"The Pilgrim's Progress" - A Feature Film I Directed

[David West]

Hey everyone! Last summer I directed a feature length, musical adaptation of Pilgrim's Progress for my church's Vacation Bible School, and ever since I've been working off and on post-production to get it ready for release to the public. As of the 25th, we've now finally released the film online. Since Narnia and C.S. Lewis have been HUGE influences on my storytelling and Pilgrim's Progress was a huge influence on C.S. Lewis (he did write "The Pilgrim's Regress", afterall!), I thought you guys might like to check it out. I'd really love to hear what you all think of it!

We shot the film on a budget of just $2,500 with an entirely volunteer cast and crew from our church, and all things considered I'm pretty proud of the way it turned out. We had some very serious interest from a few different Christian distribution companies but ultimately our heart was always to use the film for ministry and make it as accessible as possible, so we decided to release it for free on our own website. Hopefully we'll get it on some streaming services eventually! Our website is PilgrimsProgressFilm.com, but I'm just going to go ahead and link you all straight to the film on YouTube here! If you have a smart TV or a way to stream to your TV, you should be able to find the film on the YouTube app pretty easily.

The film is about 82 minutes long, so feel free to check out the trailer before watching it. I know the thought of a no-budget feature film isn't always the most tantalizing prospect! But the responses we've had from people so far have been
great—about 800 people turned out for our premiere!—so I hope you will all enjoy it.

Click here to watch the Full Film!



And here's the trailer if you'd like to check it out first:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISfiC_gY7xY

If you get a chance to check out the I'd be more than happy to answer any questions you may have about it!

[The Rose-Tree Dryad]

I previewed a rough cut of this last year and I was quite impressed by all that you and your team were able to do with a shoestring budget. From what I've seen of the finished product, it looks like it's improved even more since then! Congratulations on the premiere and completing the film, and I hope to see you guys do something Narnia-inspired at some point!

[Shawna]

That is some incredibly impressive production quality for that budget. Well done!

[David West]

Thanks so much guys! I really appreciate the kind words.