The Celtx Blog

Watch For Two New Australian Webseries

Just heard from longtime Celtx contributor, Mike Jones, who tells us the first two projects to emerge from his AFTRS WebSeries development program are starting to poke their heads out.

Both have been shot and are in post and have just ran successful Kickstarter campaigns. And, of course, both were written and developed with Celtx and Celtx Studios. 

As Mike says "both have rocking good scripts, very experienced casts and are really shaping up very well... fast, funny, and clever."

Mike has blogged about them this week, and here's where you can check them out:

• People You May Know - http://www.pymk.tv/
• The Newtown Girls - http://thenewtowngirls.com/

 

 

 

What's stopping you?

Here on our rocky island bastion at the Imperial Fortress of Celtx, we're gushing about the new film SAKI that was brought to our attention by L.A.-based filmmaker and VFX guru Sam K. Yano.

Produced by Samurai Hollywood, SAKI is:

"...about a Japanese woman exiled to America and finding her place as an art teacher to prison convicts. When her grandfather visits from Japan, all kinds of trouble follows in the form of the Japanese Mafia, the Yakuza, and Saki must find the strength to stem the tides through her one focus, her art."

And oh my, how we like it.

But it's tough to divorce entertainment from politics, even in a flick that would have Sam Peckinpah cover his eyes once the knives come out to play.

See, we're big fans of underdogs, guerillas and other DIY types who find a way to pull a Kobayashi Maru when they learn the game is rigged against them.  I'm not sure who the Patron Saint of Little Guys Who Are Tougher Than a Coffin Nail is, but I'll bet that guy didn't know how to stay down.

And I'll bet that guy was also a big fan of indie film, web series and the kind of 3rd pint barroom stories that start with arms raised and the phrase, "No shit, there I was..."  You ask that guy what he likes about indies and he would say that he likes when the bones of the story show through under a token dab of lip gloss.  That he can tell when a crew of talented creatives compensate for a lack of warehouses full of gear by vaulting over their obstacles with talent, moxie and homemade chili.

Sam Yano is our kind of filmmaker.  He's got the creative chops to know how to get the money on the screen and save it where it doesn't matter.  To Sam, the team at Samurai Hollywood and the rest of you indies out there -- we salute you.

Now get up.  You've got a story to tell.

 

'Charlie Christ' Special Event - You're Invited!

Long time Celtx users Ernie Zahn and Tom Stroll got in touch recently to let us know that after 2 years of development, 3 years of filming and a year of post-production their feature film 'Charlie Christ: The Gospel According to Fools' was finally wrapping up.

In anticipation of completion, Ernie and Tom invite you to join them on Saturday, November 19th at the University of Connecticut for a special event focused on the past, present and future of this film project.  They will be featuring the latest trailer and showing exclusive footage that won’t be available anywhere else.

 

As Ernie and Tom tell us ...

"This is a film that has been filmed in 11 cities on 4 continents throughout the world. It has received high praise from major industry professionals. It has very challenging, unique and original artistic approaches to feminism, interfaith relations, politics and LGBTQ issues. It has all this going for it. And yes, it’s a comedy! We’ll also be discussing our plans for online distribution for the film with focus on open video standards, creative commons, participatory remix culture and more. Registration is completely free. We'll even treat you to lunch! The entire event will be catered!"

To top it all off, since this film has been using Celtx since the earliest times of its existence, Ernie and Tom's team will be demoing the Celtx desktop software at the event (thanks guys!).

So, if you happen to be near the University of Connecticut this Saturday be sure to check out this special event.

Where: University of Connecticut Stamford Campus (1 University Place, Stamford, CT)

When: Saturday November 19th from 12pm-3pm

Registration:  http://nientepeaches.com/charlie-christ-special-event-and-press-event-registration/

 

For more information:

Contact: ernie@npeaches.com

Contact Person: Ernie Zahn

Company Name: NPeaches / Divine Comedies

Telephone Number: 203-273-8970

Web site address: http://nientepeaches.com/charlie-christ-special-event-2011/

Your creativity knows no bounds.

Be prepared to capture your next great idea. Celtx Shots is the first app with both storyboarding and set blocking built-in, so you can create storyboards and block scenes in the field, on the set, or anwhere, anytime the bolt of inspiration strikes. 

