CHAPTER 15

INITIAL RESEARCH AND

THE DRAFT PROPOSAL

This chapter handles

• An overview of preproduction and research

• Overview of steps in developing and refining the draft proposal
• Addressing aesthetic concerns
• Assembling plans, schedule, and crew
• Prior work with crew to assure communications and shooting standards
• Developing the final version of the proposal as a means of fine-tuning your
directing intentions
• Getting support: creating the treatment, rough budget, and prospectus

ON PREPRODUCTION
A documentary’s preproduction period follows research and covers all decisions
and arrangements prior to shooting. This includes choosing a subject; doing the
research; deciding who and what are going to be the subject of the film; assem-
bling a crew; choosing what equipment will be necessary; and deciding the
method, details, and timetable of shooting. It may also be a time in which you
assemble final funding and distribution.
Seasoned filmmakers never rely on spontaneous inspiration because once you
start filming, the pace and demand of the work are all-encompassing. Werner
Herzog, questioned after a screening about “the intellectual challenge during
shooting,” replied caustically that “filmmaking is athletic, not aesthetic.” Most
filming, he told the startled audience, is so grueling that rarefied thought is all
but impossible. François Truffaut makes a similar point in Day for Night (1973).
Its central character is a director whose fiction movie runs into a thicket of
208 PREPRODUCTION

problems and compromises. Played by Truffaut himself, the director confides that
at the start he always thinks the film is going to be his best, but halfway through
shooting he can only think about surviving until the finish. My own fantasy,
which returns at least once every shoot, is to escape further filming by miracu-
lously turning into the owner of a rural grocery.
The thought and planning you invest before shooting, and how thoroughly
you anticipate problems, go far to ensure a successful and trouble-free shoot.
Most importantly, they help ensure that the movie is a coherent entity. Directing
a documentary, contrary to the impression of spontaneous auteurism, is always
founded to some degree in preliminary conclusions reached during research.
Depending on the kind of film you are making, this may mean that shooting is
largely collecting evidence for underlying patterns and relationships already iden-
tified. Or, in less controlled situations, it is a solid preparation for what is normal
so that, when an atypical event begins, you can react immediately to develop-
ments that would otherwise pass you by.

RESEARCH OVERVIEW
In summary, the purposes of research are to

• Assemble a context and basic factual information

• Get to know the whole scene so that you can narrow down to what is sig-
nificant
• Become known and trusted by potential participants
• Communicate your motivations and purposes for making a film
• See a lot of characteristic activity so that you know what is normal and what
is not
• Understand who represents what so that you can make representative
choices
• See who will make a good participant and who won’t
• Develop a proposal indicating intended content, theme, and style so that
you can try out your ideas on other people and raise funds or other
support
• Decide what the ultimate purpose of making the film should be
• Assemble all the human and material resources so that you can shoot

Let’s assume you have chosen a subject and are starting the initial research phase
that will culminate in developing a written proposal. No two people research
alike, but some steps are fairly universal. Research methods hinge on the exi-
gencies of the subject, so you must first be sure you have the makings of a film.
No documentary can be made from good intentions, only from what can be cap-
tured with a camera. What film is possible?
Following are some recommended steps, which I will elaborate upon later.
Often you will be forced by circumstances to take these steps out of any ideal
15: INITIAL RESEARCH AND THE DRAFT PROPOSAL 209

order or to take several concurrently. Whenever you hit an impediment, turn and
work elsewhere so that you don’t waste time. Filmmaking demands lateral think-
ing; progress in one area affects what you have decided in another, making you
constantly readjust your idea of the whole. This may be frustrating until you get
used to it.
The following list of steps is for those doing exhaustive research, but because
documentary makers usually have several irons in the fire, most proposals are
written from partial rather than conclusive research. There is a Form and
Aesthetics Questionnaire in Appendix 2 that will help you decide what stage you
have reached. Even when research is rather complete, there is usually a fallow
period while funds and sponsoring organizations are being sought, so you should
always expect a last-minute hustle just before shooting begins.

