This week's recipient of the Celtx Project of the Week is Travis Fitzgerald, creator of an action-packed, Halo3 machinima, sci-fi comedy called 2152 Camp Newbii'.
Camp Newbii refers to the official training grounds or Boot Camp for the Elite Spartan Marine Corps which is essentially comprised of a quirky chain of command of egos and misfits. Respected little, and often the butt of jokes amongst the crowd at HQ, all ranks, from Private Lee to Colonel Juice take a turn at attempting to impress, and prove they are worthy and an asset to the Team. Cover-ups and calamities ensue however, with comical results.
A very busy and ambitious 23 year old from upstate New York, Travis juggles a young family, a full-time job in the Insurance industry and is about to graduate with an Associate degree in Web Development! And if that isn't enough, he also somehow finds the time for creative endeavours such as this Celtx project.
From developing the characters, writing the lines, doing casting calls and voice overs, web design, and video promos, it's clear that terrific effort has been put into this project to date, and Travis is quick to give credit to his co-creator and childhood buddy, Adam "Mag" Magoon, along with many others.
"'Mag' Magoon has helped out tremendously and I don't think it would be as far along as it is now without his help. I also have had a lot of help from some friends on youtube with tutorials in the Sony Vegas program that is being used to create the video. I have also had the joy of working with some of the most talented voice actors that I could imagine. "
The concept of Camp Newbii was inspired by the popular machinima series Red vs Blue, "The Master Chief Sux at Halo" and by playing Halo 3 with Mag. Travis says, "Talking about one joke and then another led to us coming up with idea after idea and moving forward with this project since November."
About 2-3 years ago Travis came across machinima.com and says he was intrigued with how many people followed this type of entertainment.
"After researching the process and realizing I had most of the needed hardware to produce my own I contacted Adam to see if he was interested in the project and he said sure but was hesitant until we got the first 2 scripts written and had several voice actors picked out. From there we were off and have continued to work on this project."
It was also over at machinima.com that Travis discovered Celtx....
" ... The best program ever. Has just about everything you need to write a book/script or anything really. The things it incorporates in the software has made everything run smoothly... Using the character bio section and the fact that we can make a PDF out of the script and send it to everyone involved. The other huge thing is being able to have multiple users access the file via your (celtx) server and update it. I would have to say the biggest thing is the multiple user function available.... I actually live close to Adam (about 30 mins). The rest of the crew is located all over. I believe we have people in the US, England, and Mexico."
As to the future of 2152-Camp Newbii, Travis says,
"The plan is to be able to deliver a quality show and expand into multiple shows being under the TM Production Studio banner and being broadcast on the web. The first big goal is to stockpile about 8-10 full episodes and realease them once a week on Sunday afternoons and allow everyone to download it and watch it like a true to life TV series. We will have breaks aka Mid season cliff hangers and so forth... We at TM Production Studio are shooting to make this the best machinima that has been put on the net."
And we'll all be looking forward to it, Travis!.
Cheers, and all the best to you and your crew!
Sheila and The C-Team
If you want to keep up to date on the progress of 2152 Camp Newbii, check in at the TM Productions blog and be sure to mark the download date on your calendar!
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