"Holyman Undercover," Part 2, Good Times

Yours Truly on "The Countrified Hell Set."

Ain't we lucky we got 'em.  Good times.

The Holyman Undercover shoot was a good time.  An excellent time, in fact.

By the time financing had been secured, over a third of the film had been shot and edited guerrilla style.  As a result we only needed about nine days of principal photography starting Thursday, July 29, 2007.  Tim and I decided to go out and bask in the glory that is Hollywood Filmmaking.  The vast bulk of the remaining film was to be shot at The Escarpment Studios in Huntington Park.  Tim and I got rooms at a somewhat sleazy hotel nearby.  It was a nice enough place for what little time we would actually be in our rooms.  That said, no one told us before we got there that the neighboring school had a marching band that liked to practice early in the morning.  Very early.

Oh well.

One of the good things about being a writer is that you never have an early call time.  Generally, you don't have a call time at all because directors usually don't like having the writers around.  Director/star/co-writer David A.R. White, however, welcomed our presence on the set and even solicited our input on occasion.  That was cool.  Although the script had already been written, Tim and I wanted to keep our eyes open for new opportunities for laughs that might be presented by the locations or available props.

To me, the golden age of screen comedy were the 1920s and the 1930s.  (The least funny decade:  The 1950's.  They didn't have much once you got past Martin & Lewis.)  From my youthful days as a Super 8mm film collector, I have always been a huge fan of Charlie Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy, Buster Keaton, W.C. Fields, The Three Stooges and The Marx Brothers.  I had read extensively about their process.  Their gagmen and writers were always on the set with the performers looking to build on the script.  (Yes, Virginia, even The Mighty Chaplin used gagmen and writers.)  One thing that I always found missing in modern comedies was a lack of "business."  The silent clowns could often wring laughs out of simple everyday items.  You don't see much of that today.  Nor do you see much of it in "Holyman Undercover."  Frankly, we were moving too fast to really search out such opportunities, and we were also happy with what we were getting from the script.

 Cinematographer Darren Rystrom

and director David A.R.White

After our forty-piece wake-up call, Tim and I hit the road for the first location of the day:  the fast food restaurant where Roy would work after his fall.  We didn't have a GPS on us, so it was a flurry maps as we drove.  Then suddenly,  we see these a police car screeching to a stop up ahead.  We wondered what kind of crime scene we had wandered upon as we watched the cops jump out the car.  Then we noticed the cameras.  We were at the location.  Those were our cops!  What a great introduction to the shoot.  We had only missed two or three shots.

Before I go any further I want to give a  shout out to Josh Sussman who played the "retarded" boy Jake whose simple words and wisdom gently point Roy to repentance.  "What retarded boy?" both of you who have seen the movie are asking yourselves.   Well, sadly, neither Josh or his cinematic alter-ego Jake made it to the silver screen.  Why?  Because, after an industry screening, the head of Sony's faith-based films division said he liked the movie but felt that the Jake character might offend some people's sensibilities.  I got a phone call the next day and Jake was out of the film -- despite the fact that Josh gave a terrific performance.  (He was very funny in real life too.   He was working up a stand-up routine that had Tim and I rolling.)

Sorry Josh, you were the first sacrifice in our vain attempt to gain wider distribution, but you wouldn't be the last!  (Producer Matt Richards was the only one who objected to removing Jake on the basis of an offhand comment from a Sony executive.  Now if he had said he would pick up the movie if we got rid of Jake....)

Ooops.  Excuse me.  That was a diversion into my next blog about this movie which will be labeled ""Holyman Undercover," Part 3, Bad Times."  But back to the good times.

After the restaurant and street corner scene, we went to shoot the car wash sequence.  In this scene, Roy and his uncle Brian, both of whom were played by director David A.R. White, go through a car wash with the owner, Pinky, with the car windows wide open.  Now, I have to admit that I assumed, while we were writing the scene, that it would be difficult and annoying to shoot for everyone involved.  It would prove even more difficult when you only had about an hour to do it.

Why only an hour?  In the film, unbeknownst to the naive Roy, the car wash is a front for the drug dealing Pinky and Uncle Brian is one of his best customers.  When they leave the car wash, the cops come screaming in and arrest everyone.  Well, the same thing kind of happened to us.  After the first take of the cops arriving with sirens blazing and guns waving, a neighbor, worried about what was happening at the local business, called the police himself.  The police promptly showed up and asked to see our shooting permit.  It was proudly shown, but it was found to be lacking some dotted "i" or crossed "t" and we were promptly shut down.  Normally, this would be an ideal time to hit the craft services table, but it hadn't been set up yet, and wasn't going to be until the right permit was secured.

Fortunately, while one of Pure Flix's minions wrestled with City Hall, Tim and I got to hang with the cast and crew.  We particularly enjoyed talking to the talented Jeremy Luc, who played the good-natured drug dealer Pinky.  Tim, Matt and I loved Jeremy's audition and had been big boosters for him throughout the casting process.  I explained how, in the original script, he probably would have been fifth billed.  As originally conceived, based on the one man show, the Pinky character became Roy's chief advisor and confidant after his Uncle Brian is arrested halfway through the story.  (One of the underlying themes of the film is that the naive and trusting Roy is constantly taking the worst possible advise from the worst possible people.)  We also apologized to him for making one of the few Hispanic characters in the film a criminal.  Jeremy said he didn't mind that stereotyping.  He was, however, getting sick of being cast as a Mexican.  "You're not Mexican?"  "No, I'm from the East Coast," he said.  "I'm Puerto Rican."

Jeremy Luc and I.
Guess who spends more time in the gym?

The new permit arrived about an hour before sunset and miraculously we got everything we needed for the scenes.   The next day we moved to The Escarpment Studios for the bulk of the interior shooting.

Our illustrious cavalcade of stars began the next day.  First up was the always amiable John Schneider, who Tim and I originally met on the set of our film "Hidden Secrets."  John remembered us which was evidenced by the fact that he didn't call security when we went up and talked to him.  In this film, John essentially played himself and would serve as Roy's replacement in the role of the Devil in our fictional TV show Dark Night.  John would give the character of the devil a good old boy spin.  He took some inspiration from Andy Griffin's performance in Elia Kazan's classic film "A Face In The Crowd," which, oddly-enough, I had watched on Turner Classic Movies the previous night.

