Location: Los Angeles, CA
Member Since: Oct. 20, 2009
Biggest Win: $1,900
Lifetime Earnings: $2,850.00
In the third installment of our new Tongal Twelve interview series, Tongal’s own Caleb Light-Wills was lucky enough to snag an interview with Zak Iddings, 1st place winner of the $5,000 Bingit.com Commercial Video Contest. From a production standpoint, “There’s An Easier Way To Bring It” is one of the best commercials generated thus far using Tongal.com. Zak’s visual interpretation of Tyler Short’s concept serves as an inspiration to anyone who believes in the power of collaboration as a crucial component in the creative process. Beyond that, the video is a seamless blend of originality, comedy and quality. Frankly, we were blown away. Here’s what he had to say about the experience –
Caleb Light-Wills: How and when did you first find out about Tongal?
Zak Iddings: Well, previous video productions that my friend and I made were seen by another friend, Harrison Weinfeld, who has won some money on Tongal, and he introduced me to the whole thing. I spent some time getting to know the site and the way it works, which is really cool, then started tossing ideas around with my roommate to get going on one of the contests.
CLW: Were you apprehensive, or was it something you understood immediately?
ZI: I'm familiar with "crowdsourcing" so everything was pretty straightforward for me.
CLW: What has been your favorite Tongal contest so far?
ZI: Haha, let’s see, being that we won the BringIt contest; I'd have to say that one!
CLW: How did it feel to win $1,900 for one-minute commercial?
ZI: It felt pretty good. I can finally pay off that bookie that has been leaving me death-threats. Just kidding. But yes, it felt awesome.
CLW: Was Bringit a company that you were already familiar with or did you have to do some research to see what they were all about?
ZI: Didn't know anything about it at first, but I poked around their website, which pretty much explained how it all works in great detail and told me everything I needed to know about it.
CLW: Your commercial was based on Tyler Short’s “An Easier Way to Bring It,” but you definitely made it your own. Does it feel like this commercial was a collaborative process and how did you adapt Tyler’s concept to make it work for you?
ZI: Yeah, Tyler had a great idea! Although bazookas and chainsaws and all that are totally awesome and I wish we had a Michael Bay budget, we felt it would be cool to take the simpler route and have the emphasis be more on the concept of making childish bets with each other based off his concept.
CLW: How long did it take you to shoot “There’s An Easier Way to Bring It” and what was your process like?
ZI: We shot the whole thing in a weekend with a quick replacement shot the following weekend. We have some pretty basic equipment...I use a Canon HV20 with a Handy35 35mm Adapter and a variety of lenses, a JuicedLink preamp with a nice shotgun mic, and standard 3 point lighting. Everything is edited in Final Cut Pro, and I slapped together some quick 3D animation for the game titles. I think the fast pace of the whole thing makes it pretty effective. One snag that we dealt with was going from outdoor to indoor... we had to ditch the 35mm adapter for the game play footage due to us not having adequate lighting. Although the whole thing was written out by my friend, Derrick Hackman, who actually WENT to film school, we both collaborated on the script/direction while we were shooting.
CLW: What is your production / animation background like? It is your day job or more like a hobby?
ZI: I have been working as a full-time designer/animator for a couple years now. I think shooting films is more of a hobby for me, and I look forward to doing many, many more, so who knows where it will lead!
CLW: How excited were you to rack up that extra $1,000 for Most Viewed?
ZI: Man, super excited. It's like after you open up all your Christmas presents and you see an extra one hiding back there behind the tree.
CLW: What are you going to spend the money on?
ZI: Fireworks. Haha no, maybe a new TV or something sweet like that.
CLW: What is your favorite thing about Tongal?
ZI: I like that it’s a community effort and that there is almost always something for someone to win.
CLW: What types of contests would you like to see on Tongal in the future?
ZI: Hmmm…I would maybe like to see maybe some higher-profile contests, but I bet that is already in Tongal's plans for the near future!