Begin the initial stages:

1. Define an off-the-top-of-your-head working hypothesis for the subject (see
Working Hypothesis and Interpretation section of the documentary Project
Proposal organizer later). Don’t reserve all judgments until you feel confi-
dent that you know enough. It will never happen, so get going with the imag-
inative work that begins an imaginative documentary.
2. Begin site research. That is, familiarize yourself with
A. People and situations that you plan to film
B. Find out what’s typical in the world you are going to film
C. Find out what’s unusual, unexpected, and particular in the one you are
looking at
D. Stay loose. Keep any explanations broad and tentative so that you don’t
paint yourself into a corner
3. Do background research, that is,
A. Use the resources of the Internet to pull up all the references and ideas
you can find
B. Study publications covering your subject, such as magazines, newspa-
pers, professional journals, and even fiction, any of which may offer
useful ideas and observations
C. See the films on the the subject, but not if you feel vulnerable to their
influence
D. Talk to any experts who will share what they know. As a documentar-
ian you routinely depend on others in this way. Your expertise rests in
bringing a special world and its issues to a first-time audience, so being
an ignorant outsider actually helps you decide what that audience needs,
something that is beyond most experts.
4. Develop trust.
A. Communicate. Make yourself and a broad version of your purposes
known to everyone you may want to film. Let them question you if they
need to find out your values and purposes.
B. Learn. Put yourself in the position of learning from your subjects,
because they are the experts.
210 PREPRODUCTION

C. Hang out. Spending a period of time with your subjects is the most valu-
able thing you can do, both to absorb everything you need to know and
to make yourself available so that people can develop trust in your char-
acter and purposes.
5. Make reality checks to ensure that
A. You have multiple perspectives on each person, fact, or facet, especially
when there are ambiguities (see the Form and Aesthetics Questionnaire
in Appendix 2)
B. What you want to film is accessible
C. People are amenable and cooperative
D. Releases and permissions will be forthcoming
E. The resources you will need are not beyond your means

Develop the first draft of the proposal:

6. List the action sequences and decide how far action and behavioral mater-
ial alone would make an interesting and coherent observational documen-
tary. To envision making a coherent silent film is the litmus of how cinematic
your film is and, conversely, how much it will need to rely on speech for nar-
rative guidance.
7. Preinterview
A. Audition. Using video very informally, interview those you’re consider-
ing for the film. Ask no searching questions—reserve these for when you
shoot.
B. Casting. Watch the tape with a few trusted friends to see how potential
participants come across. This is analogous to casting. Good quality
audio can be used later as voice-over.
C. Don’t push yet. Avoid being intrusive or divisive. Discuss only the ideas
your participants suggest and in nebulous terms that delay all decisions
to the future.
8. Rewrite the working hypothesis as new information alters the basis for your
intended film. Reworking the hypothesis (described later) is the best way to
reconfigure your thematic purpose. Expect this to change as your knowledge
grows. Avoiding this work will leave you unsure what or how to shoot, and
you’ll end up shooting everything that moves.

Refine the proposal:

9. Narrow the focus, deepen the film. Always seek the center of your film by
assuming that you may not yet have it. Narrowing its scope always benefits
a film because it makes you seek and expand its essence. Tightly focused films
that go deep are always better than broad, generalizing films that skimp on
specifics.
10. List points your film must make so that you forget nothing important as you
direct. For instance,
A. List expository information that the audience must have, and plan to
cover it several ways
B. List the thematic or other goals that you want your film to fulfill
15: INITIAL RESEARCH AND THE DRAFT PROPOSAL 211

