ORIGIN BLOG

Well folks I have to say “WOW” with a capital “W” to the last brief shot we had!! It consisted of shots we were unable to fit in our last shoot at some brand new scenes. Stacy Price plays Chris Chitwood (AKA THE NERD) don?t let the title fool you she is a true Femme Fatal and plays a character with some surprising contrast. I think the whole set was steamed up by her performance. Flight 27 also made and appearance that ties his music video The Virus into the film.

It was a surprisingly smooth shot and our last chance to try and fix some of the problems that arouse from our final fight shoot. It we waited a day later we would have lost our whole set “whew”. Dennis who plays bishop did a great job going redoing some of our old moves. Alpha team was on point as usual and got to chase and beat me up a little bit more.

We were much more organized this time around and things flowed well. I must say this project is shaping up nicely.

I reorganized and redesigned the website. It has many new features that the previous build did not. I have added a more organized interface and layout. The ability to enlarge screen shots, new songs from the soundtrack by flight 27 and lowlight district, background images and more. I hope you all enjoy the new site as it is a play by play of the films progress. Even this blog has been updated to match the look and feel of ORIGIN. Enjoy

I was able to see a preview of the film on DVD, which mostly had no sound but I was impressed by the visuals. TV really tells you how things look because the computer can fool you especially with Digital Video. I love the Panasonic and how the shoots look on TV so I know the project is at least Sci Fi Channel worthy. The FX look good and have been freaking my family and friend out with some of my twisted ideas. They really bring the film to higher standard. Sound and computer graphics will take center stage after all the principal photography is done and can make or break the shots. The film really surpassed the original symphony but still has a long way to go to be what it should be. So the question is what is left on the project.

• 1 principal photography shoot
• Pick up shots( Re Shoots)
• Computer Graphics
• Sound FX and Folly work
• Musical Score
• Final edit
• Test Focus Groups
• Marketing Advertising
• Release and Film Festivals

I have started editing the Final Fight and footage looks good but I really wish I had more coverage on many parts. The Fights look great and I think it’s is my best Choreography work to date. Samuel Crayne has added his touch of twitchiness to the edit, which really adds to the character of the film. I think my personal style is to stay very close to the characters and give you the sense of closeness and even discomfort.

I also have found a major continuity errors I really want to try and fix. I was unable to do that since I had to act and fight all night. We also ran out of time so that really hurt us on the extra coverage. The jib shots look wonderful thanks to my DP Pete Smith, and I hope really add to the dynamics of this scene. You cannot do everything on your film (even thought I try), so you have to trust you team and pray the do it right. So times it is hard to translate what is in you head and some times storyboard aren’t even enough.

My team held up great under the extreme circumstances of the shot. The extra stunt guys were great even thought I had a week really to get them prepared for this scene. Dennis who plays “BISHOP�? did and bang up performance and gave “SIMON�? a run for his money. My Crew did a good job and I fixed my issues on the second day, which made for a smoother shoot all together.

We are also heavily in to the effects at this point. Will spend a lot of film with my Visual Effect Director Kevin Hoppe in the weeks that ensue. I like this part really it is fun and there is time and room to do things. I don’t always enjoy the craziness of production much but it is a necessary part of the film making process. I have come to realize pre and postproduction are my favorite parts of filmmaking. I love to come up with the ideas and plan them out and I love bring them to life. I hate organizing and reorganizing people places and things but I have a knack for getting people together
Honestly it has been shoot after shoot for me and I am exhausted final fight really exhausted me and I am getting over a few injuries from it. While training during the shoot, I rolled my shoulder and I change the choreography because of it. I am going to shoot this music video and then I am doing some guest choreography on a friends shoot. I really need to focus on my last in final scene, which is with who plays “THE BUM�? and myself. This is where I really get tested as somewhat of an actor. I may even rewrite some of the script to make it more believable. I feel that these scenes could make or break the movie.

You have all heard of Flight 27!! and if not you will now. Flight 27 is the amazing Hip-Hop poet that released in 2003 his self title album “FLIGHT 27″ ( you can find his album on itunes). He created a song for ORIGIN entitled “The Virusâ€?. Samuel Crayne has flown out from Colorado to direct “The Virus” video that is based on and inspired by the film. I will Co Produce this video and give it a little origin flare. Samuel Crayne helped Co Direct the original Symphony of the Fallen and Emfonic’s “Corpus” video. His work is very edgy and provocative and will complement well with one of my favorite Flight 27 tracks that has yet to be released.

Damn!!!! After Long wait final fight is finally over. That has been 3 years of training every weekend with my team, milling over moves, watching endless amounts of kung fu movies. The film shoot is self was grueling and was very hard to organize. The first day was full of disasters that threatened the whole shoot. The second day was much more productive but for me meant fighting for a full 8+ hours of take after take. We went from 6:30pm until 5am and barely finished. I did not get all the shots I want so I hope to go back and get some pick-ups. On this shoot I was mostly impressed this time by the use of the jib we rent and the quality it added the film. Also the extra stunt guys we pulled for the shoot worked out really well. I was finalizing choreography all the way until the last minute and they rolled with it very well. I pray that this scene lives up to the hype surrounding this film. We will see soon.

In a week I will be shooting my Final Fight Sequence of the film. I am nervous but we have been training hard. We have had some major scheduling snags on this one. I have to do it with out some key actors and crew. If we don’t do it now we risk losing the set until next December, which is when we plan to release so that is not an option. Dennis (who plays bishop) and I have been training on location for 3 weeks to customize our fight scene to the local. It has been some very grueling sessions and I pray I can hold up even longer on the shoot. I have been studying my favorite kung fu movies so that I won’t miss a beat with the choreography or the story telling. After this shoot we have one more major one and after that we can focus on postproduction and pick up shots.

I am closing in on my next shoot date for my final fight scene and I have a lack of qualified and dedicated stunt people to pull off the shoot. Takeshi (My Producer/ Co Director) is putting together an audition for this weekend. I hope things go well since my reception to finding people has been luke warm. I have spent a lot of time working out choreography with my crew now I just need to fill some alpha team suits. Where is Yuen Wo Ping when you need him.

Hi! I’m Sheldon Callahan Director, Writer, and Lead of the up and coming ORIGIN movie. I decided to do a blog of our progress even though we are about 80% done with production. I will use this blog to also give insight on my the project, my process, people and ect. So here we go!