Karachi: Jack of Digital joined forces with TikTok – the world’s leading short-form video platform to launch “The Creators Academy” – a platform that teaches/guides new and experienced content creators, to produce “meaningful and creative” content. “The Creators Academy” – a one-day pilot program was conducted recently at the Beach Luxury Hotel in Karachi, where more than 50 young aspiring content-creators were trained by numerous successful industry experts & trainers, to understand the potential and methods of creating effective social media content.

The workshop revolved around each participant making a perfect video, during the day. The participants received expert-level coaching and creative tips about each step of the process and they got the opportunity to practically apply this learning.

The workshop began with an introduction to the concept of; the academy and the workshop by Faisal Sheikh (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheikhfaisal/) – the CEO of Jack of Digital.

The first session was dedicated to self-discovery, where participants evaluated their strengths, weaknesses and interests, before selecting their topics and a genre for their expression. This session was led by Habibullah Khan Founder, Penumbra Digital and Advisor, National Incubation Center, Karachi.

The second session provided valuable coaching into personal brand-building, commercialization of content, and how to attract and engage followers with memorable content. Omar Abedin, CMO of Graana.com and Author of “Building Brand YOU!” (https://www.linkedin.com/in/omarabedin/) led this session.

The third session taught the participants about arranging their thoughts and complete pre-production planning aspects like: scripting and selection of venue, music and team. The speaker, Zeeshan Asghar, laid the groundwork for developing a storyline. Zeeshan’s academic experience helped him in connecting with the participants in a classroom-oriented session.

The fourth session covered: the essential features of a camera, lighting and creative shooting-techniques for perfect execution to produce great videos. The speaker in this session was the inspirational Director, Cinematographer & Actor – Najaf Bilgram. He talked about his experiences both in front and behind the camera. In the workshop-oriented breakout session, Najaf got participants to explore their videography skills in natural and artificial light, along with using the phone camera to its full potential.

Najaf partnered with industry veteran and co-founder of Sharp Images, Tahir Moosa for the fifth session to provide practical knowledge about animation, visual effects and computer graphics to the participants of today’s session.

The final workshop session on branded content was led by Ahmed Chagla, Chief Creative Officer, MullenLowe & Rauf. Ahmed built the narrative from the commercial aspect on how content creators can tailor their content and profiles to attract brand endorsements.

The closing session included Waseem Afzal from TikTok MENAT. Waseem joined us remotely from Dubai and talked to the workshop participants about best principles and frameworks for successful content creation.

TikTok’s objective behind ‘The Creators Academy’ is to enhance the skill-sets of content creators and provide them the tools to produce original content and ideas, with a higher quality. Since many social-media platforms have matured to enable a truly global outreach, more competent people (especially the youth) from all over the world, must be encouraged and trained to produce authentic content to generate revenue by adding-value to the society with their intelligence and creative-expressions.