By MARK MILLER
A posting on Facebook resulted in “an unbelievable experience” for Bluffton resident Chris Garrett.
“I just want people to know about this movie and hear the message,” she says. “And that is that everyone can experience the grace of God.”
Sometime in early 2022, Garrett came across a call for extras for a movie written and directed by Matt Webb, who teaches film production at Huntington University. Being an alumni — “back when it was Huntington College in 1979,” Garrett says — and having participated in theater during her student years, she submitted her name.
“The process of that, how things worked, it was just an amazing experience,” she continues. She was notified of her acceptance with instructions of what kind of wardrobe and hairstyles would work. Garrett found some clothes at area Goodwill and Salvation Army stores.
“We filmed the last week of May and first week of June,” she recalls. In the wake of the pandemic, Screen Actors Guild requirements still mandated masks when not filming. Those recruited as extras reported to what was called a “base camp” where they changed clothes, ate meals and waited to be bussed to the scenes in which they would appear.
All of the filming was done in Huntington County with the exception of the church scenes which took place in a church on the Huntington-Wabash County line — but on the Wabash side.
The film was initially named “Wayfaring Stranger” and debuted in April 2023 at Huntington University. It won several awards from the International Christian Visual Media Association including Best Actor, Best Evangelical Film and Best Soundtrack.
Garrett shares the synopsis of the film:
“In 1970s rural America, a 12-year-old pastor’s son and his family befriend a middle-aged, broken-down, country singer who helps the boy embrace his musical calling and the pastor build a new church. The former country singer, Glenn Frank, becomes a part of the Clark family by secretly teaching young Lance to play the guitar and working side-by-side with Pastor Doyle, all while wrestling with his demons of alcohol abuse. His untimely death brings the community together to finish the project and unite a new church family.”
The film, she adds, is based on the true story of Lance Clark, a professor in film and the Dean of Arts at Huntington University who was also the movie’s producer. Garrett, as did other cast members, got to know Clark during and after the filming.
“He was the 12-year-old pastor’s son,” Garrett says, “and he still has the guitar he learned to play.”
The film was renamed “A Carpenter’s Prayer” for national release this year.
The story, Garrett adds, is about the building of a church in Michigan. Clark’s father had a vision to unite four congregations and build a new church debt-free. In October of last year, the church depicted in the movie held a 50-year anniversary and showed the film. Garrett decided to go.
“It was thrilling to be where the actual church at the center of the film was located,” she shares. “I met the current pastor of the church and his cousin and her daughter. I talked at length with the cousin and daughter and told them the film is excellent and that I was an extra in the movie. It was as if I told them I had a major part in the movie. They wanted their picture with me and asked if they could sit with me, which I did. When I was seen in the movie they would point to the screen. It was fun and still gives me a chuckle when I think about it.”
Garrett can be seen “up close” in four scenes and is in the background in “a couple of other scenes,” she says, and is also seen in the movie’s promotional trailers. She has a number of stories about the experience both positive and sad. She befriended another extra who later was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and passed this past November. “I am able to remember the fun times we had on the set,” she says.
Garrett, a native of Huntington County, moved to rural Ossian in 1995 and then to Bluffton in 2008. Retired now from a career in social services, she continues to work part time at Family Centered Services.
“It was fun on set and being able to see what really happens when making a film,” she explains. “I learned that the production schedule is very tight which makes sense with how many people are on set, and that all scenes for a location are filmed when at that location. “In a movie, you will see a plot progress from one location to another and then back to the first location,” she continues.
“All the filming is done at the construction site, the church, etc. in the same day or two,” she adds. “I gained a better sense of how someone editing a film would have a big job just putting them in the right order. It has also been so much fun each time I have taken friends and family to see the film. It truly has been a purely fun and joyful experience.”
miller@news-banner.com
