Tongal Partners with Oscar-winning Producer Spitfire Pictures to Crowdsource First Documentary Feature Film

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Tongal, the leading creative crowdsourcing platform for advertising and promotional content, has entered the feature film space with the announcement of The Spitfire Documentary Project http://tongal.com/ProjectSpitfire.

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Tongal is pursuing its first documentary feature film development in partnership with Spitfire Pictures, an Exclusive Media company, who produced the 2012 Academy Award winner Undefeated, the Grammy Award winner Foo Fighters: Back and Forth, and Martin Scorsese's Emmy winning music documentary feature films No Direction Home: Bob Dylan and George Harrison: Living In The Material World. Spitfire Pictures will work with Tongal throughout the duration of the project, including the judging of submissions and the steering of the development, production, marketing and ultimately distribution of the winning film. 

The project is supported by a $110,000 total prize pool provided by Tongal to put towards development, production and completion costs.

The Spitfire Documentary Project will follow Tongal's well-established content development process, starting with a 500-character idea-submission phase where the top five subject ideas for the documentary will be selected. In the second phase, filmmakers within the Tongal community will create a pitch based on one of the five winning subjects or submit a "wild card" entry (i.e., a pitch entry based on an entirely new idea submitted simultaneously with the filmmaker's pitch), striving to be one of eight to receive $2,500 in funding to produce a sizzle reel for the documentary. Two sizzle reels will ultimately be "green lit" for production and the associated Tongal filmmakers will be offered the opportunity to enter into a production agreement with Tongal entitling them each to a budget of $35,000 to produce a director's cut of their film. Finally, at least one of the two final directors will receive an additional $15,000 in funds to complete their documentary.

"Our partnership with a forward-thinking creative company like Tongal is a great opportunity to support emerging talent and discover new stories," said Alex Brunner, Deputy Chief Operating Officer at Exclusive Media, parent company of Spitfire Pictures.

Tongal has emerged as a clear leader in crowdsourcing advertising content for brands and studios, working with many of the world's largest companies, including Procter & Gamble, McDonald's, Google, General Electric, LEGO, Ford, NASA and Microsoft. Tongal has also partnered with studios such as NBC, Fox, Marvel, Universal and Lucasfilm.

"Breaking into the filmmaking industry is not without its challenges and our mission at Tongal is to remove the barriers and help our creative community realize their full potential," said James De Julio, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Tongal. "The biggest brands in the world have embraced the Tongal platform and our creatives – and paired with an innovative, award-winning company like Spitfire, this project will show that the Tongal approach can produce world-class feature films."

Key Program Dates:
Subject Submission Phase: September 17 – October 17, 2013
Pitch and "Wild Card" Submission Phase: November 7 – December 17, 2013
Sizzle Reel Submission Phase (8): January 7 – February 17, 2014
Director's Cut Phase: March 7 – July 7, 2014
Final Cut Phase: July 21 – September 17, 2014

About SPITFIRE PICTURES
Spitfire Pictures is Exclusive Media's documentary film production label, based in Los Angeles. In 2011, Spitfire produced the Academy Award winning documentary Undefeated, which was released through The Weinstein Company, and Martin Scorsese's acclaimed Emmy winning film George Harrison: Living in the Material World, which also won the 2012 Critics Choice Award for Best Documentary Feature and was nominated for a BAFTA. Spitfire's credits also include the Grammy Award winning Foo Fighters: Back and Forth, Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who and the award winning No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, also directed by Martin Scorsese.

About TONGAL
Tongal's mission is to make creative work accessible to everyone who needs it, and everyone who thrives on it. Tongal connects talented writers, producers, and directors everywhere with the world's most imaginative brands, to produce great content. Their web-based platform breaks down creative development into a series of challenges, from idea through execution, so anyone can participate and contribute in the areas where they're best qualified. Tongal is based in Santa Monica, Calif. www.tongal.com

SOURCE Tongal