And Celtx Shots syncs with the free Celtx desktop software, so you can work anytime, anywhere. 

Get Celtx Shots in the App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/app/celtx-shots/id467370902?ls=1&mt=8

****** 

Storyboard Anywhere - Create dynamic storyboards using the iPad 2 camera or images from your Photos folder. 

Block On Set - Sketch informative setups quickly and easily using clip art images. 

Communicate Your Vision - Design your productions for full dramatic effect. 

Sync Shots - Sync your project between the desktop and iPad using iTunes. 

****** 

Features 
* Create and edit multi-sequence, multi-shot storyboards. 
* Block camera, lighting, talent, and equipment setups. 
* Create storyboards and sketches linked to scripts imported from Celtx Sync. 
* Import and export projects through iTunes. 
* Import images into storyboards directly from Photos or Camera. 
* View storyboard and blocking animatics with the built-in player. 
* Resize, rotate and flip storyboard images in-app. 
* Email edited image files. 
* Email sketches as PNG, PDF or SVG files. 
* 81 pre-installed clip art images for set blocking. Purchase additional Art Packs in-app. 
* Developed by Team Celtx.

It's NaNoWriMo Time Again!

We love the romantic idea of a writer chipping away at a grand narrative during 30-minute lunch breaks at a lousy shift-work job and 30-second intervals at stop lights.  It's oh-so-Faulkneresque.  But what's it like during a novel marathon?

It's pretty much like running the traditional kind of marathon that uses your legs except you're using your brain and your fingers.  And let's just go ahead and admit that the metaphor stops being useful right about here, because, well, for a visual person, that's just kind of creepy.

Full disclosure -- I'm going to speak from the point of view of someone who went through the 3-Day Novel Marathon held at the end of each summer and not NaNoWriMo, which is every November.  The similarities outweigh the differences, so I'll offer my personal experience.

First of all, my experience was not like this.

I'll admit that rationality is the natural enemy of hype, but I knew in advance that trying to stay awake, witty and literate for three days sans sleep would guarantee that even if by some miracle I finished my novel, the closing chapters would be word salad.  Nothing but an unintelligible vowel movement all over the page.

Balance and commitment are your friends.  I would pare everything extraneous from my life except for writing, sleeping and staying alive.  In practical terms, this meant 12 hours of writing on the first day, a good night's rest, 12 hours of writing on the second day, another good night's rest and eight hours on the final day followed by a short break for recovering some modicum of perspective and then a couple hours reading my wee novel and changing the word "happy" to "glad" and calling that editing.

There's no starter pistol.  I was not going to start at 12:01am.  I would not lose my precious beauty sleep.  I would not skip meals or do anything (ahem) unsanitary with a bucket under my chair to remove the need to ever stand up.

Let's do some math here.  One paragraph every three minutes, five to a page, one page every fifteen minutes, that makes four pages an hour over 32 hours for 128 pages.  Maybe a little less if you carve out time for finger calisthenics, bathroom breaks, one-handed typing while you scarf down a sandwich lovingly prepared by my amazingly-supportive wife, etc.  In terms of page count, that only makes for a novella but that's the chief difference between the 3-Day Novel Marathon and NaNoWriMo right there.  Page count.  You're not writing Infinite Jest on a long weekend.

Every writer has their own tricks.  A self-imposed retreat to a cheap motel.  A self-imposed move to a cot in the home office.  A self-imposed stay at the cabin.  See the trend here?  This is an honour system -- there's no task master of any kind.  If you succumb to procrastinationitis and start dusting the ceiling fan or seeing how many paper clips you can attach to your nostrils, no one will protect you from your own absurdity.  My self-imposed thang was to sit on a plastic patio chair and write on my deliberately antiquated laptop computer clamped into a Black & Decker Workmate in the unfinished basement under a bare 60W bulb.  I wanted spartan.  I would be a monk.  No windows with a view of the cute widdo bunnies cavorting on the lawn.

By some miracle of uncharacteristic discipline, I kept to my page count and stuck nary a paperclip up my nose.  By the end of Day One, I had about 50 pages.  (I capitalize Day One because hey, let's give a marathon the respect it deserves.)  I saved my work, had dinner on the couch and watched a movie with 'splosions.