C. Make sure you shoot material so that you can show what or who is in
conflict, and that you contrive to bring the antithetical forces together
in confrontation.
11. Develop your own angle or point of view, defining what exactly you want
to say and what emphasis you may need to impose so that you can collect
the materials to do it.
12. Write a three-line description. If you can summarize your film and its pur-
poses in three lines, and people react to it positively, you may be ready to
direct it. If you can’t, you aren’t.
13. Make necessary remaining choices, that is,
A. Casting. Decide finally which people and places you want to use, and
define their rhythms, routines, and the imagery such as cityscape, land-
scape, workplace that is emblematic of their condition
B. List what’s typical and atypical to guide your filming when you are ready.
You will want the best of both
C. Expunge clichés, then list what can you show that is fresh, surprising,
and different compared with other people’s work
D. Decide central character or characters (ask yourself from time to time
whose story it is)
E. Define whose point of view the various parts of the story should favor
F. Define the essential dialectics of your film—the central point and coun-
terpoint of its argument—so that you can be sure to collect all the mate-
rials you need

Address aesthetic concerns:

14. Style. Define
A. The style that best serves each sequence
B. The style that serves your point of view
C. The stylistic characteristics of the film as a whole
D. Anything to avoid
15. Seek inherent myths, emblems, symbols, and key imagery by deciding
A. What life-role each person is likely to enact in the drama you are begin-
ning to perceive
B. What images you have seen or expect to see that convey the heart of
what you have to say
C. Key actions whose connotations have special meaning for the central
purposes of your film
D. Which type of story yours is. What is closest to it in the world’s repos-
itory of stories? Any parallels that suggest archetypes, myths, or legends
will strengthen your film by moving it toward the universal.
16. Test your assumptions.
A. Pitch your ideas to anyone who will listen and solicit their reactions.
Alter your pitch to maximize the audience response, and consider how
these changes affect the film you intend making.
B. Ask people to read the proposal and comment on what it makes them
expect. Do they see the film that you see?
212 PREPRODUCTION

Getting near to shooting time:

17. Make the final draft of your intentions. Even if you have nobody to satisfy
but yourself, work over all the considerations prior to shooting. Originality
does not come from talent (whatever that is) but from the work of
sustained, determined thinking. Writing makes you think. Check back with
the Form and Aesthetics Questionnaire in Appendix 2.
18. Make a rough budget (see the Budget Planning Form later in this chapter).
19. Write a treatment. This is optional and consists of writing the film you see
in your head after developing the research. A treatment and a sample reel
may be necessities when you apply for money (see The Treatment).
20. Obtain permissions. Secure a commitment (preferably in writing) of time and
involvement from those you intend to film. If you intend to shoot in non-
public locations, secure written permissions for them beforehand. In many
cities you now must have permission from the authorities to film in the streets
or on public transportation.

Once shooting becomes definite:

21. Secure your crew.
22. Make a shooting schedule and build in options to deal with foreseeable dif-
ficulties, such as inclement weather or unavailability of a major element or
participant.
23. Do any necessary trial shooting to
A. “Audition” doubtful participants
B. Work out communications with a new crew
C. Set standards for work you are going to do together
D. Test new or unfamiliar technology

THE DOCUMENTARY PROPOSAL

Everyone dreads writing the proposal, which is so necessary when you have to
communicate your intentions, and particularly when it comes to fundraising.
However, its most important function is forcing you to clarify the organizational
and thematic analysis you have (or have not) developed during research. Then,
as the time comes to pitch your film (that is, to seek support through making
verbal presentations of it), you will be able to draw a clear and forcefully attrac-
tive picture of your intentions.
Another useful function is that the proposal helps prepare you to direct the
film, that is, to shoot (capture and catalyze) materials that will really add up to
something. Being unprepared leads to blindly collecting stuff that you hope can
be beaten into shape during editing. It nearly always cannot.
The proposal also shows how well you intend to fulfill the conditions of
documentary itself. Always depending on the kind of film you are making, it
should
15: INITIAL RESEARCH AND THE DRAFT PROPOSAL 213

• Tell a good story

• Make human truths, both large and small, emerge through behavioral
evidence, not just verbal description
• Present a personal, critical perspective on some aspect of the human
condition
• Inform and emotionally move the audience
Like a gripping piece of fiction, the successful documentary usually incorporates

