For the past few years, the majority of posts on the Tongal Blog have been written by creators on Tongal through our always-on monthly Blog Open Call projects. Now, we're taking the by Tongalers, for Tongalers ethos to a new level by introducing a new feature on the blog: a creator-focused advice column written entirely by the Tongal community. 

This is your opportunity to get in on the ground floor of the upcoming "Dear Tongal" column, and selected writers may be tapped to write future columns beyond this initial project, if all goes well.

To be considered, tell us how you'd approach one or more of the following questions in a blog post. As you build your pitch, you are encouraged to draw from your own specific experience while also considering advice that will appeal to a broad rage of creators. We've provided additional guidance for each below:

• Remote Collaboration: Dear Tongal, This has been building up slowly for years, but 2020 has turbo-charged it: remote collaboration. We've seen a lot of new apps and tools but not as much on how to collaborate remotely. A lot of this happened organically back when working on a project meant sharing the same office. It was never perfect – creative collaboration has never been easy – but doing it over email is even harder. How should we be re-thinking our project interactions in order to better service our clients?
  • We're especially interested in hearing how other small production companies have shifted their workflows towards remote collaboration, and the strategies you've found the most success in utilizing. Take us through your best practices and insights, from pre-pro to remote production to post.
    
    
• Engaging Documentaries: Dear Tongal, I have seen hundreds of documentaries. Some of them really interesting and keep you hooked but many of them are just plain boring. I have analyzed them in detail but can't seem to find any single aspect that separates the interesting ones from boring ones. Is there a magical formula that documentary filmmakers use to keep their documentaries interesting?
  • Step right up, documentary filmmakers! While there may be no secret formula for creating engaging documentaries, we'd like you to consider sharing your tips for determining if a subject is worth exploring, capturing authentic and natural performances from your subject(s), and how to bring the story together in a compelling way. 
    
    
• Investors: Dear Tongal, what is the most effective way to approach potential investors for my video content creation?
  • If you've raised capital from investors for a personal project, share your insights and strategies for determining who in your network you should approach, what incentives a creator might offer, and how you handled the legal side of the relationship through contracts, etc.
    
    
• Filming Miniatures: Dear Tongal, I am interested in filming a miniature 3D printed spaceship. Could you provide advice on what techniques to use for filming it and implementing it into an edit? I am interested in a guide for outer space lighting, focal length, frame rates for scale, and blue screen implementation.
  • We're looking for pitches that pull from personal experience, and include supporting imagery or tutorial content from YouTube or Vimeo to give further context to answering this technical question.
    
    
• Directing Actors: Dear Tongal, Any tips for new filmmakers on directing actors? 
  • This is a very broad question, so consider how you might give practical, actionable advice to directors who have never worked with actors on a professional level. What resources can you point them towards? What skills can you encourage them to develop? And what techniques might they employ as they cast and go into production?

The goal of this project is to identify creators within the Tongal community to be the voice of our forthcoming advice column - "Dear Tongal" - and answer filmmaker questions from one community member to another on the Tongal Blog. 

You are invited to share your expertise by submitting Blog Pitches that seek to answer one or more of our creators' most pressing Questions. The full list of questions can be found in the Background/Additional Details section below. Give us a taste for the advice you plan to give and share why you're qualified to give it. Remember, if your Pitch is selected, you will be the one who writes the final blog post. And because we're hoping to keep a good thing going, creators selected in the Blog Pitch Phase may have the opportunity to be considered for writing future 'Dear Tongal' advice column posts.

 

DELIVERABLES: A 500-1500 word Blog Post in a text file format (.doc, .odt, .rtf, and .txt file formats preferred)

 

EXPOSURE: The Tongal Blog and Tongal social channels

 

TARGET AUDIENCE: The Tongal Community and creators across the Internet - predominantly writers, filmmakers, directors, animators, editors, and producers

 

TONE: We are open to a wide range of tones, but all advice given should be both informative and sympathetic

In order to be considered for this project, you must include the below materials in your pitch submission.

• TEXT (REQUIRED): Submit your pitch for a future "Dear Tongal" blog post in 1,000 characters or less. Your Blog Pitch should summarize the advice you plan to give in your final Blog Post and demonstrate why you’re the right person to write on the topic. Please give as much detail about your vision for the final post that you can in the given space, including a preview of tips and relevant takeaways.
  
  
• FILMMAKER QUESTION (REQUIRED): Select the corresponding Question you plan to answer from the drop-down menu.

1. Unless provided otherwise, all work must be your own original creation and free of any copyrighted material. You shall provide detailed information of your work regarding the source, the creator and background information as requested by Tongal.
   
   
2. BY SUBMITTING AN ENTRY, YOUR SUBMISSION IMMEDIATELY BECOMES THE SOLE PROPERTY OF TONGAL OR ITS ASSIGNEES – SEE OFFICIAL RULES FOR MORE DETAILS ABOUT OWNERSHIP OF ENTRIES. YOU MAY NOT PUBLICLY SHARE OR PUBLISH YOUR SUBMISSION IN ANY MANNER AND YOU MAY NOT POST OR UPLOAD YOUR SUBMISSION TO ANY WEBSITE OR VIDEO HOSTING SITE (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE OR VIMEO), WITHOUT THE PRIOR EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF TONGAL. FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THIS REQUIREMENT MAY RESULT IN DISQUALIFICATION OF YOUR ENTRY IN THE PROJECT.
   
   
3. Submissions cannot contain any profanity, offensive language, nudity or otherwise objectionable material, the determination of which is solely at the discretion of Sponsor.
   
   
4. Submissions must not portray Sponsor in a negative way, the determination of which will solely reside with Sponsor.
    
5. By submitting to this project, you acknowledge that your work may become subject to public voting on the Tongal site. Public voting may be used to help the project sponsor determine the final rank order.
    
6. Videos must be in the English language or subtitled.
    
7. Limit 5 submissions per member, per Phase.
    
8. You must be at least thirteen (13) years or older to enter.
   
   
9. The Sponsor reserves the right to repost the contest.
   
   
10. In order to process payment, you must submit the standard Tongal W-9, Winner Affidavit, and IP Assignment.
    
    
11. See OFFICIAL RULES for additional contest information, terms and conditions. If there is any conflict or inconsistency between these requirements and the Official Rules, the terms and conditions of these requirements shall prevail.