D.B. Sweeney finds 'Paradise'

Nothing, absolutely nothing, was going to stop D.B. Sweeney from completing his low-budget feature film "Two Tickets to Paradise." He was even willing to face jail time in Miami.

Sweeney, who can be seen on the Starz cable TV series "Crash," is the writer, producer, director and star of "Two Tickets to Paradise," now on DVD. It is the story of three longtime friends who take a road trip to Florida to see a college championship football game. They learn a lot about each other and themselves along the way.

Most of the movie was shot in North Carolina. But Sweeney needed one scene that could be shot only in Florida. He packed up his camera and headed to Miami during the Super Bowl week in early 2007.

"That's when I found out I needed a shooting permit. It cost $1,200. I didn't have that in the budget," Sweeney says.

The movie was made for less than $2 million, which is below the budget for the average one-hour TV drama.

"I had a friend who had a permit. So I used it to forge my own permit. And I did a really good job," he said.

He had no sooner started filming at the beach when he was approached by two police officers. They asked what he was doing. Sweeney showed them his permit.

He was informed that while the permit looked legitimate, the city had suspended all filming for the Super Bowl week.

Sweeney got lucky. One of the officers recognized him from his 1993 movie "Fire in the Sky." They gave him 20 minutes to wrap up what he was doing and leave.

That's just one story from the long process Sweeney faced to get his movie made. He started writing the script in 2002, but that was just the start. Then he had to find financing. Finally, he called on friends and actors he had worked with to star in the movie. He was able to lure John C. McGinley, Ed Harris, Moira Kelly and Vanna White to the project.

Sweeney faced problems trying to come up with the two teams to play in his fictional championship football game. The University of Texas Longhorns agreed to be the winning team. It was the other team that was the problem. No top 10 college football program would agree to play the losing team. Marshall University finally agreed.

Getting the film done was a struggle -- mostly because of money. He says he'll make sure he has a bigger budget next time.