"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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Subscribe on YouTube: Sean Paul Murphy

"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

Follow me on Facebook: Sean Paul Murphy

Follow me on Instagram: Sean Paul Murphy

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

Follow me on Twitter:  SeanPaulMurphy

Follow me on Instagram: Sean Paul Murphy

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

"An Italian Restaurant Tragedy"

Baltimore's Little Italy

Did you ever have a project where everything went wrong?  I did.  And I call it "The Italian Restaurant Tragedy."

CENSORED!

I have decided to pull the original text of this blog because word reached me through the grapevine that one of the producers on this project, a romantic comedy about the founding of one of the most famous restaurants in Little Italy, who I had no desire to offend was very displeased by it.  My apologies.

And, sadly, I don't know if the people I wanted to offend had even bothered to read it.

Oh well.

Prior to publishing the original blog, I sent it to director Lee Bonner, who, aside from co-writing the script, was slated to direct the ill-fated project.  He strongly advised me against publishing it.  I also sent it Matt Richards, who, had the stars aligned properly, would have produced the film.  He said he laughed out loud reading it.  That was all I needed to hear.   But it was a mistake.  The blog was simply too bitter and mean-spirited even by my standards.

I included the story because my blog had been taking on a rather rosy tone, as if everything I touched turned to gold.  I was hoping this tale, about a film that had three excellent chances of being made, would act as a counter balance.  I also wanted to use it as a cautionary tale for my fellow screenwriters.  I made a number of mistakes while I was working on this project.  I have learned from them. I was hoping others would as well.

Here are a few of them:

1).  Don't get involved on a project on spec unless you will own your script outright when you walk away.  I was screwed in this case because the script was based on a self-published book and a true life story.  I could, of course, change the names and some of the details but why bother?

2).  Don't get involved with a true story unless the real people have signed away their life rights.  Run, don't walk, to the nearest exit if one of real people insists on maintaining script approval.  I have talked to other writers who have gotten into the same mess.  It never ends well.  You soon discover that, frankly, most of these real people will ultimately be unable to surrender their lives.  They will keep endlessly revising, and, in this case, turning down deals, until things are perfect. And they never will be.  In the end, most of them would rather talk about making a movie than actually make one.

3).  Make sure everyone is in the small ballpark expectation wise.  I think one of the reasons this film failed was because the real person saw herself as the heroine of a $60,000,000 Paramount picture.  The director had a more realistic attitude.  He saw it as a smallish indy film that would have to kill at the film festivals in order to have a shot.  I, the eternal optimist, hoped for the best but I knew ultimately its best shot was on cable.

4).  Don't stake your professional reputation on the actions of amateurs.  If you want to make movies for a living, work with people who make movies for a living.  I have no doubt in my mind that this film would have been made if Lee and I, or Matt, were allowed I to call the shots.  I have subsequently made a number of films.  I have found funding for a number of films.  I could have found a home for this film too.

5).  Finally, and most importantly:  Don't ever work for a producer for free -- no matter how "real" the project seems to be.  If it were a real project, they could afford to pay you.  Remember, if a producer pays nothing for a script, it is worth nothing.  Period.  End of story.  If you don't believe me, listen to the famous sci-fi writer Harlan Ellison:

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"I Will Not"

Director David Butler with Cinematographer Regis Becker

Ever have a project where everything went perfectly?  I did.  It was called "I Will Not."

Here's how it happened.

For years, David Butler and I have been considering the possibility of entering the 48 Hour Film Festival.

The premise of the festival is that each team has to write, shoot, edit and mix, a short film within forty-eight hours.  The contest begins at 5pm Friday and the films have to be delivered by 5pm Sunday.  The best film wins.  To make sure you don't cheat, you have to draw a genre out of a hat and include a common prop and line of dialogue into your film.  It was intriguing.  We considered it twice before, but we were too busy with pay work to do it.  Finally, in 2006, we decided we had to do it.

David had all the resources:  lights, cameras, editing equipment and the good will of Baltimore's talented cast and crew.  He also had that powerhouse Lynda Meier on staff as a producer.  When the decision was made to enter the film festival. David and Lynda got on the ball immediately.  First, they assembled a kind crew that would be willing to give up a Saturday for free.  (The rules state that you can't pay anyone to work on the film.)  They also assembled a cast.  That was a little more difficult since we had no idea what kind of movie we were going to make:  drama, comedy, musical, western, martial arts, action, horror, etc.  So, working with actor Matt Ryb, they assembled a varied team of actors and actresses which they hoped would fill any need.  David and Lynda also acquired a number of locations, homes, offices, etc., that they felt should fulfill any need.

The weekend before the shoot, David and I tried to cheat.  We tried to think of a few scenarios that would work across genre lines, but we quickly gave up.  There were too many genres and variables.  We would have to play it straight and a week later we found ourselves at the starting line with representatives of all the participating teams in the Baltimore area at a bar of the Cafe Hon in Hampden waiting to receive our genres.  Between the two of us,  Dave and I knew a number of the participants.  The mood was one of equal excitement and dread.  There was much fear among teams about being the poor SOB who drew the western genre out of the hat.  Baltimore really doesn't lend itself to westerns.  And it was little comfort to hear that, if you drew western, you could do a musical instead.

David and I were nervous too.  Or, at least I was.  I felt we had to win.  We were both professional filmmakers.  It would look really bad if we lost to some high school kids from Parkville.  Lynda kept saying that it was all about the challenge and the fun, but I felt there was more on the line than that.  I am not really competitive by nature.  I don't always have to win.  However, I do not like to lose.

