This month we’re highlighting 2017’s Ideator of the Year winner from the Tongies, Caleb Van Voorhis! He’s one of our top Ideators and is ever so active in the Tongal community and beyond.
We chatted with Caleb about his passion for video, approach to success on Tongal, and what he’s up to next. Let’s get to it!
Nolan (Tongal): What is your creative background?
Caleb: Well, In West Philidelphia born and raised… Just kidding. Ever since I was a kid I loved making videos. Senior year of highschool, (now almost a decade ago) I made this one music video just for fun, for the children’s toy ‘Silly Bandz’ that were a craze for a while. The company found it and put it on their website homepage, and it got 600K+ views. haha It’s pretty embarrassing now to watch, but honestly that was my first experience with any form of making videos for a company and first experience of having something I made go somewhat viral. It gave me such a rush so I decided to major in Media Production in college.
Ever since then I’ve been doing video production professionally both in a full time corporate setting for various companies, and with my own video production company (so creatively named Van Voorhis Productions) for companies online, local businesses, or ad campaigns etc.
N: What inspired you to participate on Tongal?
C: I first found Tongal in April 2015 just by searching around online for some other video contests. The videos I was working on for a company at that time were pretty monotonous so I wanted to find some other creative outlet to make videos that were more exciting.
What got me hooked was getting a finalist on one of my first idea submissions, it was like no you didn’t win, but you were so close! It inspired me to keep submitting. So I did! And on the next idea project I submitted for, Protective Life Insurance, I won, and then I’ve been hooked ever since. So I started trying to submit as much as I could. I had a specific goal of getting in the top 100 ideators by New Years that year. I hit #100 like January 2nd 2016 so close enough!
N: This March you won your first “Tongie” for Ideator of the Year! Congrats! Can you describe what that event was like and some of your favorite moments?
C: Thanks! Everything about that event was incredible. It was without a doubt one of the most exciting things I’ve ever been a part of. I remember finding out I was nominated and dancing around my office. I’m looking at the the invitation still hanging on my wall right now. The event itself was incredible, with great food, hotel, locations, music etc. But what I was actually most excited for was to meet all these people that I’d spent the past two years following their work on Tongal. All these other super talented filmmakers were there and I was a starstruck, to be honest. I look up to their work so much and use them as role models for where I want to be so it was really cool to be able to meet them in person. Not only that, but the Tongal Staff and other ideators who I’d gotten to know online, it was great to meet them in person. Everyone there was so talented so it was awesome to meet all these people that you’re a fan of in real life.
And winning ‘Ideator of the Year’ was a really big honor for me. It was something I very much cared about and had put countless hours into working on throughout the year. To see all that work cumulate and be recognized for that was an incredible feeling. I’m proud of it both professionally and personally.
N: Can you walk us through your approach to “Ideating” on Tongal?
C: I wish I had a good answer for this. Like some secret formula I use but I don’t really. Honestly, I just keep submitting to as much as I can. I make sure to read the brief fully to understand what they’re looking for, and then I always try to submit a variety of idea styles so that hopefully if one angle isn’t really what the sponsor is looking for, a different one might catch their eye.
N: What has been your favorite video interpretation another Tongaler created from one of your winning Ideas and how did it surprise or inspire you for future Ideas/videos?
C: I absolutely loved Brendan Beachman’s interpretation of my ‘AllState “The Party”. It was so well produced and it was exactly how I envisioned it when I came up with it. BUT I’m also super excited to see Cardinal Collective’s Advance Auto Parts commercial they're making right now based on one of my ideas. I thought it was a fun one I know they’ll do an awesome job of bringing it to life.
N: Great to see you win on the Toothpaste Demo Video Project! What are you doing on your own to improve as a filmmaker?
C: I appreciate it! Yeah I was really excited to win those. Since doing those experiments & seeing how much toothpaste protects, I now make sure to brush extra good haha!
I’m constantly trying to improve as a filmmaker. Every single dime I’ve ever made from Tongal I’ve put back into filmmaking, I don’t spend any of it on beer/gas, but rather new equipment or production costs for future projects. So hopefully the more I do, the more I grow.
I also love looking at other Tongaler’s work & getting inspired by it as far as the production & storytelling. I just love imagining everything that goes into making the videos and trying to absorb it and learn from it. When I first started on the site I would just watch people like Side of Fries and Landon Donoho’s videos on repeat trying to learn from them. But apart from learning from others and the occasional YouTube tutorial haha, just trying to keep working on as many projects as possible and learning along the way will hopefully allow me to keep getting better and better.
N: We’ve seen you climbing the Podcast charts on iTunes! We love seeing Tongalers connect and create together. What inspired you to start that up?
C: Thanks! Yeah that’s been a really fun little side project for me. I had wanted to do a podcast for a few years, but with so many out there, you sort of have to find a specific audience or niche. So I thought, what thing am I passionate about that I’d love to spend hours talking with people about? And the answer was Tongal!
So every other week I interview a different Tongaler and talk about their experience with Tongal, what they do, how they do it, and then any other sort of like Tongal talk that come up! Not only have I learned a lot, but it’s been a blast getting to meet and talk to these talented filmmakers from literally all over the world. I plan on keeping it going for as long as people will keep talking to me haha! Our audience has been steadily growing so feel free to check it out!
N: What’s next for Van Voorhis Productions?
C: While I’ve really enjoyed ideating on Tongal and will definitely continue doing so, my goal is to break through and bring my filmmaking into the production side of things on Tongal! I look to people like Fede Fracchia as a role model on doing that. I plan to keep doing as much with Tongal as I can, keep working to make creative ideas, and trying to grow in my film production! Oh, and maybe learn how to shoot a bow and arrow with my feet like that performer from the Tongies.
