Proposal for the Tre Project

Barbara Santi of Awen Productions has sent you the following advice. Use it to formulate your ideas for your project. Detailed proposals are due in before Whitsun with your research and Barbara needs them as soon as possible so that archive footage can be found.


Your proposal should include a three line 'logline'( what the film is about ) followed by a main proposal. This should include ;

Why do you want to make the film ?

What is the style, the mood, the feel ?

Why use the techniques that you have chosen ?

What archive material do you want to use and why ?

What you want to achieve through the film ?

What new footage you want to shoot and why ?

Identify your team and the roles they will play

Identify a time-frame

Can it be achieved with the budget and resources that you have ?

How to write a documentary treatment or proposal.....

Scripts are often not used in documentary films—because you cannot predict what will happen when the camera is rolling. In place of a script, filmmakers use treatments, proposals, or even outlines--to describe and help plan a documentary project. There is a lot of overlap between these concepts and different filmmakers use them in similar and often interchangeable ways.

A treatment is a short story narrative written in simple, non-technical language (ie. no camera angles, transitions, etc.).

A proposal, which frequently includes a treatment, is a thorough description of all aspects of a project. It is created in the pre-production stage of a documentary project to persuade funders, distributors and others to support the project.


Proposals
An effective proposal will:
• Tell a good story
• Make human truths emerge through images—not just verbal description.
• Present a personal, critical perspective on some aspect of the human condition.
• Inform and emotionally move an audience

Usually a proposal will contain the following information:
• Length of work, format.
• Who is the intended audience?
• Goal or intended purpose(s) of the film
• Has any media work already been produced on this subject? If so, what is new,
different, interesting, engaging about your approach?

• Style (Any key stylistic elements in writing, shooting, audio, editing, etc.)
• What about the soundtrack? (Any music, narration, etc.—If so, who? what?)
• Who is working on the project? And what similar projects have they done in the
past?

Depending on the situation, you may choose to include the following:
How will the project be funded? An outline production schedule.