Here's John in a clip from the movie:

We had written a song for John to sing, and that was first scene we were scheduled to shoot.  John, guitar in hand, walked up to David and asked how the song went.  David didn't know.  None of us did.  We had only written the lyrics not the melody.  Ooops.  That happens.  David asked John if he could come up with a tune.  No problem.  He took the guitar out to his trailer and came back a few minutes later with the melody.  I was very impressed with John's skills as a singer and guitar player.  Normally musical numbers are recorded prior to filming and the actors only have to lip-sync the material.  In our case, John and his backup singers sang it live.  And they sang it consistently enough, with no real rehearsal, that we could cut from take to take for the final film.  Bravo.  I was also impressed with his noodling on the guitar between takes.  He would play snatches of songs from Yes and the late Beatles.  He's a better guitar player than me.  Better looking too.

 Sean, Fred and Tim

Next came Fred Willard.  We were all on our best behavior before he arrived.  Even our normally acerbic Assistant Director Michael Maurer became the very model of respect.  Fred had made Tim and I laugh so often through the years that it was a dream come true to have him in our movie.  And it made it even better.  When he arrived on the set, the first thing he did was ask to speak to the writers.  We dutifully came forward and he proceeded to say how much he enjoyed the script and his character.  What a great guy.   Fred is known to be a great ad-libber, and Tim and I were very interested in seeing what he would do with our script but he played it straight.  I took that as a compliment, but I would have been very interested in seeing where he would have taken the material.

Here's Fred talking about the film:

Soon we were working with another one of our favorites:  Staci Keanan.  She's a terrific actress with a natural talent for both drama and comedy.  My only regret is that Staci is always the bridesmaid and never the bride in our films.  She was on the losing side of the romantic triangle in "Hidden Secrets," the shallow best friend in this film, and would later be the thoughtful sister in "Sarah's Choice."  One day I'd like her to be the lead in one of these movies.  It was also great working with Gregg Binkley again.  He has such natural comic timing.  And it was fun meeting new friends like Jennifer Lyons, who really ran with the role Tiffany Towers, the narcissistic actress.  She was hilarious, but, sadly, too sexy for our film!  (Much more about that later.)

Even Tim and I got into the act.  We got to play the role of the abused writers of the fictional show Dark Night.  Technically speaking, it wasn't a cameo.  We were acting.  I played Tim, and Tim played me.  The "On Strike" sign was a shout-out our union brothers and sisters in the Writers Guild of America who were about to go on strike.  If they would let us in, we would have gladly gone on strike with them.

  Sean and Tim as Tim and Sean

All-in-all, our time on the set of "Holyman Undercover" was absolutely delightful.  Our schedules did not permit us to go to the Disney ranch for the Amish sequences, but Tim and I took time to do what we always did in California:  Visit a Presidential library.  This time we went to the Nixon library where I did my best Nixon impersonation to every employee I could find.  My two favorite quotes were:  "I was born in the house my father built," and "No one will ever write a book about my mother."  No one hit me with anything, but I got the sense they wanted to do so.

Tim and I are also cemetery junkies, and we took some time off to visit celebrity graves.  While in Forest Lawn in Glendale, we came upon this adult-sized statue of a happy baby.  The picture below doesn't really give justice to how garishly creepy it was.  But, as frightening as the baby was, it was no where near as frightening as the fate of "Holyman Undercover."

Welcome to Baby Land

(abandon all hope ye who enter here)

Holyman Undercover, Part 1, Pre-Production
Holyman Undercover, Part 2, Good Times
Holyman Undercover, Part 3, Bad Times
Holyman Undercover Released

Read about the making of my other features:

The Making of 21 Eyes
The Making of Hidden Secrets
The Making of Holyman Undercover
The Making of Sarah's Choice
The Making of The Encounter
The Making of Run On

Other Faith Based Writing Blogs:
Building The Faith Based Ghetto

Do Christian Creators Know When Their Movies Are Bad?
God Told Me To Write It
Enter The Haters
Zach Lawrence and the End Times Quandary

Be sure to check out my memoir The Promise, or the Pros and Cons of Talking with God, published by TouchPoint Press. It is my true story of first faith and first love and how the two became almost fatally intertwined.

Here are some sample chapters of The Promise:

Chapter 1 - A Photograph

Chapter 2 - My Death

Chapter 3 - Childhood

Chapter 4 - Saved!

Chapter 5 - The Promise

Chapter 6 - The Mission

Chapter 7 - Mission Accomplished
Chapter 15 - Quarter To Midnight

Be sure to check out my novel Chapel Street. It tells the story of a young man straddling the line between sanity and madness while battling a demonic entity that has driven his family members to suicide for generations. It was inspired by an actual haunting my family experienced.

You can buy the Kindle and paperback at Amazon and the Nook, paperback and hardcover at Barnes & Noble.

Learn more about the book, click Here.

Listen to me read some chapters here:

Chapel Street - Prologue - My Mother

Chapel Street - Chapter 1 - RestingPlace.com

Chapel Street - Chapter 2 - Elisabetta

Chapel Street - Chapter 3 - The Upload

Chapel Street - Chapter 4 - The Kobayashi Maru

Read about the true haunting that inspired the novel here:

The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 1, An Introduction

The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 2, The House
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 3, This Is Us
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 4, Arrival
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 5, Methodology
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 6, Clara's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 7, Clara's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 8, My Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 9, My Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 10, My Tale, Pt. 3
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 11, Natalia's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 12, Natalia's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 13, John's Tale, Pt. 1 
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 14, John's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 15, Come Inside!
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 16, Marion's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 17, Marion's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 18, Jeanne's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 19, Jeanne's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 20, Lisa's Tale
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 21, Recap, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 22, Recap, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 23, Recap, Pt. 3

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Subscribe on YouTube: Sean Paul Murphy

"Holyman Undercover," Part 1, Pre-Production

Original Mock-Up of the DVD case*

You'll have to forgive me.

