I have a friend, Blair Murphy, who was a “character” in two of my books, Cemetery Stories and Piercing the Darkness: Undercover with Vampires in America Today. A decade ago, he spotted a former miners’ hotel for sale on eBay in the mountains of PA. Blair bought it, moved in, and began staging unusual events. (In an earlier blog, I wrote about a Dead Supper here.)
The decor is a hodgepodge of skeletons, ghosts, vampires, zombies, movie props, and a stunning array of taxidermy products. Unique experience guaranteed!
Last week, Blair hosted a “Writers’ Jail” at the hotel. I asked him to guest-blog to describe what happened. So, what follow’s is Blair’s post:
I have an unusual home. I left Hollywood and bought the Grand Midway Hotel in Western Pennsylvania as a new eccentric private castle, where I've entertained several hardcore artists, genuine weirdoes, and delightful folks from the paranormal world. Katherine Ramsland, a pal of mine, has been here many a time. It was also recently celebrated on the SyFy Channel.
This past week, my two very talented filmmaker/paranormal investigator friends, Brian J. Cano (of The Haunted Collector) and Christopher Mancuso (of the SCARED crew) needed to complete a screenplay. After months of mentioning this, their time had come.
"We need a writer's jail!" they joked.
"Set a date," I responded.
When they arrived to my hotel, they were “arrested,” photographed, booked into a room, and put in chains that were just long enough to reach the bathroom. I had also put bars on the window to their 'cell.’ Friends dressed as prison guards and a bunch of locals posed as additional inmates!
Brian and Christopher were “sentenced” to seven days. They had to stay there and finish their screenplay. Each night I would edit a few minutes of footage of them and post it online.
The exquisite twist was this: People at home who saw the footage got to vote on what the prisoners would be fed each day, and they could also demand little details to be inserted into the growing screenplay. The two inmates might get to eat something wonderful, for example, or they might be served beans or “weird fish,” depending on the audience response.
After posting the first footage, I was certain everyone would vote to give the prisoners beans all day. So, exhausted from cutting footage all night the night before, I was prepared to just go out and buy a dozen cans of beans. Easy day, right? But no! Everyone voted instead to give them something wonderful!
Suddenly Joe Bob and I were running around buying police costumes and calling local woman, "Would you dress as a sexy cop and deliver a fine lunch to these two guys on camera for this unusual project in a fake jail we are doing? Please! And we need you immediately."
The next day, after that vote, I was up at the Main Moon restaurant begging them to make me two platters of anything that would look like weird fish.
The prisoners had a week to complete their project ... or else! And there were plenty of distractions. They had to narrowly escape Chuck the Calligrapher, a giant Mysterious Russian who walked through their cell, Rob the Plagiarizer, and even 'the Hole.'
Each night at 10 p.m. we’d pump in a movie about writing (Misery, Midnight Express, The Darjeeling Limited, Wonder Boys, and finally Adaptation).
At midweek, the prisoners came to me, the Warden, questioning whether they could finish the goal they'd committed to, but I was merciless. I too was on stage here and had to deliver this thirty-minute completed movie reel by week's end. My unwavering response was simply, "Good luck with that."
The bottom line and golden rule is always, “The show much go on.”
In the end, after seven days in jail, they got their writing assignment done! Now a new professional screenplay called 'Frank's Big Break' is in the hands of Hollywood producers.
We posted the footage on YouTube, called 'Writer's Jail.' Look it up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhQynWXheO8&feature=youtu.be
And did we get attention! One day Brian and Chris were chained in the Grand Midway Hotel ("Is that even legal?" locals asked me). The next day, it was in papers from Pittsburgh to Erie to Philadelphia as a wacky surefire cure for writer's block. In fact, we’re starting to get other writers requesting the same treatment. This is not a writers’ colony. It’s a jail!
But they want it.
So, all you slacker writers, watch out! Don't get arrested and brought to my dungeons, because I am merciless. Sincerely, the Warden.