All About PWXM
About PWXM
PirateWorX Media is an Independent Production Company founded by John and Charity Johnson in 2014. Based in Los Angeles California, with a combined 30 years of Entertainment Industry experience, our main focus is to produce compelling, fun, and unique stories told through stylized cinematography. The goal is to create meaningful art with low budget means.
John Johnson
Charity Johnson
Co-Owner Producer, Director Writer
Co-Owner Producer, Editor
John Johnson started his film making career as a screenplay writer. After several years of having his scripts optioned but never fully produced, he realized the best way to get his foot in the door, in Hollywood, was to make his own path. In 2012 he did just that. John started reading every book he could get his hands on to learn directing, cinematography, lighting, cameras, and lenses.
John also began critiquing the quality of everything he watched. If he liked something, he wanted to know why. He would ask and answer question after question. Why were the angles that were chosen, chosen? How did the filmmakers show the emotion of a scene and what the characters were feeling through lens choices and placement? How did lighting affect the way he perceived the scene? If he did not like a scene or a movie, he would also ask himself what he would have done differently to convey the concept better.
After 4 years of going through this self-education, he found he was singled out by his friends and colleagues as the expert in the group on cameras and lenses. It was at this point that John decided to try his hand at directing. In 2016 he wrote and shot Solstice, a short movie which is currently making its way through the festival circuit. This film was an accumulation of everything he had learned as well as a fountain of new knowledge due to all the things that “went wrong.”
John is profoundly grateful for the team who worked with him to create his first movie. Through the process, he learned what he will and will not do in future. Though the movie is not perfect, it is an accomplishment that he is extremely proud of.
John looks forward to the future and his upcoming projects.
Charity Johnson graduated from Azusa Pacific University with a Major in Cinema Broadcast Arts: Narrative Track, and a Minor in Theater. She studied several aspects of movie making including Directing, Producing, Editing, Acting, and Writing. During college Charity held two internships at Revelation Production Company where she worked as and Editor and Production Coordinator, and Go Kids Management as an acting coach for children 10-16 years old.
After college she worked on sets and for Production Companies in a variety of roles including PA, Editor, Director, Assistant Director, Producer, Set Dresser, First AD, Second AD, Props Coordination, Casting, Voice Over, Acting, and Development. Then later in her career she worked in Distribution Finance, Budget Creator, Project Analyst, Project Consultant, Implementation Consultant, and Localization Vendor Specialist.
Charity has worked in full time and contractor positions with Netflix Studios, Spyglass Media Group, Lantern Entertainment, STX, EuropaCorp USA, Relativity Media, Living out Real Dreams, Revelation Studios, Walk a Mile Productions, Tri-Destined Media, Red Head Talent Management, MMPR Talent Group, William Morris Agency, and William Morris Endeavor Entertainment.
After working with small to mid size Production companies (2-200 employees), Charity has learned the fulfillment which comes with getting her hands in at the ground level of a production and working to get it developed and released.
In Memorium
The company name of PirateWorX was chosen in honor of John’s best friend Gil Garcia who passed away in 2010, four years before the inception of PirateWorX Media. Gil and John came up with this company name in their youth, with the hope that the company would help establish them both as writers.
Gil was a Poet while John wrote Screenplays.