It was my intention to talk about the making of my films in the order of their production, but, frankly, there was so much work in such a brief period of time that it's all a blur.  It's hard to figure out what project we wrote in what order.  I do believe Holyman Undercover was the first script that Tim and I were commissioned to write after Hidden Secrets.  However, we might've been commissioned to write a still unproduced Christmas film before this one.  Who knows.

This project began innocently enough.  America's favorite Mennonite, David A.R. White, had been performing his Holyman Undercover one-man show in churches around the country for a couple of years.  The show was co-written by David and Jill Gatsby, the daughter of B-movie master Larry Cohen (It's Alive, Maniac Cop,) and the niece of the murdered Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen.  The show was loosely based on David's own true life story.  David was born in a Mennonite community in Kansas, and, while attending Moody Bible Institute, decided to move to Los Angeles to become an actor, only to find himself cast a few months later as a regular on the hit TV series Evening Shade with Burt Reynolds.  The one-man show exaggerated his story to an absurd extreme.

Sometime while Hidden Secrets was still in final post-production, David called and asked if Timothy Ratajczak and I would like to catch his show while he performed it in nearby New Jersey.  We said yes.  Tim thought it was just a friendly invitation, but I knew it was work.  We drove to a small church in an area of New Jersey so far off the beaten track that bears actually feasted in their trash cans.  (Sadly, there were none when we were there.)  The event was organized for the church by fellow Sons of the Desert member Paul Castiglia and his wife Barbara, who have become good friends over the years.  (Read this blog: Sacred Silly)

Sean, David A.R. White and Debbie in New Jersey

David's show surprised me.  Mainly because of how risque it was for an entertainment designed to play in churches or before religious groups.  I was particularly amazed by the amount of drug humor, but, hey, what can you say?  It seemed to be working for him.  Afterwards, David popped the question:  Would we be interested in adapting the one man show to the silver screen?  The answer was, as always, yes.  Fellow scribes, the answer to whether you take a paid assignment is always yes.  That said, I had misgivings from the beginning.

Generally, I have always been considered funny.  Not just looking, either.  Throughout my schooling, My humorous essays and stories have always been appreciated by my teachers and fellow students alike.  It could be said that I moved from the mailroom to the production department of the advertising agency Smith Burke & Azzam as a result of my weekly memos detailing the exploits of the company softball team.  Comedy shouldn't be hard for me, and it isn't.  Audiences laughed at the jokes in 21 Eyes and Hidden Secrets.  But neither of them were first and foremost comedies.   Comedies made me uneasy.

Previously, I had only written two out-and-out comedies.  The first one was called The Premier. It was about the communist leader of a small Eastern European country who sneaks away from his delegation while visiting the UN to taste American-style freedom.  I wrote that script with David Butler, based in part on an idea by former Towson classmate Tom Brandau.  Later I wrote another one with Smith Burke & Azzam art director Andy Stoller called Superguys.  It was about some Superheroes, forced out of the business by government regulations, who team up again after their nemesis returns.  Yes, folks, it was very much like The Incredibles, but without all the family stuff.

I thought the scripts were both very funny.  I always strived to make sure we had four laughs per page -- for a total of approximately 440 laughs per script.  Sadly, the readers didn't feel the same way.  I didn't have any representation when we wrote The Premier, but I had no problem getting it read by production companies.  The Berlin Wall was coming down so communism was very hot.  Unfortunately, the very fact that the Berlin Wall was coming down made the script completely irrelevant.  There was no way anyone would ever make it.  Even if they liked it.  And I don't know if they did.

One of the companies returned the script with a nice rejection letter, but had inadvertently left the readers notes inside.  Readers, for those of you not in the business, are the poor schlubbs that producers and agents hire to go wade through the avalanche of scripts they receive each week.   They summarize the story and tell their bosses what they think of the script.  This reader didn't think much of it.  That didn't bother me.  What bothered me was that he simply didn't get it.  Not at all.  The satire and tone of the film went totally over his head.  He didn't even realize who the good guys and bad guys were until the third act.  Oy vey.

I didn't have much luck with Superguys either.  At the time I was represented by Stu Robinson at Robinson Weintraub and Gross.  He didn't care for the script.  He didn't think the marketplace was ready for a superhero parody at the time.  Still, I wanted to give it a try.  I asked Stu if he would send it to companies that requested it if I drummed up some interest.  He said yes, and he did, but it never went anywhere.  It was somewhat disillusioning because I felt it was a very funny script.  That's why I stopped writing comedies.  Humor is too subjective.  You can usually tell on the page whether a drama or an action film will work.

But despite my misgivings, I happily said yes.  After all, this project was an adaptation of an existing property that seemed to being working fine with the target audience.  Plus, I had the mighty Tim Ratajczak on my side -- the Woody Allen of Baltimore.  How could we lose?  (Stay tuned...)

The first question was how to open up the show.   Tim and I felt the key would be turning it into a romance.  A great deal of time was devoted to figuring out who the female character would be -- although not who would be playing her.  The decision was already made that she would be played by David's real life wife, the lovely and talented Andrea Logan White.  Initially Tim and I were leaning toward the concept of letting the woman be a Hollywood newcomer, much like David's naive Amish character Roy Weichbrodt.  The woman would constantly refuse to compromise her values and, while she wouldn't achieve Roy's success, she would be happier and more grounded.  She would be the person who led Roy back to his values.

Andrea Logan White

David didn't like that.  He wanted the woman to be more glamorous.  So Tim and I came up with the idea of making her a producer with a secret.  Her secret was that, although she projected an image of being hard and tough, she was really a sweet, farm girl on the inside.  Innocent Roy would bring out the sweetness in her.  But how would Roy catch the attention of such a power broker?  By saving her life.  That was a trope that worried David throughout the entire process.

The rest was easy.  We changed Roy from Mennonite to Amish if only because the Amish were less likely to get mad since they wouldn't be allowed to watch the movie anyway.  We also changed the wacky Hollywood roommate of the show into a wacky long lost uncle Brian, a self-proclaimed Holyman Undercover, who wanted to spread the gospel subliminally, and we were off to the races.  Tim and I hammered out a very detailed treatment, with whole scenes and snatches of dialogue, over a couple weekends.   The plot was simple:  An innocent Amish man goes to Hollywood to find his long, lost uncle, and ends up falling in love with a beautiful producer and playing Satan on a hit TV show.  During his comic misadventures, Roy would lose sight of his values, but he would come to his senses by the final reel.

