After having had dismal box-office results from directing a previous Hollywood faith-based 2015-2016 film production called "The Resurrection of Gavin Stone", Director Dallas Jenkins, was thinking that there might probably be no future career for him in film directing. He later recounts the moment of change came in his life when a FaceBook pastor friend of his messaged him with the following message: "It is not your job to feed the 5000, your job is just to bring the five loaves and 2 fishes," all of which hit a resonant chord with Jenkins. He said that at that moment he decided to leave his future career, whatever it might be or not be, to God. This moment is what Jenkins credits as the beginning of the most amazing project of his life - "The Chosen", of which this short film, "The Shepherd" is the beginning.
That summer in 2017 Dallas Jenkins, who was on his Baptist church's video production team and had been involved in producing their annual video vignettes such the "The Two Thieves" produced in 2014 for the Church's Good Friday celebration, persuaded his church to produce this short video, "The Shepherd", about a Shepherd named Simon and his involvement in the story of the birth of Jesus, for the church's annual Christmas celebration.
Filmed with a limited budget in the backyard behind a barn at a friends farm, this short film got into the hands of VidAngel productions who became excited about the potential of creating a whole TV series about the life of Jesus Christ and offered Jenkins the role of Director while their job would be to finance the series. While films and mini-series had often been produced about the life of Jesus Christ, no one had up until then created a TV series about the life of Jesus Christ. This was going to be something new and never before tried.
To add to the novelty, VidAngel proposed to do something never before achieved in order to finance the series. They suggested, much to Jenkins dismay, to crowdfund the TV series. The most any major film undertaking had ever raised up to that point through crowd funding was about $5.7 million dollars. The first season of a planned eight seasons of the series called 'The Chosen', with eight planned episodes per season, alone needed about $10 million. Jenkins believed they would be lucky to raise $800. Much to his surprise VidAngel raised the $10 million through crowdfunding with over 19,000 investors responding after having watched this short film 'The Shepherd' which was now designated as the pilot for this new TV series that would be made available through the streaming services of VidAngel.
With the funding for the first season in place, shooting began in earnest and the first eight episodes were released in 2019. All that started with this short video production, 'The Shepherd' which along with The Chosen's episodes can be viewed through a mobile phone app found online and which also has the capability of streaming it to your home television, or through a subscription to the VidAngel streaming services. Additionally, in the spring of 2020, this pilot as well as season one can now be found on The Chosen's YouTube channel where Director Dallas Jenkins is the driving force behind a another round of the crowd funding operation to finance season two of The Chosen - and as of this review has already raised over $2.8 million from over 165,000 people worldwide for the first three episodes of the second season. This phenomenon of crowd funding a TV series about the life of Jesus and his chosen followers has never been attempted before and has been amazingly successful setting never before achieved records in the film industry. As Jenkins can be quoted saying, the defining moment in this project came when he realized that it was not his job to feed the 5,000 but only to bring the five loaves and two fishes and then to leave the rest in God's hands and it seems that God has blessed this project abundantly.
So what makes 'The Shepherd' and its subsequent series so special? It is the focus on the humanity of the both Jesus and the people involved in the Jesus' story, his chosen followers - bringing to the screen as Jenkins says - real people with real problems and real quirks that get caught up in the greatest story ever told. Fans worldwide have wept at the story of the Shepherd boy in this pilot short film as well as in the first eight episodes of The Chosen as they relate to the challenges and feelings of the main characters caught up in the Jesus story.
Having talked about the background and subsequent impact that this pilot short film called 'The Shepherd' has had on the changing world of TV production, it is now time to let the viewer watch and see for themselves what has made this short film so beloved and ultimately has given this film its historical merit.