'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.