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Friday Night Lights Continues Filming at Kenneth Phillips Church
I am in Austin Texas on a business trip and was in service tonight at Kenneth Phillips Promiseland Church.
A few months ago Kenneth Phillips was approached about playing a Preacher in a scene where one of the main characters of this prime time network television drama is baptized in a creek.
He agreed to do it if he could do it his way (in Jesus name) and as most of you know it was discussed on AFF in a thread or two.
I taped that episode and watched the baptism scene but have never seen the series so I really don't know the storyline involved other than it is a drama about high school kids, in particular football players, their girlfriends, etc.
Early on in the series the star HS football quarterback was injured and has been paralyzed and in a wheelchair.
Anyway the storyline of one of the main female characters becoming a Christian apparently is continuing. They have filmed various times at the church and tonight did during a service in which John Ragsdale led the praise and worship.
The parking lot on one side of the church had 7 semi's / big trucks parked in it and a dressing room trailer set up.
The church was setup like it would be on a Sunday with the choir, etc. The Promiseland video department was doing their multi camera shoot as usual including the big boom camera.
The TV film crew was using two handheld cameras on steadycams.
At the beginning of service I noticed a young man in a suit sitting on the platform with the preachers, elders, etc. He looked very familiar to me and I had a suspicion he might be an actor. I started wondering though because he knew all of the praise and worship songs and was singing with gusto.
It turns out he was an actor and after a time of praise and worship and Pastor Phillips speaking a little they turned it over to the shows executive producer who thanked the church for how good they have been to the producers. He said that a year ago or so he had driven by Promiseland church and he felt like this church would be in their show even though at the time he knew nothing about it.
The part they filmed tonight was the young actor playing a young preacher doing a little preaching with the choir behind him and the congregation amening him on. He talked about when you let the Lord in your life miracles can happen (that was easy to give a big "amen" to!!!!),etc.
After that segment was filmed of him several times from different angles they filmed an actor form the show walking down to the actor to pray and talk with the female star of the show who is the one who already has become a Christian on the show.
For those scenese the choir and church had to pantomine singing, clapping their hands, etc while the young actor pantomined preaching the same lines he had before. This was so the actors in the altar's lines could be picked up and recorded clearly. The audience noise from the earlier takes would be edited in behind their lines in postproduction.
Having two children that have been in the entertainment business I have been on many sets and knew what to expect. I am sure those who have not were probably surprised at how time consuming and boring filmmaking can be.
This church has been used to multiple cameras going during service for many years so the cameras didn't put anybody off although it was funny to see the camera guys with their steadycam rigs and the five or so crew members around them as they moved around.
There was also a lot of the production crew with earpieces in for their walkie talkies trying to be unobtrusive and doing a pretty good job of it.
My hope is that perhaps this will be a positive portrayal of an evangleical church and maybe someone who would never turn on a christian TV channel might be exposed to something good through watching this TV drama and experiencing a little church!
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