The time for the drawing came.  David put his hand into the hat and pulled out Detective/Cop film.  I didn't have a cop film in mind, but at least it wasn't the dreaded western genre.  (I don't think the team that drew the western genre finished their film in time.)

Three items also needed to be included in the film:  a character named Joe or Joanne Murphy, who was a Phys-Ed Instructor; a prop, medicine; and the line of dialogue, "Just give her some time to figure it out."   Immediately. David was on the phone with Lynda rallying the troops.  Now all we needed was a script.  One thing was for sure.  Our hero was going to be a detective, not a beat cop.  Where were we going to come up with all those police uniforms by the time we had to shoot the next morning!

David and I brainstormed some ideas on the way from Baltimore back to Butler Films' base camp in Annapolis, MD.  Nothing stuck until I remembered something the lovely star of my second feature, Tracy Melchior, had told me about her SWAT team husband.  She could never bring him to Hollywood parties because if he saw someone do something illegal, i.e., take drugs, he would arrest him.  Aha!  That was our story.  It would be about a detective who was unlucky in love because he would end arresting each girl he dated for some minor offense.  His reputation becomes so notorious that some of his co-workers bet him that he will arrest the girl he is about to go out with on a blind date.  Our detective takes the bet, not realizing how difficult it would be not to arrest this girl!

By around ten or eleven, the script was done and David and Lynda were casting the film and lining up the locations.  There couldn't be many.  We had a large crew and couldn't waste much time making company moves.  The talented Matt Ryb got the role of the hapless detective, and, in a surprise move, David and Lynda cast Sarah Brandes, as the inappropriate blind date.  I say surprising because Sarah is primarily known as a crew person in the props and sets department.  Everyone was buzzing with activity.  Locations were being secured.  Equipment obtained.  Wardrobe acquired.    

Then I enjoyed a rare luxury.  I got to go home and sleep.  The rest of the production team would be working through the night before catching a few winks on the floors and sofas of Butler Films.  However, I would soon return to duty.  In addition to writing the film, I would also be editing it.

The next morning I reported to duty in Baltimore at the advertising agency GKV, which kindly offered their offices to us for use in the film.  We used their accounting department as our detectives' office, and we used their lobby as our restaurant.  The props and sets people did a great job.  If you pay close attention you might find yours truly on one of the wanted posters hanging on the walls.

Keep in mind everything had been done the night before.

Another fun thing about the job was that I had the opportunity to get my wife and her friend Xuan in the act as extras during the restaurant scene.  Unfortunately, they left the building during a break and couldn't re-enter since the doors were locked.  After about an hour or so I began to wonder what happened to my lovely bride and began to search for her.  (Neither she or Xuan had a cellphone on them.)  I eventually found them, and, although they did not enjoy being locked out, the experience did not sour them on the motion picture business.

I didn't have much opportunity to watch the shoot.  I was assigned to a cubicle to transfer the high-definition footage from the P2 cards from our two Panasonic cameras to our hard drives, and, if possible, begin editing on location.  I didn't get the opportunity to start the edit on the set.  By the time I transferred one card, the next one was ready.  I actually stayed at GKV working while David and the crew went and shot the exteriors at a nearby location.  When they left to shoot the home footage, I went to Annapolis to begin the edit

The clock was definitely clicking loudly by the time we began editing in earnest around 7pm.  We had two cameras rolling on every shot so we had a ton of footage to work our way through.  There wasn't much time for soul-searching.  If a take worked, we didn't second guess it.  Once a large chunk of the film was completed, David began color correcting it on another computer.  I think the picture edit ended around 4am Sunday morning.   Rather than crash on the floor, I opted to drive back to my home.  That was probably a mistake.  I know I was weaving a bit.  But I survived.  So did the car.

After a couple brief hours of sleep, I was up and ready for the sound mix.  Andrew Eppig at Clean Cuts had volunteered to mix our film.  Dave, Lynda and our cinematographer Regis Becker were already at Clean Cuts when I arrived.  I was unsure whether Dave and Lynda had slept at all, but I know Rege caught a catnap or two during the edit.  I'm not putting him down.  His willingness to stay through the edit and the sound mix proved his devotion to the project!  Andrew did a great job with the mix, helped in no small part by the wonderful location sound provided by Rick Angelella, the dean of Baltimore soundmen.  The film kept getting better and better, but the clock kept ticking and ticking.  Before long, we had to stop work and rush the film back to Hampden to turn it in.

The mood was somewhat euphoric.  Not just for us but for all the teams that gathered to turn in their films.  It is quite an accomplishment to write, shoot, edit and mix a coherent film in forty-eight hours.  I, for one,  no longer cared if we won or lost.  However, I thought we had a good chance!

The films were screened a couple days later at the Baltimore Museum of Art.  The audience was filled with filmmakers and their friends.  Practically all of our cast and crew came to the screening.  Then the lights went down.  I was frankly quite surprised how good most of the films were.  However, I believe it was the work of Andrew Eppig and Rick Angelella which gave us the edge.  Most of the other films looked good, but suffered from poor audio.  Often times I could not even make out the dialogue in some films.  That was a pity.

Then the results came in.  We won quite a few of the awards:

Audience Award.

Best Film.

Best Directing.

Best Writing.

Best Acting.

Best Sound Design.

Wow.  I couldn't believe it.  Not only that.  As a result of our win, we were invited to participate in the International 48 Hour Film Festival HD Filmmaker Showdown.  But that's another blog!

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

Follow me on Twitter:  SeanPaulMurphy

Follow me on Instagram: Sean Paul Murphy