"Needle" Named Celtx POW!

The last POW of 2007 is from Jason Daniels off Olathe, Kansas. Jason was kind enough to take time from his Xmas festivities to send us information about himself, his creative process and his project "Needle." It's about Hillary who hates Christmas in the Midwest and even though the holiday has passed, she can't quite escape it.

Jason tells us that he started acting in junior high and loved the creation process so much that he decided to pursue a career in filmmaking. However, as a film major at the University of Kansas, he was unable to get into the classes he wanted and got sidetracked into a Business Administration degree. Eventually, Jason settled into a career in IT as a project manager. But he couldn't leave his dream behind. He realized that managing a project and directing a movie were not that different and crafted some of his old ideas into several new scripts.

Jason has worked on many projects recently including a feature length thriller, a feature horror film ("Wormwood"), a dance themed script ("Take It 2 the Floor"), a horror short ("Time of Death" with writing partner Elizabeth Hamlett), dozens of short scripts, and on productions of other filmmakers as an extra and a crew member.

"Needle" is the next project that he plans to produce and it will star Jason and Elizabeth. The story itself comes from a prank that his brother played. We like to play practicle joke on each other in our family and this was a prank he played on his wife. Jason liked working on this script because it is a departure from the thriller and horror scripts that are his staple genre. Like Hillary in the story, the audience isn't in on the joke.

Jason felt that the best way to find stories he wanted to direct was to write them himself. He finds that writing about an experience or an event that he is not familiar with helps him feel that he has experienced it. He also likes to leave a lot to the audiences' imagination, believing that if you let the audience fill in gaps with their own ideas and thoughts; stories, people and events can be more personal and real for them.

Thanks for all of the great information Jason! Good luck on your production and have a great holiday!

Michelle and the C-Team.