Sponsored by Tongal
As creators, having a great idea is only the first step. It's equally important to be able to communicate that idea effectively so potential collaborators, clients, or backers understand and buy into your vision. This challenge asks creators to create a 1-2 minute pitch video for a short story, short film or docu-short that quickly conveys the premise, tone, characters, creative execution, and/or why they're uniquely positioned to tell this story.
As creators, having a great idea is only the first step. It's equally important to be able to communicate that idea effectively so potential collaborators, clients, or backers understand and buy into your vision. This challenge asks creators to create a 1-2 minute pitch video for a short story, short film or docu-short that quickly conveys the premise, tone, characters, creative execution, and/or why they're uniquely positioned to tell this story. From a simple talking-head video, to utilizing voiceover or sharing a rough proof-of-concept, there are many ways to approach a pitch video. We're open to them all, just make us want to buy into whatever you're selling!
About Tongal:
Tongal is the ultimate platform for content creation that connects the best and brightest creative talent to opportunities to develop content for top networks, studios, and brands. Built to facilitate remote work and collaboration, Tongal powers the entire creative process end to end to bring undiscovered, great ideas to life through branded content, original content and advertising.
SUBMISSION LIMITS
Your video cannot exceed 2 minutes.
Deadline to submit: December 16, 2020 at 2PM PT.
CHALLENGE RULES
Our monthly challenges are open to everyone in the Sundance Co//ab community. One entry per person, per challenge. All submissions will be viewable to the community. All submissions will be given equal consideration and the final winner will be determined by the consensus of the designated Sundance judges.
Only those submissions that meet the criteria outlined in the submission guidelines can be selected as the winner.
The challenge closes on December 16, 2020 at 2PM PT.
If you have questions regarding the challenge, please email collab@sundance.org. Please do not contact members of the jury directly.
PRIZES
Winner will receive:
- $250 Creator Grant from Tongal
- One digital festival pass to access the 2021 Sundance Film Festival
- The winner will have their work featured on Sundance Co//ab
- One-on-one mentorship session with a Sundance Advisor
- Sundance Co//ab Annual Creator Membership (12 months) which includes:
- Invitation to monthly Member-only Advisor Q&A Live webinar
- Opportunity to receive feedback from a Sundance Advisor on work-in-progress you post to Share Your Work
- Eligible to participate in online Writing Groups (coming soon)
- Final Draft screenwriting software (12-month license)
Runners-up (two will be selected) - Sundance Co//ab Annual Creator Membership (12 months)
Sponsored by:
Submission Guidelines
One entry per person, per monthly challenge. The limits for monthly challenge submissions are the following: videos– 2 minute limit.
Technical Details
Videos: Accepted video file formats: AVI , FLV, MOV, MP4 or MPEG-2. Note: If you choose to upload a .MOV file make sure that it is not using the Apple ProRes compression. We do not support reading Apple ProRes files or raw camera formats like ARRI and RED at this time.
Other: If your file format fits outside of the video, pdf, audio file category, please contact us and we will see if we can accommodate it.
(Please do not use copyrighted material without permission as part of this monthly challenge.)
Jurors
Anthony Onah
Juror
Anthony Onah is a Nigerian American filmmaker who grew up in the Philippines, England, Nigeria, Togo, and the U.S. His debut feature, The Price, premiered at the 2017 SXSW Film Festival in the Narrative Feature Competition, and was released in theaters in November 2017. Onah graduated from Harvard, where he studied biochemistry and neuroscience, then earned an MFA in film directing from UCLA. He was named to Filmmaker Magazine’s list of “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in 2015, and is an alum of the Sundance Institute Catalyst Forum.
Onah is currently in development on his sophomore feature, Goliath. The project participated in the 2019 Sundance Screenwriters Lab, and was awarded the 2019 Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship.
Interview Link:
Creative Resources:
- Directors Guild of America Director’s Cut Podcast - This podcast consists of directors interviewing other directors about their latest work—providing invaluable insights into the filmmaker’s craft.
- American Cinematographer Magazine - The magazine highlights the creative conversation between the director and the cinematographer, then delves into the technical details of how the film gets shot.
- [LENS] Blog – The New York Times - This inspiring blog sparks my visual imagination, and reminds me of the power inherent to images.
- The New York Review of Books - Excellent long-form articles on books, science, and current affairs that encourage careful engagement with important issues.
- Longform - A good resource for inspiring, long-form writing that draws from a range of sources.
- Yuval Noah Harari - Harari (currently my favorite writer of any kind) is a historian whose writing grapples with how technology is altering the way we live. His work leads me to see anew things that I thought I understood, while challenging me as a storyteller to think about the important stories that lie just around the corner.
Rafael Agustín
Juror
Rafael Agustín is a writer on the award-winning The CW show, Jane the Virgin. He is a 2016 Sundance Fellow for his TV family comedy, Illegal, based on his life as a former undocumented student. Agustín co-created and co-starred in the national touring, award-winning autobiographical comedy, N*gger Wetb*ck Ch*nk, which received acclaim from the LA Times, New York Times, Denver Post, and won awards for its advancement of social justice in the arts.
Rafael Agustín currently serves as Executive Director of the Latino Film Institute, where he oversees both the Youth Cinema Project and LALIFF (Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival). Earlier this year, the LA Weekly named Agustín one of the fifty most essential people in Los Angeles. He received his BA and MA from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film & Television and is an alumnus of the CBS Diversity Comedy Showcase.