When we finished the script, we sent it to David and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

The silence was becoming deafening.  Were Tim and I just going to have to take the money and walk away?  (Not such a terrible fate, oh my brothers!)

Then David sent us back a rough draft of the script.  Since the story was based loosely on his life, in addition to directing the film, he wanted to try to write the script himself.  He took it as far as he could.  We were kind of shocked by that revelation, but what the heck!  Now we were back on.  It was a smooth writing experience.  When Tim and I were finished, David gave it to his partners at Pure Flix.

They HATED it.  HATED, HATED, HATED IT.  They felt the Christian audience would be offended by the film.  They wouldn't put a cent into it.  (I must admit I was worried about the drug material, but Tim and I had really watered it down during the writing process.  It was no longer a key issue.)

David was not deterred.  If Pure Flix didn't want to do the movie, we would do it ourselves without them.  David, Tim and myself were going to produce this film independently.  David wanted to start shooting immediately, and gathered about himself a cast and crew of friends.  Fortunately, one of those friends included Gregg Binkley, who had played the henpecked husband in Hidden Secrets. Tim and I thought he was hilarious.  As a subtle hint to David, we had named the character we wanted Binkley to play Gregg.  David took the hint.

Gregg and his son on the set.

Spending money out of pocket, David shot a number of scenes over the course of a couple of weekends.  They included Roy's audition scene where he tries out for the role of the Devil, his first date with Annie, and his Calm-O commercial.  (The Calm-O commercial is one of the only scenes lifted directly from the one man show.)  Easily twenty-five percent of the film was shot with this skeleton cast and crew.  It was a true tribute to David's vision.

While David was shooting in LA, my accursed Italian restaurant movie was falling apart in Baltimore.  Fortunately, I had gotten to know Matt Richards, one of that projects' rejected investors, and gave him a copy of the "Holyman Undercover" script and some of Pure Flix's marketing materials.  He liked the script and decided to finance the entire film himself.

Suddenly everything changed.  Now that financing was in place, the good folks at Pure Flix very much wanted to do the movie.  They pulled out David's contract with the company which stipulated that he couldn't produce films without them.  And, since Tim and I had never taken the time to formalize a written production deal with David while we were all in the wilderness, we were completely left out in the cold.  It went from being OUR film to a Pure Flix film on which we were simply hired hands with a few measly points.  We were placated in part by the fact that David, although he would share in the profits as a Pure Flix partner, had lost more.  He had lost control of his life story.  Trust me, I would never let that happen again!  At least not until the upcoming gmc television series Brotha White.  (Don't get me started.)

We could have been bitter, but what would have been the point?  We were making a movie.  And, frankly, a fun one at that.  For the first time, Tim and I were actively involved in the casting.  Aside from Gregg Binkley, some of our favorite actors from Hidden Secrets were returning.  We had John Schneider in a cameo as the devil, and the always charming Staci Keanan as Annie's best friend Carmen.  Even Carey Scott, the director of Hidden Secrets, gave a wonderful turn as a pretentious restaurant owner.  Our enthusiasm grew when Clint Howard and Edie McClurg signed on as Roy's parents.  When it came time to fill some of the smaller roles, David would sent me DVDs of the casting sessions.  Then Tim and I would head out to Xanadau, Matt's palatial pleasure dome, to watch the discs and make our picks.  We were generally in agreement with the folks in Hollywood.  We loved Jeremy Luc who played the amiable drug dealer Pinky, but I always felt sorry for him.  In the original script, his character served as Roy's mentor after his Uncle Brian ends up in jail.  By the time we were shooting, Pinky only had two scenes, and we cut one of them in post.  Sorry Jeremy!  We also really loved Jennifer Lyons as the narcissistic seductress Tiffany Towers.  She absolutely captured the essence of the character, and, in the process, ultimately doomed our film.  But I'll get to that later.

Jennifer Lyons with America's favorite Fatman

Every low budget film needs a name actor for the box.  Originally, Uncle Brian was conceived as a role for a box name, but David's agent felt David should play that role too.  His agent was grooming him to be the next Tyler Perry and he thought Uncle Brian could be his Medea.  There were no objections.  Fortunately, we had another suitable role for the box name:  Richard, the head of the television network.  Tim and I were constantly being asked to rewrite that role to suit the actors to whom the script was being sent.  One week it was Joe Pesci.  One week it was Christopher Walken.  One week it was Luke Skywalker himself:  Mark Hamil.  Before we sent him the script, David said we had to include some Star Wars references.  We changed the location of one of Richard's scenes to a Chinese restaurant so that, when he noticed his assistant was having trouble with the chopsticks, he could say, "Use the forks."  Matt, by the way, came up with that joke, if I am not mistaken.  Mark Hamil was not amused.  Oh well.

Use the forks, Luke....

Ultimately, we got Fred Willard for the role.  It was a dream come true.  I don't think anyone could have done it better!

It was time to return to Hollywood.

To be continued....

Holyman Undercover, Part 1, Pre-Production
Holyman Undercover, Part 2, Good Times
Holyman Undercover, Part 3, Bad Times
Holyman Undercover Released

Read about the making of my other features:

The Making of 21 Eyes
The Making of Hidden Secrets
The Making of Holyman Undercover
The Making of Sarah's Choice
The Making of The Encounter
The Making of Run On

Other Faith Based Writing Blogs:
Building The Faith Based Ghetto

Do Christian Creators Know When Their Movies Are Bad?
God Told Me To Write It
Enter The Haters
Zach Lawrence and the End Times Quandary

Be sure to check out my memoir The Promise, or the Pros and Cons of Talking with God, published by TouchPoint Press. It is my true story of first faith and first love and how the two became almost fatally intertwined.

Here are some sample chapters of The Promise:

Chapter 1 - A Photograph

Chapter 2 - My Death

Chapter 3 - Childhood

Chapter 4 - Saved!

