by Edwin L. Carpenter – Editor, The Dove Foundation
David. A.R. White “gets out of Dodge” when he can to make Christian films, and sometimes with his wife, Andrea Logan White. David was born in the famous Dodge City, Kansas. He and his wife have worked together on films like The Visitation and Six: The Mark Unleashed. In the Blink of an Eye is about his wife’s conversion (named Lori in the film) and how his character, named David, begins dreaming about his wife disappearing. Ultimately the viewer learns that he is afraid of being left behind when the Lord returns, knowing that his wife is ready and he is not.
The Dove Foundation spoke with David and Andrea by phone recently to inquire about their latest effort working together. They had been busy with publicity work for the film and when I reached David with my call and suggested it sounded like life was hectic, he replied, “It’s been a little bit crazy lately.” David comes across as a very methodical-thinking man who is polite and gracious.
We kicked off the interview by asking David what he liked about this latest project and how he became involved in it.
“I’m one of the owners of Pure Flix Entertainment,” he said (makers of the film). “I’ve done quite a few end-time movies over the years. What I liked about this idea though was the whole Groundhog Day effect” (referring to the film in which the character lives a day over and over again). Normally when you have these kinds of movies there’s dark and dreary backdrops. I thought it was interesting to do an end-times film put up against being out in the middle of the ocean, beautiful islands and yachts.”
“He’s left behind but he’s in a beautiful place, but it’s still miserable and he still experiences that loss. I liked that groundhog effect because it allowed us to follow one man’s journey to salvation. As the day repeats he learns a little bit more about God and about himself. I’m not saying that everybody gets this many chances but before he learns to bend his knee to become a Christian we kind of take you through that thought process.”
Dove next asked David if it was by chance he had wound up working with his wife Andrea or if they planned it together.
“We wanted to work together,” he said. “We’ve done a couple of films together and liked it and so this kind of came up. It seemed like the perfect thing for Andrea to play my wife.”
David said they made the film off the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. When we said we hoped he found some time to enjoy the beautiful scenery in the midst of work, he replied, “We pretty much shot through. I think we had one or two days off. It is beautiful there.”
We next asked David about obstacles faced in getting the film made.
“Yes, we faced quite a few,” he replied. “Because it’s a foreign country, you don’t have quite the same luxuries that you do in the United States. The rules are a little bit different.” “Anytime you shoot a movie on the ocean, you can’t control that,” he added, referring to massively high waves they contended with.
David went on to say they endured being pulled over by authorities for no reason at all, endured bribing by some people, and even had a crew member go missing for a day and a half! He mentioned in addition that tourists were beginning to come up missing as the on-going problems of Mexico were continuing.
David said the rewarding aspects of making the movie included it playing to 15,000 people at the Boston Christian Film Festival over a period of a week. There were many decisions for Christ and it had the highest response of these decisions of all thirty films playing.
His next project is titled Jerusalem Countdown which was scheduled to be filmed in Michigan. It’s based on John Hagee’s best-selling book.
Andrea spoke next with us and she comes across as a very kind person who, when we thanked her for doing the interview, replied, “Of course.”
Andrea, who grew up in Chicago, starred along with Rebecca St. James in Sarah’s Choice and her character is quite different than that of Lori in the film In the Blink of an Eye. She plays a manipulative character named Megan in the other one. We asked what process she went through to develop two very different characters.
“After reading the script, the biggest process that I do is to create a whole person around the character, in terms of a background story. Who is this person? What has she gone through? What’s her background? Did she have parents growing up? Did she have a broken family, especially with the character in Sarah’s Choice? Obviously I was not so nice!” she laughed.
We asked Andrea about working with her husband David as she has.
“We enjoy working with each other but I think we also try to limit them and not be in every film together. We always try to play husband and wife if there’s an opportunity to do that. The audience enjoys seeing that because it’s true. Obviously the characters aren’t us. But David’s in the next film and I’m not so we try to kind of space it out so it’s a nice balance.”
Andrea commented as David did on a few of the challenges in getting the film made.
“There were so many challenges in that movie,” she said. “Well, first of all, we filmed it in March and it looks so pretty when you’re watching it, but when we were doing the wave running scenes the water was freezing cold, I mean like icicle cold. So acting in that, and trying to act like you’re having a great time and then not shiver,” she laughed heartily. “That was a big deal for me, being in the cold water, it was not my cup of tea.”
“We have a son who’s three and a half and he was a little before three at the time, so we bring him on set everywhere obviously because we have to. In trying to play this character, my heart is in two places as I am concerned, ‘Is he okay?’ ‘Where’s he at?’ We had a good friend who helped us out with watching him but that’s always a challenge because I’m part actress but the bigger part is Mom!”
She also referred to being in a foreign country as David did, “we ate catered Mexican food for breakfast, lunch and dinner so by the end of the shoot, we were just so sick of Mexican food!” she laughed.
When asked about the rewarding aspects for her, Andrea said, “It’s always a blessing to work side by side with your husband. I feel safe and I feel protected,” she added. “And it’s just really great to see a script come from development to developing the characters, then casting the film, and doing location and then just really taking a product from start to finish is really exciting to see.”
The Dove Foundation gave In the Blink of an Eye a very good rating and we hope if you haven’t seen it, you will give it a watch soon. This husband and wife team did a tremendous job together.
