Tongal Twelve With Tim Swaan

Location: Studio City, CA

Member Since: May 2010

Lifetime Earnings: $2,500

In this installment of the Tongal Twelve, Caleb Light-Wills interviews 1^st Place Winner of the $4,000 NYVS Video Project, Tim Swaan. “Don’t Go To Film School” is undeniably one of the most clever commercials ever produced on Tongal. By contrasting NYVS’ practical approach to video creation with the hyper-theoretical approach of a traditional film school, Tim not only explains what NYVS does, but also why their service has value in an irreverent, humorous way. It’s worth noting that Tim has both a strong production background (check out his IMDB profile) and a film school education. Ironically, if Tim were deficient in either area, this commercial surely would not have been the tour-de-force we see here.

Caleb Light-Wills – How and when did you first find out about Tongal?

Tim Swaan – If I recall, I stumbled upon Tongal one evening last May as I was cruising the Internet. I knew there were all kinds of “community content producer” sites out there and was kind of on a roll investigating them. Then I found Tongal purely by accident.

C.L.W. – Were you apprehensive about the Tongal process, or was it something you understood almost immediately?

T.S. – The process seemed like a no brainer, and one that was accessible and easily followed.

C.L.W. – What does it feel like to win $2,500 for 30-second commercial?

T.S. – I have to say it was nice to get that financial boost! But I have to give a sincere shout-out to my co-conspirator, Elan Bentov. It was a true team effort that made getting this project completed a possibility. We went into the project very last minute – within a day of finding Tongal – and since it was a fly by the seat of our pants production, neither of us held any expectations about winning.

C.L.W. – Was NYVS a company that you were already familiar with or did you have to do some research to figure out what they were all about?

T.S. – We’d never heard of NYVS before, but after sleuthing their website a bit, we figured out that the “what is” message was clearly all over their website, so the concept for the commercial was simply to hook an audience – an invitation – to visiting the site.

C.L.W. – “Don’t Go To Film School” has a pretty clear message about the absurdity of academic film analysis. Is this a reflection of your personal feelings about film school?

T.S. – The irony of this spot is quite hilarious. Elan and I are both film school graduates, and this spot simply riffs on our experiences. Yes, we both had “those” classes, but I will say that we both had an exceptional film school experience, and, speaking for myself, film school was best academic choice I could have made. Elan came up with the concept, and we both had a blast coming up with more ridiculous feedback comments than could ever fit in a :30 commercial! The other concept we tossed around was to shoot a “student film” involving a midget and interpretive dancer.

C.L.W. – What is your production background like?

T.S. – Elan and I are both well entrenched in the industry. However, projects like this are refreshing and treated as a hobby. We just happened to have been at a slow point in production, and so had the time to take this project on.

C.L.W. –  How long did it take you to shoot “Don’t Go To Film School” and what was your process like?

T.S. – This is the fun question to answer, because, to be honest, we both feel like this production was our version of the class clown or classic procrastinator getting an A on the final exam. The day we signed up for Tongal, we loosely wrote the script, called friends, and set a time for two nights later to shoot AND edit the piece. That night also happened to be the night before the deadline. There was me on camera, and Elan on boom and directing. We shot on the HVX200 and basically ran all the lines by each actor. In post, we picked through the best reads, and then tried mixing and matching takes and reactions, ending up with the final product in about 3 hours. The decision to go black and white purely a fix to get around the horrible fluorescent lighting of the office, and there wasn’t any time to do a solid color-correcting job.

C.L.W. – Your commercial was beautifully cast, especially the “Fritz Lang” dude at the end. Are those people actors, actual film school kids or friends?

T.S. – The vast majority of the cast were college friends and acquaintances of Elan. The three British girls were professional actors that we both knew. Our “perfunctory girl” was the daughter of one of our coworkers who just fit the look we were going for and was willing to come in and deliver a line. Again, because the majority of our cast were non-professionals, having a reservoir of line readings from everyone allowed us to pick the best and make it look seamless.

C.L.W. –  What are you going to spend the money on?

T.S. – Incredibly boring, really… paying down the ol’ credit card bill, and perhaps a bit towards whatever our next production might be.

C.L.W. – What is your favorite thing about Tongal?

T.S.  – Tongal is a really great idea, and a godsend for clients who wish to advertise but not spend a small fortune on an agency. Some might argue that this actually takes work away from industry peeps, but I feel that if a client wants a $500,000 commercial, they’ll go spend $500,000 on a commercial. This gives small and large business alike the chance to tap into a goldmine of creative minds for a fraction of the cost while at the same time giving those creative minds a chance to actually make a name for themselves. For me, it puts the fun back in what can sometimes be a very unglamorous and cutthroat industry.

C.L.W. –  What’s next for you on Tongal or otherwise?

T.S. – For Elan and I, we’re both keeping a close eye on the Tongal projects that are coming through, but we’re not going to jump onto each and every one. Primarily, this is because we’re both heavily involved in the production of two network shows (all of which will launch later this year, but we’re under non-disclosure contracts), so time is scarce. Secondly, instead of rushing like we did with NYVS (and RecordMyCalls), we want to pick a spot we can feel confident and proud of. We’ll see what that next project is in the near future!

C.L.W. –  What types of contests, improvements, etc. would you like to see on Tongal in the future?

T.S. – What I loved about the NYVS spot was that we weren’t pigeon-holed into a limited number of concepts. We were truly free to do whatever we wanted which I think contributed to our success. We felt free to think outside the box. It’d be great to somehow always have an open-concept video category available for all projects, and those submissions should be judged on whether they deliver the core message required by the client and production quality, even though the risk of not placing in the top 5 at all is much greater.

Interview conducted via email, July 9^th, 2010.

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