Day Two was when things got weird.  Before the 3-Day Novel Marathon, I needed to watch my fingers to type swiftly.  At some time during Day Two, I no longer needed to.  In fact, I freaked my wife right out by continuing to type a couple pages while she came down to feed me a tasty sandwich and recharge my tumbler of iced tea and we had a conversation about something.  Then I freaked myself out after she left and I realized I had no recollection whatsoever of what those two pages contained and, to my surprise, one character had told another a joke and it was a joke I personally did not know.  And it was kinda funny.

I think this was when I realized I was entering the dissociative state that corresponded to those shuffling zombies you sometimes see crossing the the finish line of those leg-using marathons.  I forged ahead.

I hit 110 pages.  I ate dinner on the couch.  'Splosions.  My wife reminded me to blink a bit more than was her wont.

Day Three.  Was that pain in my neck there before?  My fingers feel awfully stiff for such crackly rubber little things.  Whatever.  Don't bug me physiology, I've got a book to finish!  I had made better strides in my page count than expected and so I called it quits at noon with a page count clocking in at 132.  Yay me.

I hit <save>, then <print> and confirmed my computer wasn't going to balk at either of those functions.  Then I oozed out of my chair on legs reluctant to articulate far from a 90-degree angle.

We hopped in the car to do some errands.  I didn't trust myself to drive so I sat in the passenger seat and had silent conversations with my wife and pedestrians.

"Pardon?"

That dissociative state had taken a small toll.  To wit:  I had lost the ability to distinguish between inner monologue and conversation.  I had spent three days so totally immersed in the heads of my characters that anyone we drove past was fair game.  I had conversations with them, generously supplying their parts of the script in response to my lines, unaware that I was doing so.  When my wife asked me questions, I would respond silently, unaware that she couldn't hear me.  To rip off Steven Wright, I imagine this is what life would be like if I put a blank tape in my stereo, turned it up loud but lived next door to a mime.

Upon return to chez nous, I took a couple hours to read my script and change the aforementioned "happy" to "glad."  Nothing structural.  Nothing important.  I knew word salad was still a lurking threat and hey, would you trust someone in that state with criticial evaluatitive functions?  Neither did I.

Once the strain wore off, giddiness set in.  That felt good.  At just over 130 pages, that was up around the 75th percentile for page counts but despite being a short novel in general, it did not detract from the accomplishment I felt.

Here is where the experience correlates perfectly with NaNoWriMo.  It was transformative.  It was a validation, like I had just learned the secret password and been taught the secret handshake into a fraternity that traced back past Hemingway and even guys like Pope, Swift or Cervantes.

I had previously written a bunch of screenplays and even a longer kid's novel but this was an accomplishment.  I was in an order for men and women of a certain vocation.  I was an author.  I was a writer.

 

(Ryan FitzGerald is currently the in-house writer type guy and personal champion of the Novel template at Celtx.)

ARNnet.com APP OF THE DAY: Celtx Script

ARN... The source for IT industry news, views and analysis across the channel, business and technology names Celtx Script 2.0 (just released) as their App of the Day. Thank You, Matthew Sainsbury!

http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/395722/app_day_celtx_script/

Share the Celtx love, Peeps and pass it along :)

Now Available - Celtx Script 2.0 for iPad/iPhone

Good news today! Celtx Script 2.0 for iPad/iPhone is now available for upgrade or purchase. The first mobile screenwriting app with auto page breaks and page numbering, plus 16 other much-requested new features and innovations.

- AV, Stageplay, Audio & Comic scripts.
- Sync scripts with desktop Celtx & Celtx Studios.
- Pinch/zoom page & font size (50% to 400%)
- 'Tab' key for rapid cycling through elements.
- Page breaks and numbered pages.
- Reorder & delete scenes.
- Cut/copy/paste across elements.
- Bold/Italic/Underline.
- Add coloured notes.
- Undo & Redo options.
- Element transition matches desktop Celtx.
- White or parchment background.
- AirPrint support.
- US Letter or A4.
- Email as PDF or text.

'Celtx Seeds' Funds Creative Web Video

Are you the creative force behind the next hit web series or video?  Could you use some financial support and help getting your work in front of more viewers?

Then check out our new Celtx Seeds producer program.