• Well-placed exposition of necessary information (facts or context placed not

too early or too late)
• Interesting characters that are actively trying to do or get something
• Events that emerge from the characters’ needs
• Dramatic tension and conflict between opposing forces
• Suspense—not people hanging off cliffs, but situations that intrigue your
spectators and make them anticipate, wonder, compare, and decide
• Confrontation between conflicting persons, factions, or elements
• A climax in the tension between opposing elements or forces
• A resolution (happy or sad, good or bad, satisfying or not)
• Development in at least one major character or situation

These criteria may seem too much in bed with traditional fiction to fit docu-
mentary, but most of these points apply to stories of all kinds, even the most
experimental. Look again at your favorite documentaries and see whether they
incorporate these dramatic ingredients. I bet when you look closely they do.
Keep on writing and rewriting the proposal until it is succinct, free of redun-
dancy, and effortless to read. A good proposal demonstrates how you expect to
meet the implicit expectations of documentary and that you really understand
the genre. Experienced funders know that thin or muddled writing will lead to
thin or muddled filmmaking. Conversely, whoever can think and write clearly is
on the way to excelling in the more demanding work of making films.

DOCUMENTARY PROPOSAL ORGANIZER

The Proposal Organizer following will help you write a proposal or develop a
prospectus package as you search for financial support. Think of its categories
like the pigeonholes in a mail sorting office. A well-researched film will have
something substantial and different to put in most, if not all. If you find you’ve
put similar material into more than one classification, go to further drafts until
material is presented only once and in its rightful place. This is very important.
For simplicity the proposal organizer is geared toward a short and uncom-
plicated film, but it works well for something longer and more complex. Every-
thing you write should be brief, because a completed proposal should not be
longer than four or five pages. Use the Proposal Organizer as the first step toward
the final version.
214 PREPRODUCTION

PROPOSAL ORGANIZER
Working title ______________________ Format _______________________
Director _________________________ Camera ______________________
Sound ___________________________ Editor _______________________
Others (Role) _____________________ (Role) ________________________

1. WORKING HYPOTHESIS and INTERPRETATION. What are your per-

suasions about the world you are going to show in your film, the “state-
ment” you want to emerge out of the film’s dialectics? Write a hypothesis
statement that incorporates the following wording:
A. In life I believe that (your philosophy regarding the particular life-
principle that your film will exemplify) __________
B. My film will show this in action by exploring (situation) __________
C. My film’s main conflict is between __________ and __________
D. My film’s point of view, or its POV character, will be __________
E. I expect my film’s structure to be determined by __________
F. The subject and point of view suggest a style that is __________
G. Ultimately I want the audience to feel __________
H. . . . and to understand that __________
2. TOPIC and EXPOSITION. Write a paragraph that includes
A. Your film’s subject (person, group, environment, social issue, and so
on)
B. Expository information (factual or other background information) so
that the reader can see the enclosed world into which you are going
to take us
3. ACTION SEQUENCES. Write a brief paragraph about any sequence that
will show characters, an event, or an activity. (A sequence is usually delin-
eated by being in one location, one chunk of time, or an assembly of mate-
rials to show one topic.) For each, describe
A. The sequence’s expected action
B. What information or persuasion it contributes to the film
C. The agendas or conflicts you expect it to evidence
D. Any useful metaphors it will suggest
E. Any special, symbolic, or emblematic imagery it will contain
F. What structures the events (especially through time)
G. What the sequence will contribute to the film as a whole
4. MAIN CHARACTERS. Write briefly about each main character,
including
A. The person’s identity—name, relationship to others in film—and his
or her qualities
B. What he or she contributes to your film’s story
C. The metaphoric role you see this person occupying in relation to what
else is in the film
15: INITIAL RESEARCH AND THE DRAFT PROPOSAL 215

