It could be worse

By Tony Staley
Compass Editor

Anyone who feels at times that their job is akin to herding sheep can take heart from a recent Catholic News Service story.

The writer, Carol Glatz, CNS Rome correspondent, traveled to Matera, Italy, at the expense of New Line Cinema to cover the filming of a new movie, The Nativity Story.

The movie, scheduled for worldwide release Dec. 1, is based on a script by Mike Rich, a Beaverton, Ore., nondenominational Christian. In it, Rich seeks to flesh out who Mary and Joseph were and the feelings and emotions they dealt with as they faced the immense responsibilities God had entrusted to them.

The Bible offers only the slightest help in telling us who Joseph and Mary were, and their state of mind. So Rich consulted religious scholars to come up with a story that was speculative, but still faithful to the spirit of the Bible.

Writing the script was one thing. Translating it to film was another. For example, Glatz of CNS learned how hard it is to work with herds of sheep, goats, a soaring hawk, ornery oxen, a baby calf, camels and donkeys. Want the Star of Bethlehem or a floating choir of angels? Nothing to it with computer generated graphics. But just try to get an ox to kneel and low before the baby Jesus in a manger.

To have even a prayer of getting the animals to cooperate, the producers hired sheep wranglers, ox whisperers and local Italian shepherds to play ... shepherds. Despite that, it took several retakes for the shepherds to keep their warm woolies from running over Mary and Joseph who also were walking up the hill.

So maybe your job isn't as bad as you thought, unless, of course, you herd cats for a living.