Chapter 5 - The Promise

Chapter 6 - The Mission

Chapter 7 - Mission Accomplished
Chapter 15 - Quarter To Midnight

Be sure to check out my novel Chapel Street. It tells the story of a young man straddling the line between sanity and madness while battling a demonic entity that has driven his family members to suicide for generations. It was inspired by an actual haunting my family experienced.

You can buy the Kindle and paperback at Amazon and the Nook, paperback and hardcover at Barnes & Noble.

Learn more about the book, click Here.

Listen to me read some chapters here:

Chapel Street - Prologue - My Mother

Chapel Street - Chapter 1 - RestingPlace.com

Chapel Street - Chapter 2 - Elisabetta

Chapel Street - Chapter 3 - The Upload

Chapel Street - Chapter 4 - The Kobayashi Maru

Read about the true haunting that inspired the novel here:

The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 1, An Introduction

The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 2, The House
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 3, This Is Us
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 4, Arrival
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 5, Methodology
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 6, Clara's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 7, Clara's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 8, My Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 9, My Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 10, My Tale, Pt. 3
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 11, Natalia's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 12, Natalia's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 13, John's Tale, Pt. 1 
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 14, John's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 15, Come Inside!
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 16, Marion's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 17, Marion's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 18, Jeanne's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 19, Jeanne's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 20, Lisa's Tale
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 21, Recap, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 22, Recap, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 23, Recap, Pt. 3

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"Maestro Percival": A Brief History of A Short Film

Director David Butler, right, and cinematographer

Regis Becker, left, plot a shot.

"Maestro Percival" was shot for the 48 Hour Film Project Panasonic HD Shootout.  It was, in a sense, the championship round of the annual 48 Hour Film Project.

For those unfamiliar with the 48 Hour Film Project, I suggest reading my earlier blog on my film "I Will Not"" which was filmed as part of the international contest.  The contest takes place in 76 cities around the world with over 40,000 participants.  The rules?  Teams of filmmakers have 48 hours to make a film from scratch -- script to final audio mix and color correction.  On Friday, the team leaders meet and a draw a genre out of a hat.  It could be anything:  Crime, comedy, musical, western, martial arts, silent, romance, drama.  You get the picture.  All the teams in that specific weekend in that specific are given certain elements which must be included in the film.  They tend to be a line of dialogue, a prop and a character name and occupation.

The shootout is a little different.  It is an invitation only contest.  Only five teams, each of which won the contest in their native cities, were selected by the 48 Hour Film Project executives to compete in the shootout.  We would be the only team making a film in Baltimore, but the other rules applied.  We still went to Holy Frijoles in Baltimore and drew our genre out of the hat.  It was comedy.  The other elements would be shared with the other teams in the other cities.  The line of dialogue:  "Cut the nonsense, let's get to it."  The prop:  An electric razor.  The character:  A violinist named Edward Percival.  (I think the character could have been Edwina as well, if my memory serves me correctly.)

The team had been assembled weeks in advance.  Pretty much everyone who had participated in the award-winning "I Will Not" had agreed to come back for the encore.  I think director David Butler was a little hesitant to ask everyone to give up another weekend for free.  (Paying people is a no-no in this contest.)  However, everyone was only too happy to step back in the ring for the title bout.

Lynda Meier, left, and David Butler, right,

look concerned, but there was no need to worry.

Once again, the immediate pressure was on me.  We had actors, camera crews, sound crews, location people, prop people and makeup people were already to go, but couldn't do anything without a script.  I am not sure where the idea came from.  I believe David had been talking with someone about a potentially funny idea of a company whose boss was a zombie.  That was all I needed.  We already had a photography studio as a potential location so I quick adjusted the original idea of the zombie boss to the zombie photography subject.  Our plot, what little there was, involved a photographer who gets his shot at the big time when he is asked to shoot a world famous violinist for the cover of his new album.  Complications arise when it is discovered, after his arrival, that he had died the previous day.  It was a playful meditation on what, or should I say, who, people are willing to sacrifice for success.  The script was done in a few hours which allowed me to head home for good night's sleep while David and uber producer Lynda Meier assigned roles to the actors and gave everyone else their assignments.

David Butler, Sandye Kaye, Peter Mullett, Rege Becker

Locations were easier this time.  The entire film would be shot in or immediately around the photography studio in downtown Baltimore.  The cast and crew was ready to go by the time I showed up in the morning with my lovely wife Deborah.  Debbie had been an extra in "I Will Not," but, sadly, this film did not need any extras.  (Still, we managed to give Assistant Director Frank Ferro his customary, Hitchcockian walk-on.)   If you watch both films, you will see mainly the actors and actresses, whom I like to call The Matt Ryb players.  We also added Jon Jolles, who normally works in crew capacities, as the overly-ambitious photographer and Ken Arnold as our zombie violinist.  Another notable addition was Cheryl Donaldson, whom I was working with at the time on the ill-fated Italian Restaurant movie.

Behind the camera we had Baltimore's cream of the crop.  Caprice Ericson, who went to Towson (State) University with David and myself, located.  Stewart Stack gaffed.  Ryan Gallo gripped.   Sandye Kaye made up.  Paul Flinton listened while Mark Mariaca boomed.  Regis Becker shot the film backed up by Peter Mullett, whose previous career as a Swinging London fashion photography should be made into a book.

Frank Ferro, Caprice Ericson, Stewart Stack, 

Rege Becker, David Butler and Matt Ryb

The wintry shoot proceeded smoothly despite the fact that it seemed like every other person on the set was sick.  That's just as well since we had a reporter on set watching the shoot.  Before long we were back at the Butler Films nerve center for the edit.  David and I edited the film.  I started at the beginning and he started at the end.  I can't remember when we finished but it was late.  I did manage to weave my way home on the highway in the pre-dawn.

We reconvened the next morning at Clean Cuts where Andrew Eppig was doing his magic.  I do credit the success of "I Will Not" to our sound team, both on location and in post-production.  There were so many clever films in the competition.  Sadly, although most of the other films looked fine, their dialogue was often inaudible.  Never underestimate the value of good sound, fellow filmmakers.