D. What this character wants to get or do in relation to the others or to

the situation
E. Any direct speech quotation that freshly and directly conveys what
this person is about
5. CONFLICT. What is being argued or worked out in this film? Define
A. What conflict the characters know they are playing out
B. What conflict you see them playing out (of which they may be quite
unaware)
C. What other principles (of opinion, view, vision, and so on) you see at
issue
D. How, where, and when will one force confront the other in your film
(the confrontation, which is very important)
E. Possible developments you see emerging from this or other
confrontations
6. SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE. What will this film say about the lives it por-
trays, and what is the social significance of this? Why should people care
to watch this film?
7. YOUR MOTIVATION FOR MAKING THE FILM. What, in your back-
ground and interests, impels you to make the film? This indicates whether
you have the energy, passion, and commitment to stay the course and
make an outstanding film.
8. AUDIENCE, ITS KNOWLEDGE AND PREJUDICES. A documentary
should anticipate the expectations—both right ones and wrong—of its
audience. Your film is in a dialogue with these prejudices and must extend,
subvert, or endorse them. Complete the following:
A. My intended audience is (don’t write “Everyone!”) __________
B I can expect the audience to know __________ but not to know
__________
C. I assume positive audience prejudices are __________ and negative
ones are __________
D. Countervailing facts, ideas, and feelings that my audience needs to
experience are __________
9. TO-CAMERA INTERVIEWS. Because “talking heads” have been
overused they are now out of favor, but they do make good safety cov-
erage. Also, a well-recorded track can be used as voice-over narration or
interior monologue. For each intended interviewee, list
A. Name, age, gender
B. Job, profession, or role
C. Metaphoric role in your film’s dramatic structure
D. Main elements that your interview will seek to establish
10. STYLE. Shooting or editing style that might augment or counterpoint
your film’s content. Comment on
A. Documentary genre you are using, and how this affects the film’s style
B. Point of view and how this affects shooting and editing styles
216 PREPRODUCTION

C. Narration (if there is to be any, and by whom)

D. Lighting moods
E. Visual and other rhythms
F. Any intercutting or parallel storytelling
G. Intended juxtaposition of like or unlike materials to create compari-
son, ironic tension, etc.
11. TONE. Describe the progression of moods of the film as you see them,
and the film’s prevailing tone.
12. STRUCTURE. Write a brief paragraph on how you might structure your
film. Consider
A. How you will handle the progression of time in the film
B. How and through whom the story will be told
C. What elements in the film (such as a process, journey, season, etc) that
will probably structure the film
D. How important information will emerge
E. What will probably be the climactic sequence or “crisis” in your story,
and where in the structure this might go
F. What other sequences will become the falling action after the “crisis”
13. RESOLUTION. Your film’s ending is your last word. It exerts a strong
influence on the film’s final impact. Write a brief paragraph about how
you imagine your film ending and what meaning you foresee it establish-
ing for the audience. If the events could go in more than one direction, it
is entirely realistic to hypothesize different endings.

THE PROPOSAL
The final proposal will probably be presented to a fund, foundation, or televi-
sion channel—that’s if they fund at the conceptual stage, which is rare today
unless you have a stellar track record. You may be canvassing individual
investors. Note that a good title for your film is an extremely important part of
signaling your wares and attracting support.
Use the information you collected in the Proposal Organizer under the dif-
ferent headings, putting selected information in the order that will work best for
the foundation, fund, or channel to which you are applying. Write compactly,
informatively, and poetically so that the reader can “see” all the essentials of
the film in the writing. This means summoning up the essence with maximum
brevity. Expect to go through 10 to 20 drafts before you have something worthy
of you.
Typically a proposal will include the following:
• Cover sheet (1 page)
• Program description (3 pages)
• Synopsis of the project, maybe in 25 words or less
• Treatment explaining background information, structure, theme, style,
format (16mm film, DVCAM, Digital BetaCam, HDTV, etc.), voice, and
point of view
15: INITIAL RESEARCH AND THE DRAFT PROPOSAL 217