First Crop: $20,000 + online promotion

Over the next 60 days, we'll select 10 different web video projects to receive $2,000 seed funding. Plus, we'll promote these projects to the million-strong community of content creators on celtx.com, and on the Celtx channels on YouTube and Vimeo.

100 Entry Limit

To apply, all you need is a great web video project and a Celtx Studio.  There's no entry fee and all genres and permutations of narrative web video are welcomed.

If you're interested in learning more then check out the Celtx Seeds webpage.  Deadline for submissions is Friday, 15 July.

 

Matthieu Gras' Review of 'Celtx: Open Source Screenwriting Beginner's Guide'

Celtx evangelist Matthieu Gras was recently asked to review the new 'Celtx: Open Source Screenwriting Beginner's Guide' from PACKT publishing.  Here's Matt's take, from the original post available at http://matthieugras.com/storyblog/index.php?

I've been approached couple of weeks ago to review: "Celtx: Open Source Screenwriting Beginner's Guide book"' Published by PACKT publishing...

So here it is!

Global impression:

As a screenwriter, and avid Celtx user, I was thrilled to be asked to review Celtx: Open Source Screenwriting Beginner’s Guide, published by PACKT edition. I was expecting a lot of this book, hoping it would turn out to be more than your basic “how to-” manual. Though dubious at first, I was very pleasantly surprised. In fact, I might even venture to say the book has surpassed my expectations.

Celtx: Open Source Screenwriting Beginner’s Guide does not only cover all the specs of the freeware but also explains how to work with it, how to optimise the writing process, as well as opening up a mine of very valuable information, giving advice and sharing tips about the marketing of your material and how to sell it to producers.

Let me emphasise, however, that this is NOT a book about screenwriting – you won’t learn the ins and outs of how to write a screenplay, how to develop gripping drama or conjure up sympathetic characters… even if those topics periodically crop up within the 360-odd pages. The main focus of this book is on the use of Celtx in the writing process.

The first thing that struck me about this book was its cover. Now, we all know that age-old adage about not judging… but when something seems more akin to a gardening manual than the software or screenwriting semantic it should represent, then maybe, just maybe, someone hasn’t got it ‘quite right’… and maybe it should be cast into that melting pot of ideas once more in order to come up with something that will catch the attention of its true potential readers…

The second thing that struck me was the background of the author on the opening page: a war veteran and screenwriter with an impressive 100 books to his name … wow! And why not! However, a short investigation on IMDb shows that the writer has never written a feature or even a short screenplay in his life that has been screened or, at least, accredited, it would seem. This simple fact seriously injured his street cred. from page one, as far as I was concerned. This is where I started to get dubious about what could actually be the fodder for his book… Would it turn out to be just another screenwriter’s battle with anonymity, a philosophical monologue aimed at exorcising a life of frustration…? But it would be unfair to tar the author with this brush without first reading his ‘oeuvre’, so…

Thankfully, the redeeming factor comes quite early on, with the Contents table. It is, indeed, promising, and brings with it renewed hope for the ensuing pages. The first six chapters are dedicated to the mastering of the software, while the last six

focus on the different specs and formats that Celtx covers, on how to market your material and, as mentioned above, a whole heap of industry miscellanea; advice, tips and tricks, concluding on a list of useful books and websites to peruse. At this stage, I am now excited and can’t wait to get started…

With the first six chapters, then, covering all the elements that make Celtx a fantastic freeware - the tools and their functions – with a part dedicated to the theory as well as an easy-to-follow practical tutorial ‘Time for action’’, if ever one’s initial enthusiasm had ebbed, it can now but be rekindled. Each tutorial is supported by colour screenshots that help the screenwriter visualise the process more easily. Spread throughout these pages is also helpful advice on writing aimed at illustrating the use, and how to get the best of, each function, with a quiz at the end of each chapter just to make sure you have understood every piece of information and all the subtleties between the lines.

Once the first six chapters have been diligently savoured and digested, you should be able to do pretty much everything you want with Celtx. As for the following chapters with their enticing headings, they are fantastic added values for debutante writers. Having explored all the specs and formats that Celtx provides (Audiovisual and Radio production, Comic Book, Documentary…), covering the terms used in the industry and their precise definitions (pitch, outline, treatment, synopsis…), we come to the all-important and long-awaited part of how to market your cherished script. This includes where and how to register it, an introduction to copyright and a list of vital books to read and websites to visit. These particular chunks of information will prove an invaluable and welcome help in the move up from the status of novice to that of semi- professional, while constituting a good, firm step towards your new career and global understanding of the industry.

