BUCKHANNON – A Bridgeport-based film-making company is scheduled to shoot their next movie entirely in Buckhannon.
JC Films Studios, a Christ-centered, faith-based film production company, will start filming their next movie “In God’s Time” at various locations throughout Buckhannon next Tuesday, Oct. 11. “In God’s Time” features well-known American actors Dean Cain and Kevin Sorbo, and the screenplay for the film itself was written by Cain and also showcases Christian actors Julie McCullough, Daniel Roebuck and Eddie McClintock.
The film is based on a book authored by Bob Fraley, “The Blessings of Obedience: Our Story of How God Has Led and Blessed Our Family,” which was published in January 2010.
President of JC Films Studios Jason Campbell said their company has made 60 films in the last 11 years, typically in Bridgeport, Fairmont and Morgantown.
“We have a lot of people from Buckhannon that are involved in our film company, and there’s an enthusiasm and an excitement there that’s just cool,” Campbell said. “It’s funny – the film is called ‘In God’s Time,’ and in some ways, it was in God’s time because when I first went to Buckhannon, I didn’t know the area and then the people started coming up and saying, ‘We could do this, and we could do this,’ and that’s when I was like, ‘Hey, we could do this here.’”
Most of their filming locations were volunteered by the community. In fact, JC Films Studios hosted an informational meeting at the Public Safety Complex on Florida Street Monday, Sept. 26 and invited members of the public to learn more about, and possibly become involved, in the making of the Christ-centered film.
Campbell said local residents have been welcoming and helpful.
“We’re still getting volunteers calling and saying, ‘Hey, you can use my house,’ so we’re still getting those, which is cool,” Campbell said. “We are still looking for some props from the ‘70s, cars from the ‘70s, I think we’re squared away with locations, but those types of things are needed.”
People interested in appearing in the film themselves can go to JC Films Studio’s website and look at the different scenes that still need extras.
“Our website has an opportunity for people to read the different scenes they can participate in and how to register to be a part of that,” Campbell said. “We’re also going to be on Main Street filming, for the most part, so if somebody sees us filming, they can watch. I wouldn’t say it’s a closed set, but a lot of the scenes are in homes.”
Campbell also hopes to arrange a premiere for the community, once the film is complete.
“I can see this being something that will be played for the community because it was such a great community effort that was involved in the film,” Campbell said. “We’ll do some type of premiere; we’ll congratulate the folks of Buckhannon, and we will make sure they’re included in the premiere process.”
Below is a summary of the film Campbell provided to My Buckhannon:
“The film is based on a true story about a family that lived in Youngstown, Ohio back in 1969. They had two children at the time and they were traveling to Michigan to go to an Ohio-Michigan game, and God told the dad (Bob Fraley) to turn the car around, go back home, and he didn’t know why but he did.”
“When the father got home, they found out that a family in the church that had six children, the mom and dad, had died in a car accident. He just felt like the Lord was telling him to bring these kids on and he didn’t have the means, he didn’t have the home, he didn’t have the things, but he just felt like this is what God was telling him to do, so he did it.
“[Fraley] wrote a book called ‘The Blessings of Obedience,’ and the base message is, ‘just obey God’ and he did what God told him to do and for that God has really blessed him and his family in tremendous ways.”
You can read more about the movie, set to debut in 2023, and other opportunities with JC Films Studios here.
