Documentary Proposal Assignment

Documentaries are a great medium for argument. They incorporate emotion by letting individuals tell their stories in their own words, or by following them as they go about their daily lives. They incorporate credible research through graphics or interviews with experts. They allow audiences to form opinions about topics that they may not know much about.When a filmmaker proposes a documentary project, he or she has an idea of what the documentary will cover, but must leave enough room to follow unexpected leads and changes in the original plan. Many documentaries follow people who are preparing for a big event or competition. In that case, the structure is pretty clear – the film will start with the preparation and end with the event. In other cases, filmmakers follow their subjects around for decades, accumulating hundreds of hours of footage and shaping the story in the editing room.For this project, you should imagine that you are a finalist competing for a $250,000 grant to make a documentary on a topic that is meaningful to you. In the proposal, you will explain why people would want to watch your documentary, what they could learn from it, and why it should win funding.You will write a formal proposal, directed to the committee that could choose you for the grant. The proposal sets out your specific topic, your personal stake in it, your plan for organizing interviews/ filming the documentary (what kinds of people would you choose as your “characters”? Would you focus on a small group of subjects, or a larger one? What kind of experts would you want to interview? What’s your contingency plan if a main character drops out of the project?), your general timeline (six months of shooting? Eight years? One weekend?) and rough budget (they organization providing the grant will want to know they can trust you to spend $250,000 wisely), and the type of audience you hope to draw. Also think about the “look” of the documentary – graphics, colors, drone shots of landscapes, etc., and the way you might use music to set the tone. This should be persuasive enough to convince the committee to fund your project. There isn’t a required word count for this proposal, but in order for it to be effective, it should be at least as long as your first essay.The portfolio will include:The final draft of your proposal (about 1000 words