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Alternate scripts

Posted by Jared Cicon

01/28/2010

Comments (11)

Miscellaneous

Hi Tongal,
I am new to the site so please bear with me. I recently entered the Binaca Concept phase. I didn't make the cut of five. I was very impressed with the filed however. Looks like some very funny/promising material to work with.

I, however, am at a crossroads. I am not nearly as successful at pitching concepts as I am at producing them. I can understand why my two pitches were overlooked during this first part of the Tongal process. The 250 characters seemed to limit my explanation of my concept(s). Having already produced several national commercials in my short career, I have come to trust my creative intuitively as I take it through the balance of the production exercise, which brings me to my question:

May I still produce my own concept and submit it to the contest? If not, would Tongal ever consider lengthening out the space guideline for 'concept description'. I say this, because the most successful commercials in advertising often have one or more hilarious sight gags. The 250 character count does not allow a writer to elaborate on those sight gags, and subsequently may very well deliver a dry description of what could be a stellar concept.

Would appreciate relative feedback from the Tongal admin peeps.

Jared Cicon

Comments (11)

Mark Burrell

01/29/2010

Jared,
Those are all great thoughts and questions and I hear you. Our reasoning for breaking out the contest was so that people of all skill sets would be able to participate. On this one, there was no interim stage between concept and video but there will be on other contests. We ran one with an idea, pitch, video for example and you can see in ou tutorial video, we've thought of that and are thinking of rewrites, improvements etc. as well

http://tongal.com/xanthus/index.action?play=true

To answer your question though, the answer on this one is no. Binaca will only consider videos based off of one of the winning 5. If you are good at producing though, know that you can still put your own spin on one of the 5. In other words, the concept is not meant to be a shooting script, more of a guide and framework for you to work within. You can see the Lending Tree contest as an example of that. The winning video put it's on spin on the winning concept.

Thanks for Tongaling.

Chad Authier

01/29/2010

I'm new here as well, and I agree, I wish there was a larger character limit. My Bianca concept started off great, then after having to edit it to pieces because of the character limit, it lost what I was going for. :/ I understand there's a difference between a script and a pitch, but at the same time, I feel pitches could use more character room to convey. It seems you review them before they get evaluated, you could always reject an entry right? :)

I looked through the forums and never saw this character limit mentioned, has it been discussed before?

Jared Cicon

01/29/2010

Mark,
Though I hear what you are saying I could see a scenario where I regularly fall short in the concept/pitch phase and subsequently rarely have an opportunity to produce my own concepts for Tongal. I will have to rethink my strategy here. I will be curious to see how you develop the 're-writes' aspect of your concept development process. For me, peer review is critical and I agree that it must be utilized during the entire production timeline.
Jared

James DeJulio Tongal

01/29/2010

Hi Jared,

One thing we strive for at Tongal is collaboration. Ideally we'll all be working together in some capacity to add value to each spot. We realize that this is not the way most people are used to creating so it takes a little getting used to, but ultimately, it has been fulfilling for creators, brands and the end product.

We are certainly going to allow room for "rewrites" and things like that in the future. We also have projects that go direct to the Video phase, so each one is different. As of now with Binaca, I think the best course of action is to select a concept that you feel you can add to, improve or put your own stamp on.

Let us know if you have any more questions. We're glad to help.

Jared Cicon

01/29/2010

Hi James,
As a teacher I certainly know what it's like to have to look through multiple student projects on any given assignment. It can become drudgery. It is tedious. So I do understand why you limit the 'Concept' description to only the 250 characters. Problem is, it is more than a bit stifling from a creative standpoint. Todays A&R procedure/protocol is exactly why we will never get another 'Stairway To Heaven". I wholeheartedly agree with you about the benefit of collaboration, but even the most hurried agency pitch session allows for more than 250 characters. If you don't provide for at least an abbreviated descriptive allowance for a spot's associated sight gag or major set-up, you will be regularly throwing away many a great concept, and this benefits no one, not the creative...not the brand...not Tongal.