As stated in the introduction, keep in mind that Celtx: Open Source Screenwriting Beginner’s Guide is NOT a screenwriting book; it will NOT teach you the theory and practice of screenwriting, it will NOT make you a screenwriter (or a writer of any kind for that matter, as this process takes years of study, practice and, let’s face it, talent). But it doesn’t mean that you can’t become one… and reading this book is undoubtedly a good step in that direction.

About the reading:

Whereas some may not choose this as the perfect bedside companion, the author’s anecdotes and general easy-going manner masterfully counterbalance the technical descriptions, making the manual a surprisingly enjoyable read.

Personally, I think the breakdown of chapters and sub-parts could benefit from a colour coding system for speedier identification, in spite of the ‘To remember’ or ‘Technical advice’ paragraphs set out to illustrate certain points. But apart from that…

Note that I read the PDF version and think it a good choice, not only for the environment but also because I can refer to it while I am writing. The download is very straight forward.

Final word:

This book should be in the hands of every budding screenwriter wishing to get started on their first screenplay with Celtx.

Celtx: Open Source Screenwriting Beginner’s Guide should be in the hands of every writer –beginner or not- who wishes to tackle the challenge of writing their first screenplay with Celtx… It will be your best friend in the process and should save you precious time… time that can be reinvested in the creative process. The added values of the book about selling your script, how to market it, make this book a must-have for everyone who is seriously considering moving into the industry.

Read a chapter sample here.

You can purchase the book on the publisher's website: www.PacktPub.com or on amazon...

Enjoying reading... Enjoy writing!

Mapping a Storyworld Timeline

The following post is by film educator Mike Jones and is reprinted with his kind permission.  You can see the original post, and links to Mike's many other informative and educational filmmaking-related posts at http://www.mikejones.tv/journal/2011/5/9/mapping-a-storyworld-timeline.html

World first, then Plot. This is the mantra I think is so important for developing an episodic series. The principle being that a series lives and dies by it’s dramatic sustainability and if you focus on plot before fully considering the rules, contexts and natural pressures of your story-world, you run the risk of writing your series into an unsustainable hole. A good series should become self perpetuating by the natural dramatic momentum generated by it’s story world. Get the Story World right and Plots should just flow…

So, then the question becomes How to build an effective story world, how to conceive and articulate that world and it’s natural dramatics? My Celtx Series Development Bible Template (which you can download here) lays out categories and an approach for constructing a series bible and a recent reading of an article about journalism info-graphics has me considering another useful tool as part of that kit - the Timeline.

In a previous post I broke down the important distinction between Settings, Contexts and Background: Setting is the here and now of the story world, it’s present. Contexts are the rules behaviors and cultural conditions of the story world at that Setting point. Background is how the world became as it is, what transpired to bring about the circumstances of the story’s here and now.  Whilst there’s nothing revolutionary or rocket science about these definitions they are very useful for articulating a storyworld. And they also allow us to see the usefulness of a Timeline as a potential way to build and construct a compelling story world with enough fuel to sustain your series. 

Defining the setting here and now of a storyworld becomes a more effective and sustainable dramatic vehicle if you can clearly articulate how the Here and Now came about, what events and circumstances transpired to bring the current situation Setting to bare? 

Seminal film scholar David Bordwell defines narrative cinema (as we know it) as a series of events in a cause and effect chain within time and space. It’s a remarkably succinct and powerful definition which allows us to see Story as predicated on Causality - cause and effect - where an event triggers an action which leads to new events which cause new actions and so on. What Catherine Millar, head of screen content at AFTRS, describes in wonderfully simple terms as the “BUT, SO” process. Think of it like this, Once there was X who was Y, BUT then Z happened. SO X had to do A. BUT then B happened and SO X and to discover C in order to D. BUT then…. You get the picture. This is a causal-chain and its the fundamental base element of storytelling.

