Who the hell am I?

"If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative."
- David Ogilvy

Anyone who directs Film and Commercials knows you must create a story that:

1. Appeals to audiences in a way that they become emotionally connected with what they see.
2. It causes them to buy what they see.

If those two steps (particularly the last one) fail, then the companies who hired you to direct will be reticent about doing so again.

What working in production on Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter taught me was that you can be as creative as you want... As long as, at the end of the day, it's what people want.

Lots of people.

So this blog is dedicated to discussing what I, along with the best that I've worked with, have learned about creating a create a story that audiences are willing to pay money to enjoy.

My name is Mike Murphy. I'm a storyteller. I studied at CalArts and ArtCenter, graduating from Calarts.

After graduating I finished a short film, Pig Out.



It caught the attention of Disney who told me to never do computer animation...only draw. I'd just a month earlier seen Toy Story and was blown away at the sublety of the acting. I ran off into computer land, working on such franchises as Harry Potter, Stuart Little, Scooby Doo, Ironman, Terminator, and Shrek. The highlight on all of this was being one of the main animators on Gollum for Lord of the Rings.

In New Zealand I shot a number of short films. The last film I shot was in 2001. So its been awhile. Since then I finished up the effects for all the films and have been writing scripts with my writing partner Sean Sullivan. Here's a link to his blog:

http://copywriting2win.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Sean and I have a number of projects. I like the fantastical...its the animator in me, and Sean likes the intellectual, its the writer in him. So between the two of us we've got all the bases covered.

Check out http://www.farsightedfilms.com/ for hi-res versions of my films.