David laughs with Jon Jolles

We had the final film back at Holy Frijoles with a half-an-hour to spare.  Now we had to wait.  The final five films would be screened at the 48 Film Project's first annual film festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  David and Regis decided to attend.  The rest of us stayed by the phones.  After all five of the films were screened, Dave and Rege weren't too optimistic.  The New York team had a really good 9-11 film.  They didn't think our goofy zombie film had a chance against it.  Fortunately, Dave and Rege are better filmmakers than prognosticators.  We ended up winning.  Go figure.  I guess sometimes all the world needs is a goofy zombie film.

David Butler and Regis Becker, right, accept the grand prize

After that, we had a Baltimore cast and crew screening.  Laughs were had.  Alcohol was consumed.    The film subsequently played in a number of film festivals around the country, but I don't think we exploited as well as we should have.  After "21 Eyes" and the other shorts, we had spent a lot of time at film festivals.  One could argue too much.  Still, it was nice when the Frederick Film Festival had a mini-David Butler showcase with all three of the shorts we made together:  "I Will Not," "Untitled Film, No. 9," and "Maestro Percival."  (The festival also featured Peter Mullett's dramatic short "Parting Ways.")

Matt Ryb, Sean Paul Murphy, Ken Arnold

at the Frederick Film Festival.

Here's a click to the story about the film:

Will Success Spoil the 48 Hour Film Project?

And here's the film:

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"The Encounter" Premiere Video Blog

Here's Jamie Nieto's video blog from the Greater Boston Film Festival.*  Jamie is one of the stars of The Encounter and Jerusalem Countdown, which was also premiering at the festival.  Aside from being an actor, and a genuinely nice guy, Jamie is also an Olympic high jumper, who was recently ranked fourth in the world.

Jamie is also up for the role of Roberto Clemente in an upcoming biopic of the baseball player.  Soon I'll be able to say I knew him when.

*Remember folks, the best way to get me to link to your video blog is to say something nice about me in it.  Works every time.

Be sure to check out my memoir The Promise, or the Pros and Cons of Talking with God, published by TouchPoint Press. It is my true story of first faith and first love and how the two became almost fatally intertwined. (And keep an eye out for my upcoming paranormal thriller Chapel Street.)

Here are some sample chapters of The Promise:

Chapter 1 - A Photograph

Chapter 2 - My Death

Chapter 3 - Childhood

Chapter 4 - Saved!

Chapter 5 - The Promise

Chapter 6 - The Mission

Chapter 7 - Mission Accomplished
Chapter 15 - Quarter To Midnight

My novel Chapel Street is now available! You can currently buy the Kindle and paperback at Amazon and the Nook, paperback and hardcover at Barnes & Noble.

Learn more about the book, click Here.

Listen to me read some chapters here:

Chapel Street - Prologue - My Mother
Chapel Street - Chapter 1 - RestingPlace.com
Chapel Street - Chapter 2 - Elisabetta
Chapel Street - Chapter 3 - The Upload
Chapel Street - Chapter 4 - The Kobayashi Maru

Let's stay in touch:

Follow me on Twitter: SeanPaulMurphy

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Subscribe on YouTube: Sean Paul Murphy

"The Encounter" Premieres

Trust me, there was just a huge line of

people waiting to see the film.

It takes a lot of work by a lot of people to make a feature-length motion picture.  Oftentimes, there are passionate disputes concerning various creative decisions.  However, at least for myself, all that noise melts away when you finally see the film play in the theater for the first time.

"The Encounter" premiered at the Greater Boston Film Festival.  It was a friendly audience that happily received each screening of the film with a great deal of enthusiasm.  They laughed and cried at all the right places, and pretended not to notice the continuity errors -- which will be corrected.  It was a blast, particularly since five of the six leads came to Boston for the premiere.  Since neither my co-writer, Timothy Ratajczak, or myself could attend the shoot in California, this was my first chance to meet the members of the cast in person whom I felt I already got to know during the long months of post-production and the now ubiquitous Facebook.  (Now I joke that I only attend premieres to get pictures with the actors for Facebook.  Then again, maybe that isn't a joke.)

In the months to come, I will probably devote a few blogs to the various joys and sorrows I endured during the making of "The Encounter," but right now I will simply remember the premiere with warmth, and the great time I had with everyone.  My only regret was that neither Timothy or my lovely wife Deborah could come along.

If you want to see my pictures, better sign up on Facebook.

"The Encounter" will be officially released in 2011.

Be sure to check out my memoir The Promise, or the Pros and Cons of Talking with God, published by TouchPoint Press. It is my true story of first faith and first love and how the two became almost fatally intertwined. (And keep an eye out for my upcoming paranormal thriller Chapel Street.)

Here are some sample chapters of The Promise:

Chapter 1 - A Photograph

Chapter 2 - My Death

Chapter 3 - Childhood

Chapter 4 - Saved!

Chapter 5 - The Promise

Chapter 6 - The Mission

Chapter 7 - Mission Accomplished
Chapter 15 - Quarter To Midnight

My novel Chapel Street is now available! You can currently buy the Kindle and paperback at Amazon and the Nook, paperback and hardcover at Barnes & Noble.

Learn more about the book, click Here.

Listen to me read some chapters here:

Chapel Street - Prologue - My Mother
Chapel Street - Chapter 1 - RestingPlace.com
Chapel Street - Chapter 2 - Elisabetta
Chapel Street - Chapter 3 - The Upload
Chapel Street - Chapter 4 - The Kobayashi Maru

Let's stay in touch:

Follow me on Twitter: SeanPaulMurphy

Follow me on Facebook: Sean Paul Murphy

Follow me on Instagram: Sean Paul Murphy

Subscribe on YouTube: Sean Paul Murphy

Money, Money, Money, Money.... MONEY!

Well, folks, I wish I could say that the success of your film is dependent upon your brilliant script, your daring direction, your stunning cinematography or your heartfelt performances. Of course, your shot at success is much greater if all those things are true, but, in the end, it comes down to money.

Money for two things:

A name actor.

And advertising.

You need the money for a name actor to attract the interest of a distributor who will actually spend money promoting your film. Without that, you're dead.

It is much easier to get a film distributed than it is to actually make money on a film.

