Filming miracles in Champion, Paris, Loreto and New Orleans
The second set of Explore With the Miracle Hunter episodes were about the interesting stories of Champion, Paris, Loreto and New Orleans.
In the story of Champion, Mary appeared to a young Belgium woman Adele Brise three times and told her to teach cathechism. She followed her direction and even built a shrine where she saw Mary. Twelve years later, when a huge fire stroke Champion, people fled to the shrine and turned to prayer. They prayed in a procession for the whole night and finally, the rain came. When we shot the fire scene we actually set a tree and its immediate surroundings on fire (under the supervision of the firefighters, of course). When our actors were running by the fire screaming and caughing, we all felt the horror and fear the real people of Champion must had felt. And when the firefighters made rain, we all felt connected in that moment.
The story of New Orleans is another one proving the strength of Mary. Praying to the statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor helped Ursulines of New Orleans to stop a fire and helped the American soldiers to win the Battle of New Orleans against the British invasion.
In Paris, Saint Catherine Labouré had the visions of the Virgin Mary that led to the creation of the Miraculous Medal. An iconic story that was also quite challenging to recreate. Mary appeared on a globe floating in air, standing on a snake, with stars around her head and a sign surrounding her. To get the end result we had to make the globe, lift it in the air and make it stable enough for our Mary actress to stand on, we 3D printed the snake head and sculpted the rest of the snake around the globe. Our VFX team added the sign and the stars in postproduction.
Loreto is an episode describing the move of the Holy House of Mary from Nazareth to Loreto, Italy. The tradition says the house flew to Italy carried by angels. It was later discovered in documents that the house was transported by ship and that the transport was commisioned by the Angelos family (Angeli in Latin). This, they say, is the origin of the tradition of the “Angels” carrying the House to Italy.
All four episodes honour Mary. They tell the stories of the strongest faith, courage and perserverence. And we are honoured again and again to help deliver them to you.
