The Celtx Blog

Wicks End Studios 'Lesser Angels' wins the Celtx POW!

'Lesser Angels' - Synopsis:
"America's economy has left many homeowners struggling to prevent foreclosures and bankruptcies. Johnny Angel, aspiring photographer and would be philanthropist, seeks justice through crime to resolve his impeding marital and financial problems. Will his desperate decision to maintain the "American Dream" lead him to glory?"

This week's POW is a short crime film that comes to us from the talented Independent crowd at San Diego's Wicks End Studios. 'Lesser Angels' was written, directed and produced by Chad Skolte, a prolific and long time Celtx user with a number of projects to his credit. In March 2007 he and his crew also won the POW for 'Mira Bella'.

Chad says,
"CeltX is instrumental in my writing process and allows me to guide the script from the page to pre-production effectively."

And this project reflects nicely the pre- post workflow involved with a short film production. The embedded trailer along with its very cool sound track and credits shows how all the hard work translates on screen.

Nice job, Guys!
All the best on the festival circuit.

Sheila and The C-Team.

 

Credits
Cast:

Johnny Angel - John Amaya

La Esposa - Elizabeth Perez

Bro - Anthony Aquilante

Young Hottie - Miriam Putnum

Radio V.O. Actor - Norman Ellis-Flint

Banker V.O. Actor - Jon Elliott

Bar Extras -
Michael Rossler
Matt Brown
Zubin Eggleston
Terrance Robinson
Chris Soolari

Crew:
Cinematographer.........Federico Aragon
Sound & Audio.........Mike Von der Kret
Assistant Camera.........Phillip Johnson
Editor.........Jon Grinberg
Jib Operator/Grip.........Alex Aguila
Makeup Artists.........Brittany Wiczek
Janet Potenza
Production Assistant.........Gale Jacquot
Music Composers.........Charles Davis
Mike Von der Kret
Soundtrack.........
Plural:
Scott Kennerly
John Meeks
Jeff Hawthorne
Jason Holford

The Chelsea Royal:
Rafe Pearmlan
Marc Herron
Matt Casebeer
Danny Young
Charles Davis

Special Thanks:
Tower Bar San Diego
Sole Luna Cafe
Mike Rauber
CeltX
Video Gear

"Des maîtres pour l'éternité" /"Masters for Eternity" takes the Celtx POW!

Creeping its way across the pond from France, this week's haunting POW entitled 'Des maîtres pour l'éternité' / Masters for Eternity', is a vampire tale that serves as a metaphor for the struggle of mutli-national power, and control of human resources. This 60-minute film planned for release in Autumn 2009 was co-written by Franck Jouneau and Guy Autret. Development of the music score and film shooting will begin next August in beautiful Nantes, France under the direction of Franck Jouneau. For a sneak peek you can view the trailer here.

Jouneau's project exhibits substantial preparation with many aspects of the film's pre-production planning. Of particular interest is the detail applied to casting of principal roles, set design, and makeup.

When asked how he discovered Celtx, Franck indicated,

"I found CeltX by chance on the web a few years ago. It’s really a great software, the tool I was waiting for to build the structure of my projects. The only lack, I think, is the link to production cost, but maybe one day I hope… "

In the meantime, Franck has another movie in the works based on his second novel “Dreams only exist when you look at them”. And according to the varied interests outlined in his brief bio below, I expect we'll be seeing and hearing much more from Monsieur Jouneau in the future.

We wish you all the best, Franck!
from
Sheila and The C-Team

FRANCK JOUNEAU

I was born in Nantes on the 29th of 1958. After few years studying graphic design and history of art, I Choose to go to Dublin to live my life as a musician. During 15 years I shared two passions, music and graphic arts.

Since always I tried to free myself from all constraints. This is undoubtedly the reason why I consider art, only as multidisciplinary. I hope thus to gain a broader, more universal vision; necessary, in my opinion to understand what surrounds us, what makes us live and in which way. My interest are specially in four fields of creation:

Graphic Arts
In different ways (I several times, made exhibitions of my work on paper or digital medium in galleries in France and Canada). I have been working in graphic industry since 1985 as art director and a multimedia designer in different fields such as the print publication, television, video, Web and teaching. For now nearly ten years, I have been participating in digital art exhibitions and make short movies, using 3D, and special effects compositing.

