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!

I would imangine this show is big in Texas (it's high in ratings everywhere)

I also imangine that the folks who live driving distance to this church that see the show will become intersted in going to see the church they are seeing on TV.

They could'nt pay for that kind of advertising.

If you find out when that show will be aired, let us know.

We do not watch it at our house.....we do not like the teen age love scenes or teen romatica dramatica....

That would be my advice to parents with teens.

It does depict the real world of high school relationships.

I watch it everyweek. It is a good show. Well written and well acted I think. The thing I like is that is a reality to it that is very authentic. It is like you are back home with watching highschool football. There are parts of the story that is kinda hard to believe but most of it is very good.

The show would be excellent if it didn't throw in so much boyfriend, girlfriend hog wash. Also, the teenager that walks around drinking all the time is a bad influence on our kids and teens. My husband watches it but he will change the channel if something racy comes on.

The actress who plays the Christian is gorgous. She is really 28 playing a teen. My son was impressed!

I wish I had started watching the show from the beginning last season. I hate trying to figure out what is going on in these type dramas after they have been on awhile. I probably will just buy the DVD sets of last season and then this one when it is available.

28 - No way. I thought she was a teen. She is an excellent actress.

After the fliming she was very patient and sweet to a lot of young teen girls and a few guys who wanted their pictures taken with her and her autograph.

Check out this article from the VERY liberal Austin Chronicle newspaper about an earlier Friday Night Lights filming at Promiseland Church last month;

Saving 'Friday Night Lights'
By Mike Dolan

So there we were on Sunday morning, receiving the word at PromiseLand, a church on East 51st. If you ran into us there, Dale, a fellow screenwriter, and I might have said we were at the Pentecostal megachurch doing research. But if you watched us closely, you could see that we both felt a genuine pull toward the passion and emotional precipice. Then the Rev. Jonathan Suber broke the spell.

He started talking about television. He beseeched the congregation to come to the Wednesday night service; it was going to be very special. It was going to be an opportunity for the entire world to witness the PromiseLand ministry, because Friday Night Lights was going to shoot a scene in the auditorium. Apparently, one of the characters was going to leave behind a life of sin. In other scenes, the character was going to be counseled and baptized by the Rev. Kenneth Phillips, the founder of PromiseLand, whom Dale insisted was a dead ringer for the former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, "if he were juicing."

This odd turn of events shuttled me back toward a more familiar stance of cynicism. I'd worked on many films and had witnessed the inevitable and absurd devastation of culture that occurs when filmmakers try to wrestle what they need from authentic events. Dale and I agreed to come back on Wednesday and watch things get weird.

However, that is not how Friday Night Lights rolls, and what we saw on Wednesday night was a symbiosis between Hollywood and the Holy Spirit. Because the production crew simultaneously shoots three cameras, they can be remarkably unobtrusive. They never stopped the service or asked the crowd to get rapturous or staged someone being struck by the Holy Spirit. They simply let the music and the message play, and the stealth camera crew weaved in and out of the crowd getting the coverage they needed.

The worshipper turned out to be Minka Kelly, who plays the romantically conflicted cheerleader Lyla Garrity, and she looked gorgeously redeemed in a white cotton shift.

We witnessed a plot point when another character squeezed in beside her during the service. I gave Dale the dirt: "That's Tim Riggins. She slept with him after her boyfriend was paralyzed in episode one."

"I'm glad she's found the lord," he said, clutching his monogrammed Bible.

Phillips was in fine form, clearly a casting boon. He delivered a steady and heartfelt sermon, reaching out "to that one person who is here tonight, ready to join the light. Ready to leave behind a life of sin."

This might have been a scripted plea that Lyla answers during the episode, but it was so on message for the church that it played seamlessly. The pastor then spoke about his experience on the show and wove it in. "They called and asked if I could baptize a cheerleader," he began, pausing to hit the timing perfectly. "I told them I was born to baptize."

He said he was surprised and overwhelmed by the experience and that he never would have thought Hollywood and his church could come together to serve such a good purpose. "I think the show should be called Friday Night Life," he said. "It's filled with life, with the same things we see here at PromiseLand." He spoke about a young man injured in a motorcycle crash and another man who left his family to live an immoral life. "But we have the light here. You give the life, and we'll provide the light."