I know what you're thinking. What about "Paranormal Activity?" What about "The Blair Witch Project?" They didn't have name actors and they each made a fortune. True, but those films were anomalies. For each low-budget film that sees the inside of a commercial theater, there are literally thousands of others that failed. And, keep in mind that PA and TBWP both made their millions after the studios spent millions on advertising and promotion. Yeah, you say, but I can get on the internet and get a buzz going. Really? I don't think so. Everyday, the internet gets bigger and bigger. There's so much to see. There's so many distractions. What's going to point people to your movie's webpage? Plastering links to your trailer all over the place simply isn't going to cut it. If someone has managed to return a profit on a film with a six-figure budget using only the internet for promotion and sales, please contact me and teach me how you did it. 

It takes money to go viral.

The major studios don't spend tens of millions of dollars promoting films because they have money to burn. They spend the money because if they don't, people won't show up at the theaters or buy the DVDs.

And most independent filmmakers don't include any marketing money in their budgets. Most of them don't even allocate enough money to go on the festival circuit.

My thoughts on the value of advertising have evolved over the years.

Initially, it frightened me when a distributor promised (or threatened) to spend x-amount of money promoting your film. My first thought was: The film is going to have to earn all of that additional money back before I get a penny in royalties. Plus, it is definitely true that some distributors shamelessly pad those expenses in order to cheat filmmakers out of their profits. Time and time again, I have heard filmmaker friends complain how they feel they will never reach that constantly rising break-even point. And they probably never will. 

However, unless a distributor spends money on advertising you will not sell enough copies to warrant any royalties anyway. As a filmmaker, you are caught between a rock and a hard place. If you don't spend the money, you never make any money. If you do spend the money, you go deeper and deeper into the hole. So what do you do? You've got to hope your distributor spends the money.

Discretion prevents me from discussing any details, but I've seen the facts in black and white. I've seen quarterly reports that clearly revealed that relationship between sales and promotion money spend. One quarter a film sells 40,000 DVDs. (Those are good numbers for a low-budget indy.) The next quarter they pull the advertising and it sells 4,000. That's the difference between being a full-time filmmaker and staying with your day job.

Do you think Walmart or Kmart or Best Buy are going to stock your film if you don't have any advertising dollars behind you? You'll be lucky to get in the discount bin.

And, trust me, Blockbuster and NetFlix will want to know how many ad dollars you have allocated per unit they purchase. If you don't have any, bye, bye.

When a distributor expresses interest in your film, let one of your first questions be: How much money are you going to spend promoting it?

If it's a lot, you might be in trouble.

If it's not a lot, you're definitely in trouble.

Other blogs about the film business:

The Downward Media Spiral, Part 1

Coddling Hollywood's Toxic Entitlement
WGAW Foreign Levies Program

Confessions of a Screenwriting Contest Judge

Will Hollywood Steal From You? (Part 2)

Hollywood Hubris

The Black List: Evaluating The Evaluators

INKTIP

On Critics, in General

Gaming The IMDB

Winning The Kairos Prize

Will Netflix Kill The Indie Film Market?

Money, Money, Money, Money... MONEY!

Recommended Reading

Will Hollywood Steal From You? (Part 1)

The Art of the Pitch, Part Three, (Lack of) Sales

Producer Reps

Rejected!

Distributors

Film Festivals, 0r, The Agony and The Ecstasy

The Art of the Pitch, Part Two, Or, The Database

The Art of the Pitch, Part One, Or, Batting For Singles

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Untitled Film, No. 9

Mark Redfield as Humanity

I have always been amused by people who trot out the lyrics to a rock song when trying to make sense of the imponderables of life.  Other people probably feel the same way about people who have a Bible quote for every occasion, but, personally, I think the Bible carries a little more weight than David Coverdale of Whitesnake.

Back in the early 'nineties, after seeing a particularly pretentious short film at the Charles (the title of which eludes me), I decided I had to respond.  So I jumbled together a bunch of lines from a wide variety of rock songs from the 'sixties, 'seventies and 'eighties and combined them into a script.  Then I put the script in my drawer and that was that.

Flash forward ten years.  While on the festival circuit with "21 Eyes," I saw quite a few ridiculously pretentious short films.  Now was the time to make the short, which I soon dubbed "Untitled Film, No. 9" because that was the most pretentious title I could think of.  (Of course, the No. 9 comes from the Beatles track -- I dare not call it a song -- Revolution No. 9. )

The hard part would be finding a director willing to devote time to such a patently absurd project.  Actually, I didn't have to look far.  David Butler and I had just had tremendous success with our first short film, so he jumped onto the project.  However, we both knew the success of this film would depend entirely on the performance of the actor reading the lines.  Fortunately, Baltimore was home to the perfect actor:  Mark Redfield.

Mark had gone to Towson University around the same time David and I did.  He was a theater major and I don't remember running into him at the time, but we did have some common friends.  He was originally slated to do a feature length adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's "Tell Tale Heart" with my Towson University classmate and fellow Redcoat re-enactor M. Christopher New.  That project didn't materialize.  However, Mark did eventually produce and star in fellow classmate Tom Brandau's autobiographical feature "Cold Harbor." I did a little cutting on that picture, and I soon began working on a number of films in Mr. Redfield's oeuvre.

Mark was in on the joke and grooved to the script and before long we were setting up cameras in Mark's studio in Glen Burnie, Maryland, during a break in the production of his feature film "The Death of Poe."  The crew was very small.  Mark Redfield was the only actor.  Jennifer Rouse, one of the stars of "The Death of Poe," provided makeup and wardrobe.  Lynda Meier, David Butler's staff uber-producer, acted as unit production manager and did pretty much everything else.  David shot the proceedings on his own Panasonic P2 camera against his own green screen.  I think David's only direction to Mark was to give the lines as much or as little meaning as he felt they deserved.  Our budget was small.  I think the only cash expense was for pizza.  I think David paid for that.  If I'm not mistaken, I think I conveniently hid in the bathroom when the delivery man arrived.

We did have to make Mark some cue cards.  I was surprised.  I knew Mark had performed Shakespeare on the stage and, as a result, had to memorize huge speeches.  He said that was easy compared to this short, because, in Shakespeare, the lines moved from one to another in a logical manner.  This was a just a series of unrelated lines.  Or were they?

