Origins 2454 (2000 UCLA PCN Documentary)

"Origins 2454" is a documentary I conceptualized and edited about a year and a half after I had graduated from UCLA. I was working with other partners in a video production company called Bahay Bidyo Productions. We were all UCLA students at the time.

PCN stands for Pilipino Culture Night, and at UCLA it was organized by the Filipino club on campus, Samahang Pilipino. It was the highly produced event which I started editing videos for and which I give credit for launching my career in film and tv. Once I started cutting video I was swept up in it, and I strayed away from my Psychobiology major and medical field aspirations and began to seriously think about editing as a career. (But I still did finish my major and even added a minor, Cognitive Science! Sure it still helps my editing today heh)

Editing PCN videos is pretty straightforward - it's a stage show, you cut in the angles of the dances, sync everything up, put in fades and dissolves when necessary. Cutting the scripted scenes can be a little creative if the camera work is good. But the real fun part was creating a trailer, the opening title of the video, and the end credit sequence. They started out as little 2-3 minute montages. But in the 99 PCN video, I produced a 'long' end credit sequence for the first time. No longer was it just behind the scenes montage, but I interviewed a lot of the cast and asked the first word that comes to mind when you think of PCN. Enjoyable video to watch, nostalgic, and fun.

When it came to creating something for the end of the 2000 video I wanted to do something completely different. I was already out of school and the footage was shot by the students, so I was a little detached. They shot good footage and I had plenty to work with. What came out was under the heavy influence of:

1. Radiohead
2. French New Wave, Goddard, his film "Weekend", and the idea of self-awareness of being in a film
3. broad access to education themes
4. Chemistry (had to use my major and science background somehow)
5. My first trip to the Philippines in 2000
6. THX1138
7. an R.E.M. doc
8. Radiohead again, their doc "Meeting People is Easy"


Ah, the days of being a young artist =)

Also, this is where I got the name Xylophone Films from, during the letter section. I couldn't find anyone saying a word that began with 'x' so I had to shoot something myself. I was trying to prompt my dad to say "xylophone" but out came the famous "cellular, phone? no" response. The perfect random moment. I guess you can say this is Xylophone Films' origin story.

Enjoy!

-AJ Calomay
Xylophone Films


p.s. 2454 was the running time of the whole piece 24 mins, 54 seconds. but then I did a re-edit so it's not completely accurate, oh well! still has a nice sound to it