The Celtx Blog

June 3: Ninth Annual Media That Matters Film Festival Launch

If you're in the New York City area next week, here's a 'Must See' event organized by our friends at Media That Matters.... - S

Media That Matters: MORE THAN A FESTIVAL

SCREEN the collection of jury-selected films.
ACT now to make a change.
IMPACT your community by using short films with on-the-ground activism.

Following the official launch on June 3, we invite you to Screen. Act. Impact.

For the first time ever we will have the DVD collection available for you to purchase online directly following the Premiere.

Check out the store to see how you can pre-order the DVD now and host a screening.

We are finalizing international screening locations now. Add yours to the map! Prep for upcoming semester and integrate film into your curriculum!

You're invited!

Wednesday June 3, 2009

6:00 pm - Doors Open
Arrive early to take part in the impACT salon with some of our presenting partners for Take Action opportunities and a chance to meet the festival filmmakers.

7:00 - 9:00 pm - Screening of ninth annual Media That Matters Film Festival
Join us for the world premiere of the ninth annual Media That Matters Film Festival!
Be among the first to see the 12 new inspiring short films selected this year by our jury of 12 incredible activists and media makers.

School of Visual Arts (SVA)
Visual Arts Theater
333 West 23rd Street
New York, NY
See map

The theater is accessible by wheelchair.

Presenting Partners for impACT salon include WITNESS, POV, MercyCorps, Creative Commons, Miro and Breakthrough.

Buy your tickets today before they sell out! http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/63247

WE'LL SEE YOU THERE!

Questions?
Send us an email!

festival@artsengine.net

As we reach out to get the message about this launch to a wide international audience, the opportunity to share this information with your friends / fans / members / community is invaluable to us. If you have space for a short announcement to post on your blog, on your profile, in your upcoming newsletter, or in an email blast it would be a great help to us.

Thank you!

Compétence Mac - "dedicated to Apple's universe".

Parlez-vous français?  Then you might want to check out Compétence Mac, a French magazine dedicated to Apple's universe.  The most recent edition features a four-page overview of Celtx, the new Celtx Studios and Project Central.  Here's Compétence Mac editor, David Bosman, to tell you some more:

"Compétence Mac is a French magazine dedicated to Apple's universe. It celebrated its first birthday with the last issue (in which we presented Celtx). We work for a (very) small independent publishing company that gives us the liberty to do things we want (& like), the way we want.

Even if it is the youngest of the French Mac magazines, we are lucky enough to already have built a strong relationship with our readers. Through email, blog, Twitter,... they know they can reach us and that we _listen_to what they say. There is a permanent dialogue going on.

We deeply believe in sharing knowledge. As a matter of fact, we have put online almost 90 video tutorials (in French), plus quite a bunch of tips & tricks on our blog. All freely available: http://www.competencemac.com  And there is more to come.


The magazine itself is a also bit different :
- First, there are no ads in it .

- Then, we do not chase news or gossip or rumors and seldom publish products reviews (most of the time, the Web is much more suited for this kind of ever changing content).

- At least 50% of the mag is made of practical how-tos. Each topic is given the place it deserve, so it is no surprise if, for example in the last issue, you 'll find something like 20 pages on customization, and maybe 25 pages on security questions. Or 4 pages just to introduce Celtx. Talking about that, I have planned something more in depth, regarding movie writing: I'll keep you and Celtx users informed :-)

We try to balance beginners and more advanced topics, and try to keep everything as simple as possible: I hate it when there is jargon in an article and/or when an author writes just to show how clever (s)he is. One can say I am KISS addict (Keep It Simple Stupid).

Readers also often tell me they appreciate the humor (and music and movie references) we put in the mag. We like it when it is fun ;-)"

So there you have it, folks.  If you're an avid Mac user (or even just a Vista-chained admirer ;), you owe it to yourself to check out Compétence Mac today!

Laurie & the C Team

'Missteps' / Filmblazer T3 Community Filmmaking Project gets the Celtx POW!

 

The Filmblazer Two-week Turnaround Tour (T3) is one awesome community filmmaking project lead by the young and intrepid Filmblazer team of Joshua Mills, Jamie Blackenship and Adam Saunders. With an early interest in filmmaking and a nack for making 30 minute comedies for his college buddies, Josh was inspired to create T3 after 4 years of participation in the Greensboro 48 Hour Film Project:

"The city producers mentioned this guy that traveled to several different cities and participated in 48HFPs in each city. I thought that was really cool but thought if I were to do it, I’d want to spend more time in each city and really experience the what the city has to offer. Thus, the Two-week Turnaround Tour was born..."

So, armed with whatever their RV (affectionately called the 'BattleWagon') can carry, the team plans to visit 14 US cites over 7 months. Along the way they will enlist the help of volunteer crews from each local filmmaking community and together they will will write, shoot, and screen a short film ... in just two-weeks!!! ... all with the goal to promote, develop, and demonstrate new ways of producing motion pictures.

A tall, exhausting order indeed, but clearly not impossible for this crowd. Having already cut their teeth and enjoyed success on productions in Greensboro, NC and Tampa, FL, the team is now headed to Shreveport, LA, the third city on the tour. Totally plugged into all the Internet's social networking trends, this tech saavy crowd makes it easy for their community to connect with each other by accessing online tools to share their tricks of the trade.

So far the results of their labour is impressive. So impressive we're giving the Celtx POW  to Missteps and its Greensboro crew! You can check out the vid below. Given their limited resources and time restraints, plus heading into each city virtually blindfolded, these guys did an amazing job of pulling together an interesting, funny and convincing short film. One of the tools the team uses to help them create and keep organized is Celtx and here's Josh's explanation of how they go about it:

"We use Celtx to collaborate with other people. We use it in the traditional way, by using it to write the script and schedule the production. However we also use it to allow other members in our community to submit locations, props, and even themselves as actors to us.  Then we update/publish to our Project Central page so people can see what is going on. This way we're able to easily keep track of all the resources we have and stay organized throughout the two weeks. Staying organized will be incredibly important given the nature of this trip and the limited amount of time we have to complete each project."

As they go, each city experience is documented through blog posts, behind the scenes videos and a weekly podcast each featuring their trials and tribulations about what worked and what mistakes are never to be made again! And at the end of two weeks, each Premiere screening is preceded by pre-show interviews with cast and crew, then streamed live over the Internet, culminating with the ever essential wrap party.

As Josh says, community participation is essential to the success of T3, so if you're a fun-lov'n, fly-by-the-seat-of-your pants kinda fimmaker, prop master, set dresser or jack-of-all-trades-er, and interested in contributing to a T3 project I know these guys would love to have you. Check out the T3 Tour Schedule for a City near you and contact Josh, Jamie or Adam to join in the fun. And if you're too busy, please show your support with a donation, or buy a ticket to T3 Premiere near you.