Artist bio

My name is Kendall Barthelmy and I'm from St.Lucia, within the Caribbean. I am someone who finds identity in a few things which have been part of me, for a while now, some from a young age; My knack and passion for the arts, my love for nature, adventure & the outdoors, and last but not least, the pursuit of my faith in God & Christ. These even have various opportunities to intertwine, which is amazing. I have loved visual art in particular from the time I was a toddler, drawing my favourite cartoon characters-which themselves were created by artists. These formed a great part of my childhood and my art was a vehicle to carry these memories onward. As time moved on, I augmented my drawing with painting, digital painting, and most recently photography-which then made me curious about video. It can be very challenging at times without proper equipment, especially since recently getting into it. However, it has been a great adventure so far and I hope to continue along those lines. Photography and video link well with my adventurous spirit because I love documenting my thrilling adventures, and so adventure gives rise to me practicing them both. Aside from being fun and thrilling, I also love nature just by simply knowing that the Almighty's hand is behind it. The way nature is set perfectly before us is just something I cannot get enough of, and then to know that this creator seeks covenant with us is amazing. Moreover, just as God creates, he has given me a talent to create, while enjoying his creation. I therefore love how these converge, and I just want to keep on the up, using my talent to glorify him as number 1.

Title

The Prayer

Medium/Genre

Concept

Artist Statement

As mentioned in the bio, video is one of my more recent explorations when it comes to art. For some reason, when I got a camera about a year ago for photography, I developed a deep interest for video as well. Since then I have tried a few short films, this one being the most challenging definitely. The process of filming for 5 minutes of screen time took 2 days, editing took quite a while as well, and most of all, creating the concept for this was one of the toughest parts. I spent weeks thinking up concepts, throwing them out, getting artist blocks, and so on. It was harder than I thought. On the editing side, I'm glad I had a wee bit of experience from the previous short films I had tried out. (Learning software is a steep curve) After settling on an idea and then scripting and shotlisting, the shooting of the scenes as in my mind and on paper was a task. Because the scenes were set at night, it was a great challenge, as shooting in the night involves a lack of light, light being important to footage. I therefore had to switch to the method of "day for night", which came with it's own challenges. I shot over 2 days and then filtered through, choosing all the best takes from each planned scene. I don't particularly have a canon of work since film and video is relatively new to me. I would just like to keep developing in these areas as I'm very interested in them.

How it fits into contest

The film highlights the tension between the choice of 2 battles mentioned in Ephesians 6:10+...the battle which the devil tries to trip us up with- the futile battle among ourselves VS the spiritual battle - the battle against the devil - the important battle. In the film, Jacob is a young man who usually would walk in God's way with his grandfather, the 2 encouraging one another. However, Jacob lately has been getting distant and caught up in the battles of this world. Instead of being strong in God, trusting him, putting him first, he chooses to wrestle with flesh, investing heavy time into the battles of this life- fighting for promotions offered at work, trying to become a forex giant, spending more time at his job, building up treasures here on earth. He's gradually getting distracted and trapped in the schemes that the devil uses to keep us fighting futile battles. He does not even realize it, but his grandfather, who represents wisdom in the story, does, and a fervent prayer helped Jacob to wake up and see that reality for himself. As Jacob wakes up, he recalls how he and his grandfather engaged in spiritual warfare, praying in the spirit and being strong in the Lord & not in oneself. He remembers and reminisces on those times with his grandfather, which represent fighting a spiritual battle and not a fleshly one, putting on God's spiritual armour and not fighting for earthly treasure which rusts. I also drew inspiration from Romans 8:6, Galatians 6:8 and 2 Corinthians 10:3 , which highlights the battle between spirit and flesh - & what Jacob continues to feed will be what grows in his life While Jacob was caught up in his own devices while gradually forgetting his number 1 duty to God, it represented 1 Pet 5:8, which shows that while we may let up, Satan never lets up on his number 1 duty, to devour us. For Jacob, those fiery darts that Ephesians mentions were in the form of attraction to money, promotion status, and self-reliance; the lust of the eyes and flesh.
However at the end of the day, God heard Jacob's grandfather's prayer and saw the Jacob was slipping away and brought him back to his senses. Jacob is grateful and now has redirected his focus from the affairs of this life (2 Tim 2:4) on trusting the one who called him as a solder, and putting him first again, walking in the spirit, and fighting those battles instead.

Credits

For the roles of director, writer, director of photography and editor, I, Kendall Barthelmy, acted in these positions. (visualized and created the concepts which were to be set up and shot, scripted and shotlisted for each scene, organized props, shot the different scenes.)

Lead Cast
Anthony Wilkie, who played Jacob in the film.

Supporting Cast
George Goddard, who played the grandfather.
Curtney Alexander, who played the thief.

Assistant Support
David Barthelmy

Music
Horror Music (produced by Audionautix.com)
Time stops (produced by Silent Partner)

Transcript / Lyrics

Scene 3 ( exactly after the robbery)

Jacob: How could I have let this happen?! Now, my whole livelihood is just gone! All my documents, my software, my portfolio, my laptop!
(Clears belongings off the table in anger)*

*Jacob sighs and continues speaking*

Jacob: I don’t even know what to do now. My neighbours are distant, my car is down. What next? God, why?

*An item on the floor then catches Jacob’s eye. It’s a note from his grandfather*

Jacob: What’s this?

*Voiceover of Grandfather as Jacob reads the note that his grandfather wrote*

Grandfather’s voice: Son, I'm concerned. I know you feel pressed to keep up with life’s attractions. I realize you commit heavily to your goal, work associates, promotion, and this online crypto trading thing. They consume so much of you. We already don’t see often. We used to chat and have bible study online, but it has been months now son. I love you very much and I always pray to God for whatever it takes for you to return to him.

*Jacob has a flashback of a moment with his grandfather over the phone*

After chuckling at a jovial part of the conversation, it continues...

Grandfather: You know though son, I’ve been praying for you.

Jacob: Oh really Grandad. You know I appreciate that. About anything specific?

Grandfather: In fact yes. I notice many things are starting to get in the way of -

*Jacob checks his phone and is alarmed at the time and rushes out, inadvertently not allowing his grandfather to finish his statement*

Jacob: Ooh! Amen grandad, Amen. I have to go!

Grandfather: Oh Jacob...

*flashback ends and scene returns to the interior of the room that night which he got robbed*

*the winds flaps the pages of the Bible, which alerts Jacob. He picks it up and starts reading. Ephesians 6:12 catches his eye and causes him to finally realize what his grandfather was saying-he has a flashback showing him that he has not been keeping in line with the scripture- a scene of him investing heavy amounts of time into money trading, texting his friend Patrick about it*

Patrick: Yo bro Jacob! You saw Cuebanks pip count??!!

Jacob: Nah, how much was it?

Patrick: it was 900 pips bro! 😱

Jacob: What!? Yo! I’m about to spend the whole night on this! I MUST GET TO THAT LEVEL!

*flashback ends and scene returns to the interior of the room that night which he got robbed*

*Ephesians 6:10 then catches his eye and he has a flashback to an earlier time, when he was more in line with the scripture - a scene of him praying and bonding with his grandfather*

*flashback ends and scene returns to the interior of the room that night which he got robbed*

*after he is done reminiscing, he takes the Bible and settles into his bed*

Jacob: Well grandad, I never thought I’d be saying this after getting robbed but...thank you.

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