The original script had four chapters, each named after a song title from John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band album ("God," "Remember," "Love," and "I Found Out.")  However, before the shoot, I had added another chapter and some more recent song references.  Strangely, during the edit, I found myself abandoning all of the new material except the last line of the film.  Why?  Because, although I intended the lines to be random and meaningless, obviously they had some oblique personal meaning.  None of the references were accidental.  Each line of music used in the piece was chosen because it reminded me of a person or a place or a time or something.  And during the edit, like it or not, it returned to its natural form.

The background images were picked somewhat randomly.  We went with what we could get for free.  I am an avid genealogist and cemetery junkie so I had plenty of shots of cemeteries for the "God" segment.  (During that process I immortalized the graves of a few of my relatives.)  Since we were at the height of the Iraqi War, David and I thought it would add some gravitas to the production to use stills from the conflict during the "Remember" segment.  Fortunately, our United States Army has a vast library of public domain images to choose from.  (Your tax dollars at work!)  We gathered the flowers for the "Love" segment from Shutterstock images, and we looted the Federal Government once again, this time NASA, for the space images in the final "I Found Out" segment.  Had we used the fifth chapter, it would have been called "Mother" and would have used some family photos of mine dating back between 1866 and 1911.  David, an accomplished musician, scored the film using the program Soundtrack.

The only dispute David and I had during the edit involved the credits.  Initially, I hadn't even considered including any credits.  However, David had the bright idea of shooting a couple stationary shots of Mark, including various close-ups.  Seeing those shots, I thought we could put titles over them.  David's only problem was that he thought I let the credits run too long.  He lived by the dictum of our former film instructor, Barry Moore, that a five minute film should not have three minutes of credits.  I told David not to worry.  The credits are part of the entertainment.  And that turned out to be true.  People tend to laugh all the way through them.  I did, however, honor my director and shorten the sequence.

Now what would people think of the film.  Dave and I thought it was hilarious.  Mark was nervous that people would think he was a bad actor rather than a good actor playing a bad actor.  We all had our fingers crossed on the night of our public premiere which occurred at the cast and crew screening our Dave and my next short "Maestro Percival."  After all the expected back-slapping after the screening of that short, we threw "Untitled Film, No. 9" into the DVD player.

The reaction of the audience was identical to the reaction of every audience I saw the film with.  The film initially plays to dead, confused silence.   The first laugh didn't happen until the end of the first chapter when Mark quotes the Melanie lyric:  "I've got a brand new pair of roller skates.  You have a brand new key."  That got a laugh, and then, once people realized they could laugh, they laughed all the rest of the way through the film.  This film got more laughs than anything else I have done.

Now what to do with it.  Festivals, of course.

I don't remember our acceptance ratio with festivals but it was pretty high.  Being a short film with no real commercial prospects, we didn't go overboard with entries.  That said, we got into some nice big city festivals like The New York Underground Film Festival and The Chicago Underground Film Festival.  I went to the New York film festival.  After all, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.  The one festival my wife and I wish we could have seen the film at was The Bahamas International Film Festival.  Unfortunately, we were busy that weekend.  Dave and I always entered the film in the Experimental Short category because we didn't want to tip our hats as to whether the film was serious or a joke.

It did win an award on a website.  I forgot what it was.

More importantly, it made money.  The website Jaman picked it up and eventually paid us a royalty check of $21.00.  We split it three ways.  Seven dollars a piece to David, Mark and myself.

Man, oh, man.  Think about it.  For the cost of a pizza and a couple hours of work we managed to get into a few cool film festivals, make some people laugh, and pocket seven whole dollars.

Life is sweet.

Here's the film:

Blogs about my other comedy shorts:
Bag
Untitled Film, No. 9
Maestro Percival
I Will Not
And my college classic: The Lunch

BTW, for the trivial buffs.  Here's the songs used in order:

God
"Band on the Run" - Paul McCartney and Wings
"At Seventeen"  - Janis Ian
"Love Me" - Elvis Presley
"American Tune" - Paul Simon
"American Pie" - Don McLean
"Every Grain of Sand" - Bob Dylan
"Old Fashioned Love Song" - Three Dog Night
"Brand New Key" - Melanie
Remember
"America" - Simon & Garfunkel
"Boys of Summer" - Don Henley
"So Far Away" - Carole King
"Mr. Tambourine Man" - Bob Dylan
"Make It With You" - Bread
"Dandelion" - The Rolling Stones
"Talking In Your Sleep" - The Romantics
"Sunday Bloody Sunday" - U2
"I Want You To Want Me" - Cheap Trick
"Hello, Goodbye" - The Beatles
Love
"Downtown" - Petulia Clark
"Nothing But Flowers" - The Talking Heads
"The Things We Do For Love" - 10cc
"Don't Let The Sun Go Down on Me" - Elton John
"Dancing Queen" - Abba
"Fast Car" - Tracy Chapman
"Summer of '69" - Bryan Adams
"Jack and Diane" - John Cougar Mellencamp
I Found Out
"Manic Depression" - Jimi Hendrix
"Everybody's Talkin" - Harry Nilsson
"Across The Universe" - The Beatles
"Tangled Up In Blue" - Bob Dylan
"Badlands" - Bruce Springsteen
"Save The Last Dance For Me" - The Drifters
"White Wedding" - Billy Idol
"Rapper's Delight" - Sugarhill Gang
Credits
"Who Let The Dogs Out" - Baha Men

Be sure to check out my memoir The Promise, or the Pros and Cons of Talking with God, published by TouchPoint Press. It is my true story of first faith and first love and how the two became almost fatally intertwined. (And keep an eye out for my upcoming paranormal thriller Chapel Street.)

Here are some sample chapters of The Promise:

Chapter 1 - A Photograph

Chapter 2 - My Death

Chapter 3 - Childhood

Chapter 4 - Saved!

Chapter 5 - The Promise

Chapter 6 - The Mission

Chapter 7 - Mission Accomplished
Chapter 15 - Quarter To Midnight

Follow me on Twitter:  SeanPaulMurphy
Follow me on Instagram: Sean Paul Murphy