This simple idea can be the most effective tool for constructing a storyworld timeline. Each event on your timeline is a cause, a trigger that will result in a effect later on down the line. The most profound effects felt within the here and now Setting of your story world.

In this regard we might consider storyworld Timeline events as tending to fall into three main categories:

INFLUENCING EVENTS

 - things that happen that alter behavior from that point or which shape, redefine or alter a character, entity or institution driving it toward the current state of being in the Setting of the storyworld’s Here and Now.

DECISIONS

- specific choices taken by a character, society, organization or entity which represent a fork in the road. Points on the timeline where a decision was made that altered the trajectory of the ‘storyworld’.

MILSTONES

- a moment or event in the timeline where a threshold is passed and from which there is no turning back for a character, institution or society. A timeline Milestone is a saturation point, a moment of critical mass and transformation.

By this triumvirate we have a process of storyworld construction where we can see Influencing Events and Decisions as being dramatic triggers that lead to Milestones, thresholds of no return in the storyworld. And it is the constructing of Milestone thresholds that are the foundation of your Storyworld - the rules in which it will function.

By way of example we can look to the definitive storyworld of the Harry Potter series. The example below is a timeline of major events in the Harry Potter world. Importantly the timeline sets out events that precede the launch point of the story as contained in the books and provide the background context for that plot as a section of the bigger timeline. 

[click image to go through to the interactive version of the timeline]

Looking at the events on the timeline we can see that they tend to fall into the three categories detailed above. 

Influencing Events, those things that prompt change or impact upon the characters and institutions down the line, can be seen in such points as the TriWizard Tournament  and Dumbledore becoming headmaster Hogwarts. These are simple events that have profound importance and impact down the timeline.

Similarly there are Choices inherent in the timeline; those specific decisions taken at a fork in the road. We see this in Tom Riddle opening the chamber of secrets and later the choice by Hogwarts to reject Voldermort for a teaching position. The importance of choices is that if a different choice been made the storyworld would be entirely different. eg, if Voldermort had been given the teaching position he may never have turned into such a nasty prick.

Finally the timeline encapsulates clear Milestones; Tom Riddle becoming Voldermort being the most obvious. This milestone of transformation clearly represents the point of no return, not just for the character of Tom Riddle but for the Harry Potter storyworld as they we it. 

The key point to this idea of conceptualizing your storyworld timeline events as straddling these three types is to ensure that the storyworld has natural dynamism and energy. If your timeline, for example, is populated entirely with Influencing Eventsbut is lacking in Decisions than this may indicate that your Influencing Events are not compelling or high-stakes enough as they haven’t forced characters or institutions to make decisions. Likewise if you are lacking Milestones - timeline points where there is a point of no return - then you may have neglected to provide your characters and institutions with thresholds to pass. Such stories will likely be lacking crises, climaxes and natural peaks of drama to be built towards. The result being a storyworld that is dramatically flat lacking tension and release.

In this way the constructing of a timeline not only serves as a powerful tool for conceiving a storyworld but also a way to test your storyworld, to measure its robustness and dynamics to ensure its dramatically sustainable.

The Celtx Plot-View add-on provides a perfect tool within a Celtx project to visually assemble a storyworld timeline and arrange timeline events in accordance with the three types. The Plot-View changes the standard index card view so as individual cards are arranged in a linear assembly from left to right. It also provides vertical layers for cards so that they can be colour coded and positioned in a vertical hierarchy. These two elements give us the perfect way to visualize your timeline. 

Create an index card for each new event on your timeline and put the details of the event in the notes section on the back of the card. From there you can change the colour of the cards. Create 3 colour labels, one each for the three categories of timeline points - Influencing Events, Milestones and Decisions. 

In the plot view then you can assemble your timeline points left to right in linear sequence of events and also raise or lower the card on the vertical access to indicate its status as an Event, Milestone or Decision. The simplicity of this tool is its greatest strength as it provides a very visual and literal way to construct and view your timeline. You will be able, at a glance, to see the balance between the three different types and provide for your writing a clear reference for how events have shaped the characters and their world.

When you have a clear articulation of setting, contexts and background of your storyworld you give your self the best chance of devising an episodic series that is sustainable and dramatically dynamic. You can buy the Plot-View Add-On for Celtx for $4.98 from Celtx.com or get the entire super bundle of celtx add-ons for $14.99.