of the emotional range he had to master, left cast and crew in awe of his work. He absolutely loved the Roman armour and we agreed after the shoot that Rafi should take the armour home with him. Later we discovered with some satisfaction that Rafi had almost perfectly imitated Timothy’s journey! Both had travelled to a strange land, spent three days in a cold, dark place, learned valuable truths, and returned home with a mysterious set of armour! Rafi is in high demand as a child actor and we are excited to watch his career take off.
We were also fortunate to have incredible supporting cast. Fergus Munro is the nicest guy you could ever meet, which made his sinister performance of the Slaver all the more incredible! Furthermore, he managed to capture the subtle conflict within the Slaver as he tries to justify his choices to himself.
Douglas Eckhart and Chris Beckett starred as a particularly terrifying pair of Roman soldiers. Again, you would never guess what great guys they are in real life! Not only did they arrive in authentic costume and with a thoroughly professional attitude, they threw themselves into the roles wholeheartedly and gave 100% to make the film a success. In many ways, these were challenging roles with plenty of action and drama. The Romans worked brilliantly with a diverse cast and crew (including young Rafi) and it was amazing to see them in action! For some scenes it was all hands-on deck!
My wife, Lisa (who is part Greek), and Chris Watt, DOP and Creative Director of Out of the Box (aka my boss!) make a cameo appearance as Timothy’s parents during two emotional flashback scenes.
The character of Cornelius is played by my brother and professional actor and film maker, Phil Todd. Phil has done more for Full Armour than anyone else: helping develop the script, hours of storyboarding with me, First AD during the shoot, and many weeks of editing and post production.
I was keen to have Phil play Cornelius because he becomes for Timothy what Phil was for this project – a savior!
One of my greatest privileges was working with the exceptional young composer, David Shaw, on the score. We quickly realized that we very much spoke the same musical language and had the same thematic vision for the film. David also, brought on board the services of Mark to do the mixing and mastering and the ‘sound’ for Full Armour started to emerge. There have been many, many hours of work to get this far. Script writing, redrafting, story boarding, scheduling, risk assessments, child licenses, casting, read-throughs, costumes, set building, constant communications, scoring, editing, more editing, VFX, SFX, more editing…
I can’t emphasize enough how miraculous it was that this all came together. There are a huge number of variables in film making and we had more than our fair share of major challenges. I have to be honest and say that I hardly slept the week leading up to the shoot and was plagued with anxiety. However, it was deeply humbling and moving to see the way God sent the right people at the right time.
To name just a few:
- Walter (our sound guy and boom operator) providing us with his farm to solve our location issue
- my dad stepping in when my brother Laurie got ill to help us build the set
- Laurie jumping in anyway and designing and building an incredible set when we had just about given up
- Kirsten Joy (now Phil’s wife) stepping in and doing an astounding job of catering for cast and crew
- Phil pretty much plugging up every gap that needed plugged with his expertise
- and many, many more…
I have come to call it the cavalry effect. You mount your horse and charge towards an invincible enemy knowing full well that it is a suicide mission. Then you become aware of a few brave knights galloping beside you with their banners unfurled; somehow, they are willing to share your fate. Others join them, one in purpose and proud to be counted among the few. Then, before you know it, you are part of an epic cavalry charge and the enemy flees before you!
I have come to understand that sometimes we do not experience the work of the Holy Spirit within us because we do not step boldly enough into God’s purposes for us. What a joy to serve a God who is so much bigger and more glorious than any of the challenges we face.
Matthew Todd
writer / director
MATTHEW TODD Bmus (hons) RCS
www.matthew-todd.co.uk
WATCH FULL FILM NOW!
