"Rocket Elf" Takes Off as this week's POW!

Well, it's POW time again and this week's project was created by Brandon Paisley from Everett, Washington. He is the community manager of the Myndflame, a company that produces machinima movies inside the game "World of Warcraft".

We caught up with Brandon earlier this week and he had this to say about his project and his creative process:

"The team consists of many members, key members being Clint and Derek Hackleman who started Myndflame together. Clint does all of the sound work, sound effects, music, and more. Derek handles the video aspect. All footage is recorded in-game, and Derek works with that footage, using other programs to manipulate it, and create a lot of the effects you see in our movies. Most cannot necessarily be shot in-game alone. I myself manage a number of aspects on the website, including adding videos to our site from our partners, a lot of relationships with members of our forum, and the partners themselves. I originally signed on to do writing works, such as the "Rocket Elf" script. 

The movie is still pending full production, but we are definitely backing it and want to work on it when we have time.

Rocket Elf was a project that Derek threw at me one night. It was a while ago, but we were discussing things I could begin to unfold a more legitimate story for, and Rocket Elf seemed like the best way at the time. It was during summer, so I had nothing else to do, but was very excited. I spent lots of long nights throwing things in and out, pondering ideas, and trying to get everything on paper, er, text. I must admit, this is one of my first scripts I had written, although I've written numerous things before, I had never really tried to write a short movie, it was both foreign and strange.

To any one that is pondering writing something like this for the first time, here's my advice "just go with it". If you have an idea, don't story board in your head, write it down! Managing conjumbled thoughts in your head is not easy, this is something I learned through the process of the Rocket Elf script. Eventually Derek just told me "Don't worry about it dude, let us edit the script, just write it out." and once you learn that, things become much clearer.

Particularly for Rocket Elf, I wanted to develop deep characters before I began writing the script (a second piece of advice), so I did just that. Instead of developing them as I wrote the story, it was much easier to develop them, and base the story off of them. I was a particular fan of Celtx's ability to have a character page aside from a script. This was much more simple to manage and work with. I sat and thought "if I were like them, what would I say?". Jessie is very sassy, easy to anger, and stubborn. This mixed with Rocket Elf's arrogant manner, is a perfect equation for a story! For the few that saw the script before it was fully public, Shock, Lock, and Mock were fan favorites, which was surprising, cause to this day, the names all bug me. I went deep into them, developing a family history, a mentality. I made a character. After realizing what kind of person they were, I went even further, trying to really understand what made them that way, why would they be like that? If you look at Jessie for instance, her family is fairly detailed, and slightly explains why she is how she is, and I could build a real character from her. However, her family isn't seriously involved (at the moment) in the story much. What you detail in a character, doesn't need to make it into the story, it just helps the development.

In summary, take your work in doses, really know when to take a days worth break, a short vacation. Rocket Elf was a lot of fun to write (and I'm not necessarily done) but I did need my breaks. Learn to throw thoughts onto paper, and try to detail the character, and the worlds they inhabit, before trying to write an entire story. It's not the case all the time, but I've found it to be much smoother doing it this way.

As stated earlier, the movie is pending production. Sadly, resources are limited, and we are working on a much larger project, but we are awaiting eagerly to begin producing Rocket Elf. So for now, enjoy the slight screens and the written story! Feel free to comment of email me with questions or concerns!"

-Brandon

Thanks for all of the great information, Brandon.
Have fun on your production!

Cheers,
Michelle and the Celtx Gang