Last year, Tongal began hosting a Creative Camp filled with a wide variety of weekly challenges for creators to participate in. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just check out the video of Dave Kilgo and I teaching Tongalers how to make a delicious grilled cheese in several simple steps. Anyway, this year’s top Creative Campers were lucky enough to earn an All Access Pass to MasterClass and their entire database of experts. It’s been about two weeks since I got greenlit on the 3-Point Plot Project challenge, and I’m here to bring you the best MasterClass classes I’ve watched to help you improve your filmmaking skills and make life on set a breeze!
On Tongal, the first step is coming up with a great idea. Who better to learn about ideation from than Neil Gaiman? In Lesson 3 of his MasterClass titled Sources of Inspiration, he talks about how all of us have a compost heap of inspiration filled with old stories and influences that help shape all of our creative endeavors. On Tongal, you don’t need to go far to find your own compost heaps, as it’s easy to search through all your old submissions to see what stood out to brands in similar projects and which ideas might need a little more work before they get resubmitted.
If you’re stuck at step one, Neil also shares his creative methods for curing writer’s block in Lesson 16. When you’re dealing with a tight deadline for submissions, the last thing you want to do is sit at your blank computer screen waiting for inspiration that never comes. Neil suggests you should retrace your steps, go out, do something else, do anything but stare at the screen. Come back, pretend you’ve never read it before, and read it through. This method will also work well as you search for inspiration for Tongal project briefs.
(Credit: MasterClass)
Step 2 in most Tongal projects is the pitch. Once you have a great idea to work from, now it’s time to convince the brand that the idea is worthy of being funded and made into an exciting piece of content. Jimmy Chin is an adventure photographer most recently known for his work on Free Solo. If you haven’t seen the documentary yet, I’d highly recommend watching it! In Lesson 7, Jimmy explains his process for pitching ideas to commercial clients, as well as the next steps after being selected to bring his vision to life. It’s important to integrate your creative voice into the brand’s campaign and advocate for the resources you need to bring that vision to life properly so both parties can be happy with the finished product. He also gives us an in-depth breakdown of his camera gear, as well as tips and tricks for getting the perfect adventure shots. Spoiler Alert: It’s a lot easier to get cool shots like his if you’re a professional rock climber on the side.
Have you ever been pitching something to a brand rep and they look like they’re falling asleep in their chairs by the time you’re done? Daniel Negreanu’s class is here to help! He’s a professional poker player with decades of experience reading tells. If you can spot that the client is disinterested in an idea, you can pivot to a new idea that they might like better rather than continuing to bore them to death with the previous concept.
(Credit: MasterClass)
If you get the green light, the next step is to make the video! You’re most likely going to need actors for your project, so tell them to head on over to Natalie Portman and Samuel L. Jackson’s MasterClass pages, close their eyes, and click any lesson. The knowledge and experience they have about acting on green screens, working with directors, working with sets and props, and a wide range of other tips and tricks will help your actors take their skills to the next level.
When it comes to directing, I’d suggest checking out Ron Howard’s lessons about collaborating with your crew, set design, and cinematography. If you want your end product to stand out amongst the crowd, it’s important to surround yourself with a team you can trust.
(Credit: MasterClass)
If your project is more documentary-based, you’ll enjoy the next six hours of Werner Herzog teaching you everything he knows about stealing cameras, eating shoes, getting shot in the middle of an interview, and also filmmaking. No lesson selection here, just watch the whole thing and thank me later!
Spice up your craft services table with a little help from some master chefs! When Gordon Ramsay isn't busy yelling about burnt scallops on Hell’s Kitchen, he’s in his own kitchen making delicious food! While your cast and crew are hard at work making your project the best it can be, you can have some perfectly cooked beef Wellington ready to eat during a break in the action! For dessert, check out Dominique Ansel’s classes on French pastries! Make some mini madeleines and your crew will love you for the rest of time!
(Credit: MasterClass)
Are you just waiting for something to do on set ? Look no further than Penn & Teller’s classes teaching you the fundamentals of magic! Magic tricks are the perfect way to break the ice with new crew members and are sure to impress everyone as they wait for the director to make them work! Just try your best to not make the client disappear . . .
You’ve got your entire project filmed, the crew is well fed and entertained, and now it’s time to edit your project and add some creative music. If you’re somehow unable to find the perfect song on Jingle Punks, Universal Production Music, or Epidemic Sound, there’s no one better than Hans Zimmer to help you out! Lesson 9’s class in Scoring to Picture will help you realize that the music is just as important as the images.
Jump cut on over to Jodie Foster’s editing class where she breaks down a scene cut together from raw footage for Money Monster. Editing starts on set. Take notes on moments and shots you love as they happen on set. When it comes time to sit down and cut your piece together, you’ll already have your cheat sheet ready to go and make editing your piece a breeze!
When your Tongal project is all finished and submitted, you’ll still be able to watch thousands of other lessons on MasterClass! Another great tool is the Office Hours tab, a place where you can submit questions directly to these famous filmmakers and have them answered on video. This is great if you want to pick the brains of the best people in the industry. I’m going to wrap up this blog post now and ask astronaut Chris Hadfield if storming Area 51 is a good idea.
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Note From Tongal: “Master Your Next Film Project with MasterClass" is part of a series of Tongal Community-written blog posts that were originally sourced in the Tongal Blog Open Call Project. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Tongal. Read more Tongal Community-written posts here and then Pitch us a topic you'd like to write about for the Tongal Blog!