He then huddled with an assistant director and said, "It's a wrap."

WOW.....that's awesome!

I cannot wait to see the episode now!

I disagree here. I think the way he is portrayed makes him look rediculous. He is who the church preaches we should not be. If anything he is an example of what not to be. He was one of the most popular now he is a loser and the butt of every joke. He does have problems but he does not let "6" the paralyed friend go too far. He is actually the perfect picture of the trying to do right but ending up doing wrong. IMO. Now I agree some of the stuff is sexed up for ratings, but the truth is that is on Friday Night and the tv ratings are posted at the beginning. If someone does not want their kids to watch can make it where they can't watch.

Actually, this as a tremendous negative and the realization of the stigma associated with the church marrying itself to the world through the medium of television.

What next? Imagine, the church (albeit) a reformed Apostolic church getting into bed with the filth of Hollywood, where teenagers are shown, and glorified to an extent to be promiscuous?

Shame on the glorification of sin under the mask and guise of religion.

I wonder how long it will be before the UPC is depicted in Hollywood movies and television and men who have been so staunch in their testimony are depicted as preachers in something fake?

See the episode for yourselves. It is episode #201 about 8-10 minutes into the clip.

http://www.nbc.com/Friday_Night_Ligh...episodes.shtml

Br Phillips and promiseland churhc had another small part on Friday night lights tonite 11-9

I just viewed the scene and I would have to admit that I had mixed feelings afterwards. On one hand, I had the feeling of seeing history in the making by watching someone being baptized in Jesus' Name for the remission of sins on a television series, but at the same time I kept thinking about Carp's post on this thread. Where does one draw the line?

Hmmmm.....maybe baptizing Playboy Bunnies in the grotto at the Playboy mansion?

:naughty

On my computer, episodes 123-201 are missing. How can I find them?

Was Promiseland on the first season too?

No. They first approached Kenneth Phillips this summer about being the preacher in the baptism scene at a creek then it grew from there to them filming at the church several times including the Wed night I was there a few weeks ago.

Yea, this thread got me interested in it. I've watched it the past few shows and wanted to see the baptism scene - - can't find Episode 201 though.

Was at Promiseland last Saturday for a dear friend's surprise party. Later that afternoon they were filming, it was quite an experience

I'm just amazed that Friday Night Lights actually became a movie (15 years after the book was published) and then a TV series. When the book by H.G. Bissinger came out, people in Odessa were mightily ticked off at the author for making them look bad. But it was a good book, if a bit dated now (almost 20 years old).

I've never seen it. Maybe I'll check it out.

Saw Kenneth Phillips last night on the show.

I have been taping them on the DVR but have not watched any. I just saw where one of my High Def channels on DISH is rerunning the first season. I have missed episode one but can start with episode #2 so I might do that and get caught up over the next few months then watch this season.

I would definitely like to see the episode that has the scenes in it that were filmed while I was at Promiseland that Sunday awhile back.

Are you all talking about TV?

Yes, I'm looking forward to seeing that one. I would think it's coming up sometime soon.

Yes, you better get off this thread - :happydance

LOLOLOL - - so the long awaited scene at Phillip's church and they sing...........

























I AM A Friend of God's!!!!!

Just was on!

Did you see me? I was there the Wed night they filmed that a few months ago.

I am the really fat guy way at the back. LOL!!!!

The really fat guy way at the back that repeats himself all the time?

I did not know you were a black brutha! I like you even more now!!:happydance

Re: Friday Night Lights Continues Filming at Kenne
 

The new season is back ON!

Re: Friday Night Lights Continues Filming at Kenne
 

I will never forget Brother Phillips preaching back in the 80´s or so...I never seen a man preach with such a burden for souls. I will never forget him weeping and weeping...for a lost world.

Re: Friday Night Lights Continues Filming at Kenne
 

Brother, you beat up on me for using the term trinnies, then turn around and make a racist remark! How crude, rude and in the year of the Obama, totally unacceptable!!!!!


:gotcha

Re: Friday Night Lights Continues Filming at Kenne
 

Not hardly.