The Making of Morningstar
Morningstar is a feature-length docudrama which tells the story of John Wycliffe, the bold medieval philosopher who defied both church and state and translated the Bible into English. Independently financed and produced, Morningstar combines narration, interview and drama to cinematically explore Wycliffe's life as never before.
Narration
Acclaimed Scottish actor Philip Todd leads us in Wycliffe's footsteps as we travel from his home town in Yorkshire to Oxford, to London, to Lutterworth and to Bruges. Amid all the adventure, we make time to investigate Wycliffe's ideas and understand what made them so dangerous.
Interviews
We are joined in our film by five global experts in the history and theology of John Wycliffe. These people have devoted much of their lives to understanding the life and ideas of John Wycliffe, and it is fascinating to hear their insights and perspective. Not only do we understand more of Wycliffe himself, but his relevance to the 21st century is immediately apparent
Drama
The story of John Wycliffe comes to life in our drama scenes. Veteran actor Jared Morgan takes on the role of Wycliffe himself, and leads a cast of over forty magnificent actors as the film unfolds. Although these scenes are essentially fictional, we made a point to use the historically recorded words of John Wycliffe and the other characters as often as we could.
Graphics
A novel technique is used to create Wycliffe's world: the backgrounds are individually painted, and slotted in behind the footage of our actors. An international team of digital artists worked together for several months to design the spaces, establish the correct perspective, paint the backgrounds and compile the whole thing together.
