murphy was a founding member of the hippy musical and theatrical co-operative blerta, which toured new zealand and australia performing multi-media shows in the early 1970s. blerta were later given the opportunity to make their own television series, which in turn spawned what is arguably murphy's first feature film, the 75-minute-long "wild man". a number of blerta members would work on murphy's films, including drummer and blerta founder bruno lawrence, who had starring roles in "utu" and "the quiet earth".