CD Info

We're making the limited edition, extended CD soundtrack of "The Imposter" available. We only had a couple thousand made and when they're gone, they'll be gone. The CD contains 19 tracks (way to many). And we're offering it for $15 plus $2.50 for S&H.

The CD leads off with the new version of "Carry On Wayward Son" and contains all the original songs from the movie as well as the four songs by the group Downhere. My favorite is the original one that Jeff Deyo sings called "Chance to Choose."

One way we're using these is for churches and ministries to use them as a fundraiser. A Royal Ranger group sold CD's at their church before and after Wednesday night services (part of their Communication merit) and raised a couple hundred dollars to supplement their budget for the semester. Other groups have been selling them as well. Minimum ten CD's and you get the wholesale price. Contact me if interested.

To buy the CD, click here. If you have one, please post comments here and around the net if you enjoyed it.

Dreams

So yesterday, I posted that during this phase of moviemaking, I'm usually wracked by dreams. Well last night was no different. At 330-ish, I woke up. I was sitting in bed answering some question by my wife-- my PDA in my hand as a flashlight on the sheets. I didn't know what was going on, so I put the PDA away and quickly dozed back off.

In the morning she told me I woke her-- I was going through the sheets with the PDA flashlight looking for "bugs." Not sure if they were the crawly kind, or maybe spy stuff... that would certainly make for better dreaming. Anyway, at least I wasn't sleep walking. This time.

So today, I worked hard on finding our campus location for Rising Stars. I can't wait on one place-- I have to go to them all and start the process. Campuses have administration, which means committees and long decision making processes. So we will see.

In addition, my DP and co-offices mate Ron Gonzalez had set up one office as a small green screen room. I took advantage of it to shoot a little standup for an exclusive Facebook video-- the Carry On Wayward Son music video. What we have found is that churches are getting the movie for their church usually based on the recommendation of a person in the congregation. So I'm thankful for all those who are doing that.

What gets shipped to the Churches?

When a church goes to our website and orders a license, we get an email confirming an order has been made with all the details. We send a 2 DVD box that contains a DVD with the movie, suitable for projecting in your church, and a second disc containing a bunch of Extras.

These Extras include Scenes from the movie to use as Discussion clips (with the soon to be completed Study Guide), behind-the-scenes, interviews with the actors, and music videos, including the "Carry On Wayward Son" redone by Kerry Livgren and sung by Kevin Max.

We also send out three to five full size movie posters, with an overprint area for listing the details of your church screening. This all gets shipped in a Fedex Tube via Fedex Ground. Your order usually gets filled in a couple of days, then 3 to 5 days to ship-- so we tell the person who ordered to expect it in ten days.

We have shipped faster for those doing a screening in a shorter time. I suggest that when you get your order, to watch the movie all the way through to make sure it works properly on your system.

I also give the churches a special support website that has downloadable posters, pictures, sample bulletin announcements, ticket templates, quicktime video of the trailer and other helpful items.

Another Common Question

Inevitably, when people find out I have worked with a celebrity, 9 times out of 10, the next question is "What was ______ really like to work with?" So I"m going to answer that question with the people on the set of "The Imposter."

Kevin Max -- Kevin really surprised me, and several others by his natural acting abilities. He quickly found a rhythm and was very believable. And he did this in spite of the fact that he was stricken with the flu for most of the shooting. This movie, more than any other I've shot, put so much onto the lead actor-- there were 136 scenes and Kevin's character was in almost all of them. Usually the lead actor will have some days off from shooting. But not so for Kevin. So he had to really dig deep to bring this character to life and I think he did an exceptional job.

Jeff Deyo -- When you work with Jeff, you realize what a presence he has. I can only guess that this comes from his passion for Jesus. But he is a calming, strong force on the set. We didn't have a lot of time to talk on the set, and he would come in for a day, shoot and then fly away for a bit to whatever concert he was performing. What I remember most is that while shooting in the RV for the scene where James takes the call from Johnny wanting money, I had just gotten a call-- my wife and son were in a traffic accident. I was told it probably wasn't serious, but suddenly I was a mess and didn't know what to do. Jeff took charge for a moment and prayed. And God showed up in a real way.

Later, I've gotten to spend more time with Jeff and I truly love him like a brother. I can't wait to work with him again.

Kerry Livgren -- I was probably the most nervous meeting Kerry for the first time. He decided to drive down with his wonderful wife Vicci from Kansas and called me when he was getting close, so we could meet at a restaurant to eat dinner. Kerry is every bit the actual character of Proff-- he really didn't have to act; he just had to play himself. I loved sitting down to dinner that night and asking all the questions I'm sure he's been asked a zillion times. And maybe a few he hadn't. Questions like how COWS came to be and Dust in the Wind. As well as other people in the industry he's met and worked with (pretty sad... he says "I knew so and so" and my first thing is "Really? What are they like?").
In this picture, left to right, Dan Millican, DP Ron Gonzalez, Sound Mike Gonzalez, Kerry Livgren, Line Producer Stewart Young.

Anyway, it was a real pleasure working with these guys. And I hope you get a chance to meet them some day.

Soundtrack Update

Thanks to all who have pre-ordered the Extended CD version of "The Imposter" movie soundtrack. In an effort to ensure the highest quality of each track, it has taken longer to get the master done, but we are nearing the finish line on that. Jeff Rodgers and I are very excited about the results.

All the art has already been sent to the duplicator, so once we have the master in hand, it will go pretty quickly. What you see here is the front cover of the CD (and below is the back booklet panel). And in previous blog posts, I've uploaded the CD Face and the back of the CD case.

