If Philly fielded its own Overwatch league, AlexโฏReinhard would be in the booth shotโcalling and editing the killโcam montage. Instead, he and collegeโbuddyโturnedโbusinessโpartner MaxโฏMorgan coโfounded MalixโฏMedia โ a boutique shop thatโs spent 13โฏyears crafting commercials that donโt suck for brands like Bones Coffee Company, Codecademy, Doritos, and PhillyโฏPretzelโฏFactory (not to nameโdropโฆ but, yeah, weโre nameโdropping). Between unique ads, the duo are bootโstrapping their passion project, SquidโฏInk โ a comingโofโage esports comedy born from their love of (ahem) a certain hero shooter.
Okay, fine… it’s Overwatch.
Think GrandmaโsโฏBoy meets Dodgeball โ only the dodgeballs are headshots and the rules are written from scratch so gamers wonโt roast them on Reddit. Alex runs every draft, shot list, and stripboard through Celtx, keeping the process as streamlined as his 30โHz 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 collegeโฆ and over the past 13 years weโve turned it into what I can only really describe as a boutique ad agency that specializes in writing and producing commercials that donโt 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 commercialโwhere does Celtx slot in?
Alex: We use it to write, shotโlist, schedule, create call sheetsโthe whole gamut. Our DP and I stay totally aligned because the builtโin shot list lets us reorder by wides, mediums, closeโups and push a clean PDF to crew instantly.
Q: Favorite Celtx feature when youโre not wrangling 150โcrew call sheets?
Alex: Honestly, the script editor. I tell anybody who wants to write, โDude, just get Celtx and start typingโthe formattingโs handled.โ Even the free tier lets you get words down without fighting margins.
Q: You mentioned working on your first feature film. Letโs talk SquidโฏInk. 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 โ 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.ย We thought โ 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 callโouts, pacing, how casters hype a clutch play. We recorded scrims, broke down POVs, then translated that energy into screenplay beats so every โultimateโ lands like a sports dunk.
Q: SquidโฏInk started as an eightโepisode series before morphing into a feature. How did Celtx handle that pivot?
Alex: We drafted the series in Celtxโs TV mode โ 300+ pages โ 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 ideasโespecially in genres where the audience knows every detail?
Alex: Donโt cut corners. We were told early on to โjust follow a formulaโ and itโs likeโฆ no, dude. Gamers will see right through that. We had to be authenticโhow the characters talk, how the game worksโit all has to make sense. The guys I wrote with, they live and breathe this stuff. I immersed myself: Twitch streams, esports, shoutcasts. Weโd joke about Phillyโs best athlete being Carpe from the Fusionโmost people had no clue! But to us, those details mattered. Thatโs what makes it feel real.
Conclusion
Weโre glad Alex didnโt get swept up in the world of competitive Overwatchโbecause 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 canโt wait to see what wild mix of music videos, twisted ads, and nerdy brilliance they come up with next.
Whether theyโre casting a feature film or scripting a snack brand with lore, one thingโs clear: theyโre doing it their wayโand Celtx is proud to be riding shotgun.
- ๐ฌ MalixโฏMedia Website: malixmedia.com
- ๐ฆ Squid Ink The Film: squidinkthefilm.com
- ๐ธ Company Instagram: @malixmedia
- ๐ธ Alex’s Instagram: @director_afr
Got a project that needs commercials (or esports jokes) that donโt suck? Use any of the links above โ just try not to ping Alex midโranked match.
From commercials that slap to features with real metaโCeltx helps bring it all to life.
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