If Philly fielded its own Overwatch league, Alex Reinhard would be in the booth shot‑calling and editing the kill‑cam montage. Instead, he and college‑buddy‑turned‑business‑partner Max Morgan co‑founded Malix Media — a boutique shop that’s spent 13 years crafting commercials that don’t suck for brands like Bones Coffee Company, Codecademy, Doritos, and Philly Pretzel Factory (not to name‑drop… but, yeah, we’re name‑dropping). Between unique ads, the duo are boot‑strapping their passion project, Squid Ink — a coming‑of‑age esports comedy born from their love of (ahem) a certain hero shooter.
Okay, fine… it’s Overwatch.
Think Grandma’s Boy meets Dodgeball — only the dodgeballs are headshots and the rules are written from scratch so gamers won’t roast them on Reddit. Alex runs every draft, shot list, and stripboard through Celtx, keeping the process as streamlined as his 30‑Hz flicks.
Ready? Group up! The Q&A starts now.
Q: Tell me about Malix Media! How did you begin this journey?
Alex: Me and my partner Max started our production company back in 2012, right out of college… and over the past 13 years we’ve turned it into what I can only really describe as a boutique ad agency that specializes in writing and producing commercials that don’t suck.
We’ve been flown all over the world to produce commercials for brands like Code Academy, Ray Warren, Flanigan, Bones Coffee, just to name a few. I mean, there’s tons more people we’re working with right now, but what we’ve been really working on in conjunction with that is taking a step forward with our company and the next step for us logically would be to start producing films that don’t suck. So we’ve been spending the last five years developing our first feature film project.
Q: Walk us through a typical commercial—where does Celtx slot in?
Alex: We use it to write, shot‑list, schedule, create call sheets—the whole gamut. Our DP and I stay totally aligned because the built‑in shot list lets us reorder by wides, mediums, close‑ups and push a clean PDF to crew instantly.
Q: Favorite Celtx feature when you’re not wrangling 150‑crew call sheets?
Alex: Honestly, the script editor. I tell anybody who wants to write, ‘Dude, just get Celtx and start typing—the formatting’s handled.’ Even the free tier lets you get words down without fighting margins.
Q: You mentioned working on your first feature film. Let’s talk Squid Ink. Give us the elevator pitch.
Alex: It’s a coming of age esports comedy that follows a kid right out of college who spends his days dodging minimum wage jobs instead of dodged his minimum wage job so he could pursue a career as a video game streamer.
He ultimately gets kicked out of his house for freeloading. With nowhere left to turn, he bands together with his online pals and tries to win this epic tournament. The problem he has is that his mom wants to teach him a lesson about what it means to be a productive member of society and decides she’s going to protest the tournament and have it shut down for good, so he has to find a way to kind of navigate all that.
It’s the underdog story of Dodgeball but mixed with the gaming subculture of Grandma’s Boy, but then it’s sort of also like this crazy weekend adventure in a movie sort of Super Bad in a way — like a small town suburb, couple of kids going on a summer “let’s go for it” sort of adventure. No holding back.
After being kicked out his house for freeloading, an aspiring video game streamer teams up with his Discord crew to win the town’s legendary Hell Pass tournament, the same event his overzealous mom tries to shut down for good.
Logline for Squid Ink – written on Celtx
Q: What game are they playing?
Alex: We had to make up our own game because we started out with them playing Overwatch but quickly realized that when we started, Overwatch was awesome, but it was starting to fade in terms of popularity. We thought — we can’t let whatever game’s popularity dictate the future of our film. We’ve got to just make something on our own. So we created a game called Hell Pass, which is designed to kind of emulate Overwatch and some of those other first-person shooter e-sports games.
Hell Pass follows 12 lost souls who are battling for a fast pass out of Hell. It’s more 4v4 versus Overwatch, which is 5v5. We make all the characters really just the lowest forms of life ever and they’re just all killing each other, but they all love it.
Q: How did you make sure that world felt legit?
Alex: Research. Hours on Twitch, studying call‑outs, pacing, how casters hype a clutch play. We recorded scrims, broke down POVs, then translated that energy into screenplay beats so every ‘ultimate’ lands like a sports dunk.
Q: Squid Ink started as an eight‑episode series before morphing into a feature. How did Celtx handle that pivot?
Alex: We drafted the series in Celtx’s TV mode — 300+ pages — then condensed it into a feature script, budgeted, scheduled, and reported everything without leaving the platform.
Q: You and Max seem to really love the commercials you make. What makes this project (Squid Ink) so exciting for you?
Alex: Commercials are cool, but they’re not really ours. We make them, but this is our project that we’re like, “No, we’re in charge on this one.” No middleman, no marketing manager telling us yes or no. We get to say what goes with this one. We can do what we want with our own characters. There aren’t any restrictions on how we use them or portray them, so we got to create backstories that are hilarious.
Q: Final thoughts for creators chasing ambitious ideas—especially in genres where the audience knows every detail?
Alex: Don’t cut corners. We were told early on to ‘just follow a formula’ and it’s like… no, dude. Gamers will see right through that. We had to be authentic—how the characters talk, how the game works—it all has to make sense. The guys I wrote with, they live and breathe this stuff. I immersed myself: Twitch streams, esports, shoutcasts. We’d joke about Philly’s best athlete being Carpe from the Fusion—most people had no clue! But to us, those details mattered. That’s what makes it feel real.
Conclusion
We’re glad Alex didn’t get swept up in the world of competitive Overwatch—because Squid Ink is the esports comedy the world actually needs. Malix Media continues cranking out bold, creative commercials that are anything but cookie-cutter, and we can’t wait to see what wild mix of music videos, twisted ads, and nerdy brilliance they come up with next.
Whether they’re casting a feature film or scripting a snack brand with lore, one thing’s clear: they’re doing it their way—and Celtx is proud to be riding shotgun.
- 🎬 Malix Media Website: malixmedia.com
- 🦑 Squid Ink The Film: squidinkthefilm.com
- 📸 Company Instagram: @malixmedia
- 📸 Alex’s Instagram: @director_afr
Got a project that needs commercials (or esports jokes) that don’t suck? Use any of the links above — just try not to ping Alex mid‑ranked match.
From commercials that slap to features with real meta—Celtx helps bring it all to life.
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