• Target communities for the program and why this audience is presently
unserved by television (television is usually trying to fill gaps)
• How you are known to (and trusted by) the community in which you
propose filming.
• Why public television (for instance) is the right place for this program
• Current status of the project
• Production personnel (2 to 3 pages)
• Applicants’ full resumés
• Key production personnel names, positions, short biographies
• Previous and present work samples
• Previously completed sample work (either demo reel or completed film—
see fund guidelines)
• Work-in-progress (WIP) of perhaps 5 minutes minimum length
• Written descriptions of prior work, applicants’ creative contribution to it,
its relevance to WIP, and what the WIP represents (rough cut, trailer,
selects, or a clip)
Funding organizations that routinely solicit applications streamline their process
to ensure that juries compare consistent documentation. They usually issue their
own proposal forms, expect you to write in very specific ways, and want a spec-
ified number of copies with everything labeled in very specific ways. If you seri-
ously expect support, you must fulfill what they expect, so check and re-check
everything before you close up the package. A weary committee member sifting
through a great pile of competing applications sees departures from the norm not
as charming originality but indifference to the jury’s task. You cannot afford to
lose support at the outset through inattention to details.
The Independent Television Service (ITVS) Web site is a mine of information
on how to apply and what independent films have recently been funded (see
www.itvs.org and go to “For Producers”). The site gives valuable hints on writing
a better application. Passion and innovation are high on the list of desirable
attributes.
For information on the PBS series POV go to www.pbs.org/pov/utils/
aboutpov_faq.html and to their call for entries Web site www.pbs.org/pov/
utils/callforentries.html#callforentriesk. The guidelines of these program portals,
through which many important American independent documentaries get
made, are inundated with applications. Most documentaries must now be initi-
ated by their makers rather than funded at the proposal stage. ITVS and POV
ask producers to apply with a substantial amount of the footage or a long edited
version.
Web sites that offer open access are normally a mine of information on all
aspects of making documentaries for television. Read carefully, because every-
thing you see is meant to parry the commonest mistakes and misunderstandings.
Most documentary applications are abysmal. An ITVS regional jury on which I
once sat for 3 days ended up unanimously considering only 6 out of 140 appli-
cations to be at all promising. Two of those we chose (which ITVS in the end
failed to support) went on by other means to become quite famous independent
films.
218 PREPRODUCTION

Note that when you propose a film to television, they expect you to be geared
to their audience and to have plans for your film to function educationally in
designated communities afterward. Documentaries are expected to have long and
useful lives after their single showing on TV, and it’s your job to figure out who
will use your film afterward and in what way.

THE TREATMENT
The treatment, like the proposal, is more armament in the battle to get a film
made and exists to convince a sponsor, fund, or broadcasting organization that
you are uniquely prepared to make a film of impact and significance. Whereas
the proposal presents its argument rationally via categorized information, the
treatment evokes how an audience would experience the film on the screen. A
treatment is therefore a short story narrative that excludes any philosophical or
directorial intentions. To make one,
• Restructure the information you worked up in the proposal into a chrono-
logical presentation, allotting one paragraph per sequence.
• Write an active-voice, present-tense summary of what an audience watching
the film you expect to make will see and hear from the screen.
• Write colorfully so that the reader visualizes what you see in your mind’s
eye.
• Convey information and evoke your characters wherever possible by using
their own words in brief, pithy quotations.
• Never write anything that the reader will think you cannot produce.
• Keep within the specified page count.

BUDGET PLANNING FORM

Your final budget, or a budget summary sheet, should wherever possible be done
using a budget software program. Here is an all-purpose form to prompt what
you will need to cover by way of costs (Figure 15–1). Note that in this early
stage, you may find it useful to compile for your own use both high and low
figures as optimistic and pessimistic approaches, respectively. This should keep
you from underestimation. A contingency percentage is always added at the end
of a film budget to cover the unforeseen, such as bad-weather delays, reshoots,
additions, or substitutions. Note that unusually low budgets are seen as a sign
of dangerous inexperience and seldom attract support.

THE PROSPECTUS
This presentation package or portfolio communicates your project and its pur-
poses to non-filmmaking funders, who may be quite task oriented. The League
of Left-Handed Taxidermists wants to know how Stuffing Badgers will be useful
to them, how much it costs, and why. A prospectus should be thoroughly pro-
fessional and contain: