If you have any questions about the project, you can find the contact below.
For more information, check the about page on this site.
Elias Matar
Director/Exec. Producer
2 Red Rabbit Films
2126 Floyd St.
Burbank, CA 91504
elias@chingasotheclown.com
(626) 255-5133
The Story:
Messiah was a prosperous farming community rooted in religious and cultural traditions. At the dawn of the industrial revolution, the community resisted modernization and as a result was forced into economic decline. Amidst this dark time, a traveling circus group came to town and promised to bring a little innocent laughter and joy back to the emotionally crippled community. A small group of clowns working for the circus saw an opportunity and began to loot the homes of citizens who came to see the evening shows. At first, no one considered that the crimes could be perpetrated by the new occupants of the city and citizens started to turn against one another as the crimes continued unexplained. The situation grew worse, and the clowns became more bold, and violent. As the death toll increased, the town seemed ready to tear itself apart, and the clowns were poised to take control. The Organization of the Clowns and Mimes was formed and began to extort money and land out of Messiah’s businesses and citizens in exchange for protection. Time seemed to have stopped for the city of Messiah, and as the outside world continued to develop economically and technologically, Messiah remained trapped in a pre-industrial state. Citizens who resisted the new order of clowns were sent to the gallows, and as the citizens cowered in fear, an even greater problem reared its head as a rebellious Long Prey prompted a civil war between the clowns and the mimes. The Messiahn War between the Mimes and the Clowns caused Messiah to be split into the North and South. In order to fortify the border, Bastard the Clown pushed all the circus freaks and any clowns that were unable to fight into the middle, and dubbed it the “huddud “(Arabic word for ‘border’). This civil war has been raging for years, and there seems to be no end in sight.
This is the awards page for Chingaso The Clown:
FAIF International Film Festival directors has nominated “Chingaso The Clown” for five awards:
Best Underground Film Or Music Video Elias Matar
Best Suspense Elias Matar
Best Editing Alain Vasquez
Best Visual Effects Christien Tinsley & Joseph Guzman
Best Costume Design Joseph Guzman
The FAIF Awards Show and After Party took place on Oct 13th, 7:00PM at Hollywood Ballroom-Renaissance Hotel.
CHINGAO THE CLOWN, walked away with two AWARDS:
BEST UNERGROUND FILM and BEST EDITING to add to its other three:
AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD from the Kevin Smith’s MOVIE ASKEW,
BEST EDITING and AUXIM GRAND PRICE from ACTION ON FILM.
Five more awards were give to CHINGASO at the IFFYNTX Film Festival in the SHORT SHORT FILM Category:
BEST SCRIPT, BEST EDITING, BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY, DIRECTOR, and BEST PICTURE.
MORE TO COME…
Thousands of entries were submitted to Movie Askew and 12 shorts were chosen as finalists. On September 6th, 2006 those 12 shorts will be shown at the 2006 Movies Askew Film Festival with a panel of celebrity judges will choose a grand prize winner. Join Kevin Smith and the filmmakers who participated in the Movies Askew shorts contest at Cinespace in Hollywood, California.
CHINGASO THE CLOWN was selected as one of Movies Askew Film Festival 12 shorts.
This Movie is going around the world… CHINGASO THE CLOWN is going to be part of this film festival April 19-22. Now do you think Canada is ready form some ass kicking CLOWNS???
CHINGASO ON THE ROAD
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Elias Matar : Director, Executive Producer
Elias A. Matar was born July 20, 1964 in Berkley California. Growing up in Syria, his love of filmmaking was always present. His first film at the age of 9, was confiscated by government officials in Syria. His passion of the arts continued and after the tragic death of his best friend in an explosion, he came to the USA and got an engineering degree at Purdue.
After a few years at McDonnell Douglas, he decided to pursue a new avenue of art and design. Elias launched STORM in the US, clothing and accessories company that spread from New York to Beverly Hills.
After years of success, Elias was finally ready to enter the film world once again. His first project was a short based on Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s story entitled “Light is Like Water”. This film is about childhood lost and rediscovery.
His second foray is entitled “Chingaso the Clown” based on the ultra popular pulp comic “Chingaso the Clown”. This film is about the war between clowns and mimes within a town called Messiah. At this time Elias is raising the funding for the full feature.
Elias’s other projects in development are: “Masque of Red Death” this film is about a disconnected future society and a palague empath that’s commissioned to save humanity. The script was written by the acclaimed writer, David Aaron Cohen(”Friday Night Lights” and “The Devil’s Own”) & Jack Reher. “The Witch List” Graphic Noval writen by Elias and Paul Taegel.
Elias Matar resides in Los Angeles and is surrounded by his lovely wife, two brilliant children and an extended family that spans the globe.
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Sotero Manuel Elias : Author of “Chingaso The Clown” Comic
Growing up as the youngest child of a Mexican American family, Manny was first attracted to art by the influence of his older brother, who was a well known, self taught graphic artist.