Music
Because I took part in many bands from 1979 to 1984 as drummer in Ireland, England and Holland, and in France up to 1994, playing Rock and Jazz, passing by, rhythm & Blues, fusion or improvisation. In 2000, I recorded some sessions in Montreal, some drumming tracks in Nantes in 2006. The last concert was an
improvised music on the projection of my movie “U Win Ur Life”.

Writings
I wrote a first science-fiction novel “Hector’s awakening”, that I finished after five years of gestation in 1994. In 2004, a sci-fi comic strip, entitled “Lia’s strange adventure”. And again a novel, always impregnated of fantastic, “Dreams only exist when you look at them” who treats Schizophrenia and invented worlds, finished in 2005. In December 2008, a new science fiction novel, “Hunger only, gives the will to improve”, dealing with politico economic problems.

Cinema
In 2003, I create a multimedia play, according to my novel “Hector’s awakening”, I then, adapted it into a film (still in preproduction). In 2008, I present my first short film, “U Win Ur Life”. This film treats of the use of misery, by people
of power.

To view more work by Franck Jouneau check out his websites:
Web Site : www.franckjouneau.net
MySpace : http://www.myspace.com/franckjouneau
DailyMotion : http://www.dailymotion.com/franckjouneau
YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/FranckJouneau

'Oh Josephine' gets POW'd!

Created by film student Norman Roscher for his thesis project at SAE Stuttgart, 'Oh Josephine' is a German short film shot in the style of a film noir crime thriller.

Based on the preview of images from the actual film shoot which took place in Dec/07-Jan/08, Norman did an effective job of integrating the classic visual traits of film noir like the dark, gloomy, wet nights, hovering shadows, back alleys, guns and violence, and the ever critical presence of the hero/ anti-hero (Matt) and femme fatale (Josephine). As well, one can clearly see the David Lynch and Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) influences that Norman mentions in his thesis' Statement of Intent.

Roscher has also incorporated a clever choice of music which reflects the film's title in excerpts of mixed versions from Shakin' Stevens' 1982: "Josephine" Album: Give me your Heart and Chris Rea's Josephine (1985) Album: Road to Hell (a fave of mine).

If you'd like to get a fairly accurate translation of the Synopsis and other project details, just copy/paste any of the project's text into Google Translate.

Overall, an enjoyable project, and a film I would love to see!

'Bite Club' Sucks up the Celtx POW!

It's been awhile since we've laughed this much reading a script... Written and created by Charles (Chucky) Kenway of Sydney, Australia, 'Bite Club' is an animated work about group therapy for monsters. Specifically, a motley crew of undead characters seeking guidance in overcoming addictions like, you know,... blood lust for example!

Chucky works primarily in story art and production illustration, but also enjoys project development and art direction. In this project, his astute imagination has conjured up some intentionally stereotypical characters with a few twists and quirks like Larry Gumstein, the 'The Fiend and geeky Vampire of high birth' who plays the role of the therapy group's secretary.

The script itself is an entertaining read injected with quick wit and clever play on words. Chucky said the inspiration for Bite Club "came from a joke a with a friend about these stereotypical movie monsters needing group therapy and I just wrote  through the scenario and the stories just grew from a logical extension of the joke so it only took a few hours to get it down, luckily."

A look at the project's storyboard quickly reveals Chucky's 16 years of professional experience as a storyboard artist. The Professional Summary in his resume reads:

With over sixteen years experience as a storyboard artist, illustrator animator and occasional director Charles has worked in many roles with various film, interactive and advertising companies. He has helped solve many creative issues involved with visualisation and storytelling, indeed his duties have often spread into the realms of script editing and writing, as well as various concept and design duties. He has a good understanding of traditional photographic techniques that often are misunderstood or unconsidered and has worked with both masters of visual mediums (like Dr. George Miller)and newcomers alike.  He  has also seen budgets for creative projects triple as a result of the burgeoning confidence arising from the reception of his storyboards, concept art and animatics.

