We warmed up in 2024 with a bowl of hot, steaming broth: with a commercial shoot for Kettle & Fire. It was a great way to start the year with our rockstar crew and talented cast. One tool loved for this project that we’ve ended up using frequently throughout the year is the Camera to Cloud feature in Frame.io, which allows us to upload clips instantly to the cloud. It’s especially helpful when clients and stakeholders aren’t able to be on set, allowing them to view and comment on clips remotely in real time during production.
In February, we hit the road to Palm Springs, CA for the annual HPA Tech Retreat, which is something our team looks forward to yearly. It’s a chance for industry leaders to meet, commiserate, and share knowledge, all geared towards understanding and shaping the future of the post production industry. With a small, nimble team we recorded key seminars, captured interviews with attendees, and turned around daily recap edits for socials. It was a whirlwind, and also an amazing opportunity to learn about the technologies that are being developed, and the tools that we as professionals can use to make our workflow even better.
Speaking of the HPA, we were honored to receive not ne, not two, but FOUR Telly Awards for our collaboration on the featurette “Tribute to Post”, which is an homage to the resilience and innovation of professionals working in Post Production today. We took home the gold for Social Video, Not-For Profit, and three additional silver awards. We couldn’t be more thrilled to shine the spotlight on these industry leaders who have inspired us.
We really appreciated the chance to flex our creative muscles managing and creating the launch campaign for HDR by Barco Lightsteering at CinemaCon 2024 this Spring. This was a multi-media campaign which included print ads, social teasers, educational videos, and full-frame HDR content to be shown in theaters on Barco’s latest HDR projector. For theatrical display, we conceptualized and delivered a story-driven piece, The Artist and The Muse, in order to make the branded content into a truly theatrical experience. When it comes to understanding the power of HDR, the proof is in the image, so our goal was to show, rather than tell.
This summer Netflix released The Virtual Production Playbook, which was a huge labor of love for our team. We produced 6 in-depth chapters in collaboration with the Netflix team, detailing the ins and outs of Virtual Production including volume capture, 3D environments, and more. We’re so grateful for the chance to learn from the best at Netflix about how this new tool can empower filmmakers, and how to implement best practices when using VP. On top of that, now all of that valuable information is available to the public, so more filmmakers have the chance to see what is possible with the tools we have available today.
By the time Cinegear came around, it was clear that this year was already defined by huge advancements in entertainment technology. From Virtual Production to HDR, the next frontier is no surprise: A.I. The same question was the topic of conversation throughout the tradeshows, on sets, and in post houses across the country: How can we, as creatives, use the power of A.I. to improve (not replace!) our work?
Our aim was to dive deeper into understanding what these tools can do. We had the chance to go out with the team from Strada.ai for several fun BTS-style videos, and we have been integrating these tools into our workflow over the course of the year. We’re really excited about the potential for products like this to save us time and tedious labor in the editing suite, with features that allow us to sort, tag, and organize our footage faster and more efficiently.
For us, constantly growing, learning and improving isn’t just part of our job, it’s a way of life. So when we realized it was time to update our WEBSITE, we wanted to build more than just a portfolio. We wanted to create an immersive visual experience that showcases all that we have to offer to our clients. Our aim was to create a user experience that feels like a visual adventure, while still being inviting and easy to navigate.
We can't lie, building this site took a lot of long hours and hard work, and last time we checked Jason still hasn’t slept! ;) Anything worth doing is worth doing right. So we made time over the summer to make sure that this online space was a true reflection of who we are as a team.
After all that hard work of figuring out layouts, writing copy and code, perfecting and re-perfecting, we felt it was time to get out and have a little fun. We decided to enter the 48hr Film Project as a team, challenging ourselves to write, shoot, edit and finish an entire short film over the course of a single weekend. We were delighted when we drew Film Noir as our randomly chosen genre, and the rest of the production was a blur of phone calls, script drafts, media cards and exports until we finally delivered the final file on Sunday night.
All that hard work paid off big time at the final awards screening, where our short NO SUBSTITUTIONS took home BEST FILM, Best Director, Best Actor, Audience Choice Award, 1st Runner Up for Best Screenplay, and nominations for Editing, Sound Design, Best Actress, and Cinematography. It was truly a fantastic experience, especially for something we were trying out as a team for fun.
Generally our in-house digital cameras are our go-to camera to capture cinematic quality footage. But we all know there is a special, irreplaceable magic to celluloid film. So when we set out on our mission to tell the story of FotoKem and the team that has made it the legendary institution that it is, it just didn’t seem right to shoot all digital. So we reached out to Kodak, who generously supplied us with several rolls of 35mm stock.
Our friends at Dehaven Camera and Atlas Lens Co. came through big time with cameras and lenses, and just like that we were making classic movie magic in the same halls where many of the films that inspired us to get into the business in the first place were processed. It was the kind of experience that doesn’t come around every year, or every lifetime, really. The one thing we noticed that we have in common with the FotoKem team is the passion of the people that work there, and the atmosphere that is more like a family than anything.
Speaking of family…on October 24, 2024, Origin Point welcomed our newest little family member! Clyde Bessey III (a.k.a. Tre) has entered the scene and has truly stolen our hearts. It’s the beginning of a whole new type of journey.
It’s been a year of major shifts in the industry and in all of our lives, and we couldn’t be more grateful to be on this journey with YOU, our clients and collaborators. It’s the team that makes the dream, and we are living that dream.
Wishing you a fantastic holiday season full of joy and love, from our Origin Point family to yours. See you in 2025!!
