Producer Travis Moody Talks About "Chamber Of Worlds" & How He Got Brian Krause To Work On It(Nov 2nd, 2009)

Producer Travis Moody Talks About "Chamber Of Worlds" & How He Got Brian Krause To Work On It

Last month a movie crew of about 40 people, including "Charmed" star Brian Krause, spent four days filming at the home on White Crossing Road for a 15-minute short producers hope eventually becomes part of a feature film. Once it's finished, the short will be submitted to film festivals and sent to movie studio executives in the hopes that it gathers interest and perhaps a key sponsor or investor.

"I'm hoping by mid to late November we'll have a final product ready to put on DVD and show to people at some of these film festivals," said producer Travis Moody, who owns Madison's [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], a lighting company.

The movie, called "Chamber of Worlds," is a science fiction adventure about a young man named Felix who discovers he is the heir to a power over a portal that provides access to the entire universe. That portal, of course, is inside the house, which Moody and writer-director David Olson picked out after a search west of Madison for a place that was for sale or newly sold and had just the right look - of an old farmhouse in the hills of North Carolina.

Moody and Olson's homegrown project is being done with much higher production values than the $7,500 they've spent on it. Moody, who contributed the lighting, said it probably would have cost closer to $30,000 had everything been paid for.

"I cashed in an awful lot of favors to do this," he said. "I was able to get a lot of people to come out essentially for free."

That included Krause, who has more than 50 acting credits on his Internet Movie Database (IMDB) listing, including Stephen King's "Sleepwalkers" and a guest spot in "CSI: Miami." But he's best known for playing Leo Wyatt in the WB fantasy series "Charmed," and in "Chamber" he plays a tough guy who helps the archetypical wide-eyed young hero learn about his talents on the fly.

"I was actually on a film last year ("Cyrus") that I was an associate producer on in Michigan that Brian was one of the lead actors in," Moody said. "I gave him a call one day and said, 'Hey, you want to come to Madison for a vacation weekend?'

"Fortunately SAG (the Screen Actors Guild) has a short-film agreement which allows you to pay a discounted rate or even defer payment until you sell the film."

Moody himself, who recently finished working with Emmy-winning "Monk" star and Green Bay native Tony Shaloub on "Feed the Fish," came into the project through a similar connection.

So after they got all their favors lined up, filming on the first 13 pages of the script started Sept. 17, with cars were parked up and down the block, people coming and going all day and expensive professional equipment lighting up the sky in the evenings. The few neighbors in the area dropped by here and there to see what the fuss was all about, and then as suddenly as it began, the crew wrapped Sept. 20.

While it's a fair assumption that the film will show at the Wisconsin film festival - with Olson and Moody both Wisconsin natives - it remains to be seen where else it will show up. First Olson and Moody will have to evaluate the final cut and determine which of the top-tier film festivals is most appropriate for a sci-fi action movie.

"If we go to a film festival where they buy all art films and we take a sci-fi thriller there..." Moody said.

"This is a project that could be made as one caliber of film for $1 million and be on the Sci-Fi Channel or be made for $100 million and be a theatrical release like 'Batman,'" Moody said.