To experience more of Charles Kenway's art and expertise, or maybe even inquire about hiring him for your next production ;)...  check out his web site here.

Thanks for the laughs, Chucky... Wonderful job!

Sheila and The C-Team

Vu Nguyen's 'Going Home' selected as Celtx Project of the Week

This week's POW is brought to you by aspiring filmmaker Vu Nguyen and his Bluelight Pictures crew in Sachse, Texas. This suspenseful short horror story entitled 'Going Home' is about Sam Bakers and an incident he encountered on his way home from work one night. As he sets out on a journey to get some answers, he finds he gets more than he bargained for.

Along with this captivating story, Vu's project also includes extensive breakdown of the script, and an impressive storyboard to help previsualize and plan the production. Also of interest is the crew catalog which provides profiles of the talented team doing all the hard work, plus the inclusion of a link to the 'Going Home' blog which diarizes the details of the film's production process.

Recently Vu was kind enough to take the time to tell us a bit more about himself, and what inspired the idea for creating 'Going Home'...

About myself: I am an aspiring filmmaker located in Dallas, Texas. As many others, I have a day job but it can't stop me from doing what I love the most! My motto is very simple, "Doing it is the only way of learning it."... so I've been trying to do all I can and learn it a long the way... I've been making short films on and off and Going.Home is gonna be my 4th short films. My goal is to get myself making films full time!

About Going.Home: The idea of going home inspired from various sources, including movies that I have seen, as well as old stories that I was told in my childhood. I started the project by just writting down ideas and slowly developed it into a story. Then many many re-reading sessions... I just kept on re-reading it and put it away for a while when I ran into an idea roadblock... then came back to it and re-read some more...

About Celtx: This is also a first project I use Celtx for. All projects before I mainly use an old version of Final Draft and while it's a great software for scripting... I found Celtx is much more in advance and helps me a lot in the preproduction process. I ran into Celtx as I was wandering in the hv20.com forums. Someone posted a link there and I thought let me give it a try and thank god that I did. Celtx by far is the best scripting and preproduction software for me ;-)
Thanks again. It's a real honor to be selected!

BlueLight Pictures is operated and maintained by a local group of filmmakers with a passion for the movie industry. All of its workers are committed in developing the best products as possible. If you would like to be part of the aspiring team behind BlueLight Pictures, feel free to contact them here.

All the best, Guys!

Sheila and The C-Team

International Film School Sydney's Production Resource Bible gets POW'd!

This week's POW is a bit of a departure from the usual story-based media project. However the IFSS Production Bible developed for students of the International Film School Sydney not only illustrates yet another way to utilize Project Central, but it also offers a slew of resources, tips and tools that is certain to enlighten and assist both amateurs and pros with the production of their own stories.

This student production resource package was created and compiled by Mike Jones, IFFS's Head of Technological Arts.

"Basically its a collection of checklists and guides and production notations, course readings etc. It's all up on our Student website (which is open to the public) But ive also created it as a single Celtx proejct bundle that our students can download. I then figured why not put this up on project central.

The plan is to continually expand it and have our students add to it over time. Thought it might have some useful stuff in it for Celtx users and indie filmmakers."

 

Starting off with a warm Aussie Welcome and overview, this Bible covers everything from Pre to Post Production and Delivery including handy downloadable production forms, thorough checklists for the Producer, Location Scout and DOP,etc., tips on conducting Documentary interviews, Continuity Reports, and various Tech Guides from setting up your Sony Z1 camera to preparing your End Credits. The lengthy list of powerful free software, utilities and plugins is a must for all creative media makers, and you can even compare the filmmaking philosophies and techniques of cinema from Yale Film Studies to bad Indie boy, Robert Rodriguez's 10 MInute Film School. Heck, you might even consider taking Dogme's Vow of Chastity?!!

Whatever you choose, rest assured that the usefulness of this ever-growing resource will make it an invaluable part of any media maker's production toolkit.

Amen, Mr. Jones.
On behalf of the Celtx Team and the Community at large, Thank You for this contribution.

Cheers!

Sheila