My hope is that we will have the soundtracks in hand in a week to ten days and we will ship out all the pre-orders first. In the meantime, until we have the CD's in hand, we will continue to offer the $5 off for pre-ordering, so if you haven't ordered, now's the time at www.theimpostermovie.com.

For those who don't know, the CD will retail for $18.99 and has 19 tracks, which includes just about every song in the movie, including the new "Carry On Wayward Son" by writer Kerry Livgren and vocals by Kevin Max. It will also have Kevin Max singing a new song "Believe (is an Act)" and Jeff Deyo's new song "Chance to Choose." Both of these songs were written for the movie.

We also include the four songs by Kevin, including the title track "The Imposter" as well as all four songs by the awesome group "Downhere" that were used in the movie. Other songs include several by Kerry, Adele Morgan, and some great score tracks by our composer, Josh Goode.

For those that have pre-ordered, thank you for your patience, we're almost there!

CD Soundtrack Update

Well, we are getting very close. The tracks have all been sent to the mastering company. Then we'll go to the duplicator who has all the art and is ready to go.

Maybe we can have them in hand within a couple of weeks. These will be the extended version, with just about every song represented in the movie, along with the best of Josh's music cues from the score. Kerry Livgren remixed "Carry On Wayward Son" last week, so that will be a new version for everyone as well. I think he's like me-- as long as I can keep editing, I'll keep editing. They say a director never finishes a movie-- he just stops working on it. I'm sure Kerry is that way with his music.

We've got the new Jeff Deyo song "Chance to Choose" as well as Kevin Max singing "Believe (is an Act)" for our movie band Grand_design. And a bunch of other really good songs.

We will keep the $5 pre-order discount active until we have them in hand next week, so if you've been putting it off, now's the time to order at the website. All the pre-orders will go out first.

Spinning Discs

Well, we are officially pushing forward on the soundtrack for "The Imposter." I hope to have the product in hand within six weeks at the latest, maybe earlier. Here's a peek at the songs we're thinking of including:
* Carry On Wayward Son (Kevin Max singing to Kerry Livgren's new arrangement)
* Four songs from Kevin's "The Imposter" (Imposter, Imposter's Song, Sanctuary, Your Beautiful Mind)
* Four downhere songs (my favorite band, songs include The More, A Better Way, Break My Heart, My Last Amen)
* Local star Meredith Mauldin's "Empty" which has been a surprise hit of the movie
* Our movie originals Believe (is an Act) sung by Kevin, and Chance to Choose sung by Jeff Deyo
* Two Kerry Livgren songs (On the Air, No More Time For Love)
* and a couple of choice score cues by Josh Goode.

We will probably put a real huge pre-sale discount up in the next few days. Hope you enjoy!

Kerry Livgren's Testimonial

We've had several people ask to see this video posted. I have been including it in the extras, but here it is. Kerry's story is an amazing one. Here is an individual who was looking for rock n roll success, and trying to find a deeper purpose at the same time. He got the rock n roll success, but that ate away even more.

I don't remember if I included this in the edit here (and I'm too tired to check it right now), but another interesting thing about Kansas-- the band had no problem with Kerry chasing Buddhism, eastern mysticism, even Urantia... but when Kerry became born again, then some problems started. The name of Jesus has incredible power. It makes people flinch to say Jesus. You can say Buddha. You can say Mohammed. But to say Jesus separates and divides people.

Thanks, Kerry, for taking time to talk with me that day on the set.

Interview with Kerry

The local paper for Kerry's hometown of Topeka has a great article. Check it out: CLICK HERE Also, video interview here with clips from the Carry On Wayward Son music video, here: CLICK HERE

I really liked what Kerry had to say. Hope you check it out. Also did get word that they have sold out all 6 screenings for tomorrow in Topeka.

Carry On Wayward Son

So how did Kerry Livgren become a part of the movie "The Imposter?" For those that don't know, Kerry was an integral part of the super-group Kansas. He wrote the classics Carry On Wayward Son and Dust in the Wind.

I've always been a fan of Christian rock and enjoyed the work of an all girl band called Rachel Rachel back in the early 90's. They did a cover of COWS and a music video to go with it.

A few months before shooting Imposter, I was cleaning out some VHS tapes and saw one where I had recorded a Christian music video show. I had saved it because of the COWS video. In it, the girls rock out and Kerry comes on stage during the solo. I had been racking my brain for who to play the role of the Mentor in the movie and wanted an older Christian rock icon. I thought Kerry would be perfect.

I did a search on the internet and came up with his manager Dutch Dehnert's email address. After firing off an message, the reply was pretty quick. Dutch would pass the info along, but don't get my hopes up.

Long story short, Kerry wasn't too keen at first, but agreed to read the script. And his wife Vicci read the script. And he decided to do it and the movie was so much better for his participation.

So with Kerry attached, I began to dream. Wouldn't it be great if Kerry re-did the song with Kevin Max singing? I didn't think I would be able to talk Kerry in to it, and at first he wasn't big on the idea (He said he'd like to remake some of his songs-- COWS is not one of them). But then I got a CD in the mail with a return address Kansas. That was the day before shooting started. I popped it into the truck's CD and cranked it up. It had no vocals yet, but it was awesome.

The day after the last day of shooting, Kevin laid down some demo vocal tracks. A few months later, we paid for some studio time and Kevin laid them down for real. I had shot some music video segments on the set and during the summer edited the music video.

*When* we release the soundtrack, I'm sure that will be one of the songs. I might release the COWS video soon as well.