Documentary
Proposal
Documentary Filmmaking 101 (MOOC)
Week 2
Purpose of Proposal
• Present in conjunction with a pitch, to
funders and anyone you wish to
interest in the project
• Is a way to plan your documentary in
great detail and in writing
Elements of Proposal
• Synopsis • Financial Plan
• Subject Bios • Marketing Plan
• Crew Bios • Two-Column Script
• Background Research
• Director’s/Visual
Treatment
• Budget
Synopsis
• A written summary/outline of the
film’s content
Example
Synopsis: Hardwood
Hardwood is a personal journey by director Hubert Davis, the son
of former Harlem Globetrotter Mel Davis, who explores how his
father's decisions affected his life and those of his extended
family. Elegantly structured into three chapters entitled "love,"
"recollection" and "redemption," Davis uses personal interviews,
archival footage and home movies to delve into his father's past in
the hope of finding a new direction for his own. At its core,
Hardwood is about the power of archival footage and home movies
to delve into his father's past in the hope of finding a new
direction for his own. At its core, Hardwood is about the power of
redemption and the healing of the bonds between fathers and
sons.
Source: http://www.nfb.ca/playlists/nfb-oscar-nominations/
viewing/hardwood
Subject Bios
• It is essential to provide a list of your
intended subjects and a biography for each.
• This will require you to pre-interview your
subjects, ideally over the phone. **
Crew Bios
• Provide bios for your key crew members,
including yourself (director/writer), camera
person/cinematographer/camera operator,
sound recordist, editor, producer, composer.
• If you plan to do all positions yourself, you
can preface this and then include your bio.
Example Filmmaker Bio
Nettie Wild is a Canadian documentary film
filmmaker. Wild has directed and produced
four full length documentary films: Wild was
awarded the audience award for best
documentary film at the 1998 AFI Fest for A
Place Called Chiapas. She was given Genie
Awards for both A Place Called Chiapas and
Fix, and won two awards at the Berlin
International Film Festival for A Rustling of
Leaves.
Source: http://www.whoislog.info/profile/nettie-wild.html
Background Research
• All documentaries require research, even
if they are highly personal.
• The nature of the research will depend on
the nature of the content of the film.
Research Example 1
• If your documentary is about a
certain period of your own family
history, your research will entail
conducting many interviews with
different family members and
perhaps also researching the time
and place, through newspapers,
letters, pictures or other artifacts.
Research Example 2
• If you are planning to make a documentary
about "The History of the Berlin Wall," you
will be required to conduct a great deal of
research, likely in the form of newspapers,
journals, books, news footage, other films
that have been made on the subject, archives
and much more.
Director’s/ Visual
Treatment
• To provide the vision of the director,
in categories including: “the look of
the film, documentary genre, the
structure, bios/interview style, the
theme and pace/editing”
• http://elruisenorylanocheng.wordpress.com/visual-treatment/
Budget
• A film budget is the total cost of the production.
• Budgets are organized in a spreadsheet in excel or using other
software, such as Movie Magic Budgeting.
• Documentary budgets are different from a fiction film budget, as
they do not require payment of talent. Other costs that are usually
low or exempt are art department, wardrobe, locations and more.
• Budget level depends on the nature of your documentary, but most
often the subjects wear their own clothes and you would film them in
their space, which is usually free of charge.
• Documentaries can have high post-production and archival footage
costs.
Budget Sample
• A comprehensive resource with a sample
budget can be found here:
• http://www.documentary.org/magazine/
dont-fudge-your-budget-toeing-line-items
Financial Plan
• A financial plan is a list of
where the production is
obtaining its funding. • Director Contribution - 100%
• For example, if you are OR
paying for all costs yourself,
your financial plan would
state "Director Contribution -
100% (the total dollar • Director Contribution - 50%
amount, which is the EXACT
amount of the budget)." • Investor - 30%
• If you have money coming in • In-Kind Services 20%
from other sources, you
would break down your
financial plan to represent
• Total 100%
the different sources.
Marketing Plan
• For now, the only thing you should keep in
mind at this stage is, who is your target
audience?
• Eg. My primary target market are audiences
who watch short documentaries, and a more
niche market is environmental festival
audiences and other activist audiences.
• More on marketing in Week 11.
Two-Column Script
FAMILY LAND, MAPS & RUINED
HOMES--duration: 5:00
DC EXPLAINS HISTORY OF FAMILY LAND TO
LEYTE
DC EXPLAINS FAMILY LAND TO LEYTE
PTVO: Don Chabo dictates the
(WHITNEY)
history of the family land.
LEYTE DRAWS TREES
FULL MAP OF FIRST FAMILY LAND
SECOND FULL MAP OF FAMILY LAND He speaks little Spanish, and his
granddaughter speaks little Mayan.
FCM: NON-DROP FRAME
CU BOUNDARY OF TIA'S AND DC'S LAND 80 years ago his granddaugher’s
CU COOKING HUT AND PATH great-great grandmother lived in a
CU COOKING HUT NUMBER TWO forest.
CU PATH
CU HUT WITH BLUE DOOR 60 years ago she sold some of it.
50 years ago her daughter sold
more.
40 years ago her daughter--DC’s
EXPLORATION OF FAMILY LAND mother--sold more.
30 years ago DC sold the rest,
sliver by sliver, because what he
earned as a shaman was too meager
to live on.
PHOTO: DONA DEMETRIA 20 years ago, DC’s second wife,
Doña Demetria, left him for a
• Documentary scripts are written in a two
better life selling fruit on the
streets of Merida.
It was then that DC began to eat
column format (audio/video).
WALK AROUND FOUR SIDES OF OLD
scraps.
FAMILY LAND
• Please download format template under
DC GATHERS HERBS To make his medecines, DC enters
land now owned by strangers to
gather leaves from trees he planted
resources for this week. years ago on land that once was
his.
-4-
Homework
• Prepare your documentary proposal containing:
• Synopsis
• Subject Bios
• Crew Bios
• Background Research
• Director’s/Visual Treatment
• Budget
• Financial Plan
• Target Market