He was further influenced by graphic artists such as Mobieus, Bernie Wrightsen, and Vaughn Bode. He was a founding member of Poor Kids Productions, an artists collective specializing in T-shirt design, flyer illustrations for local bands, and tattoo designs. His artistic experience grew while working at the lab for Cinema Secrets, where he had the opportunity to fine tune his airbrush and mold making techniques. In 2000, he created the original “Chingaso the Clown” ~ issue #0 that was self titled.
After the success of the first issue he went on to create issue #1 “A town full of Assholes” - which led to the creation of the Chingaso short film that same year. Since then, he has been concentrating his skills on storyboarding and development for the upcoming feature. Manny currently heads the painting department at Gentle Giant Studios in Burbank California, where he continues to finesse his artistic skills.
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Christien Tinsley: Makeup & Effects / Producer
Special Effects pioneer CHRISTIEN TINSLEY is quickly becoming a respected name in the make-up industry.
Tinsley grew up in Auburn, Washington. At the age of 7 he found himself fascinated by prosthetics and make-up effects used in films like American Werewolf in London and the Thing. He quickly began amercing himself with information from books, magazines, and other various sources. As a teenager, Tinsley used the information he gathered to begin sculpting and painting various independent creations. By experimenting with different artistic outlets Tinsley found what would become his life fascination: prosthetic make-up effects.
At the age of 17 Tinsley moved to the Bay Area in California to explore more opportunities. He began building his portfolio, working on a combination of independent projects as well as haunted houses. It wasn’t until Tinsley was 21 years old that he received his first job in Los Angeles creating prosthetics for the music video of BUSH “Greedy Fly”. It became his most notable sculpting/make-up job at that time.
After permanently moving to Los Angeles Tinsley began working at Steve Johnson’s X FX shop where he developed a range of materials and was soon overseeing and supervising effects for several films.
After receiving membership into the makeup union, Tinsley’s first job was applying effects to Clint Howard in The Grinch. In addition to working on his first principle character he also had the opportunity to work on one of his biggest influences, Rick Baker, who was preparing for a cameo in the film. Tinsley then continued into his next film, Pearl Harbor, which would ultimately launch his signature product. While working on the film, Tinsley developed temporary tattoos that give the illusion of cuts and bruises. With over 40 extras to apply cuts and bruises daily, Tinsley’s new creation was a time saving process. During filming, Tinsley simultaneously started his own business, Tinsley Transfers Inc. It has continued to grow and emerge into a leading provider of tattoos and effects for some of Hollywood’s biggest stars such as Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Vin Diesel, and Justin Timberlake.
When offered “The Passion of the Christ” Tinsley felt that the traditional prosthetics process did not seem to be feasible for what his actor, Jim Caviezel, was set to endure. Tinsley developed and implemented a process known as “prosthetic transfer” which allows for application time to be cut in half. Tinsley has continued to use this process in some of Hollywood’s biggest films such as “Catwoman”, “Memoirs of a Geisha”, and “Find Me Guilty”. The “prosthetic transfer” continues to grow in interest due to the ease of application, presentation quality on film, and time preservation.
Tinsley continues to work as a makeup artist re-energizing the way make-up and effects are created and applied. Along with following his passion with effects, Tinsley also owns two companies: Tinsley Transfers Inc and a clothing line, Sleeves Clothing, founded in 2003.
Tinsley accredits his influences through ambition and drive to such individuals as Rick Baker, Greg Cannom, Steve Johnson, Rob Bottin and Dick Smith. Tinsley feels extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to not only work with his biggest influences, but most importantly is considered a peer of theirs.
Christien Tinsley was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Jim Caviezel (“Jesus”) in “The Passion of the Christ”.
Christien has most recently provided Special Makeup Effects for the upcoming films: “Flags of Our Fathers” (Directed by Clint Eastwood; prosthetic bodies and Scott Reeves Head-Likeness), “BUG” (Directed by William Friedkin; prosthetics for Michael Shannon) and “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (Directed by Andrew Dominik; prosthetic body of Brad Pitt, as well as Head-Likeness of Jeremy Renner and Garret Dillahunt).
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Arthur Wong: Cinematographer
As one of Hong Kong’s leading and most highly awarded Directors of Photography, Arthur Wong has worked on over 140 feature films since his debut in the mid-70s, alongside the best of the country’s Directors including John Woo,Ringo Lam, Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, Woo Ping Yuen, Clara Law, Ann Hui and Tsui Hark.
Mr. Wong is currently the Chairman of the Hong Kong Society of Cinematographers. He has participated in numerous overseas productions as Director of Photography, including – Knock Off, starring Jean Claude Van Damn.
In 1999 he won his fourth-best cinematography award by a Japanese production, Sleepless Town, starring Takeshi Kaneshiro, produced by Masato Hara. In 2000 he was nominated for best cinematography, for the ninth consecutive year for Purple Storm, and he again took home the prize.
In 2001 he shot -Double Vision- a Columbia Picture starring Tony Leung and David Morse.
In 2003 he shot The Medallion, starting Jackie Chan. In the last decade The Hong Kong Society of Cinematographers has also honored him with seven outstanding achievement awards.
In 2004-2005 before joining the team for CHINGASO, he shot Ultraviolet, for Screen Gems Pictures, starring Milla Jovavich.
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