Documentary Treatment & Proposal

➔ Working Title
➔ Your name & contact details
➔ Logline

Explanation of act one - Where are we? What’s this documentary about? Who
are the main characters? What do they want? What’s the tone? What’s the setup?

Explanation of act two - What pushes these characters to change? What’s the
conflict? Where’s the story going?

Explanation of act three - How does the story reach a resolution? What’s the
climax?

Final wrap-up - Where do you leave the characters? What happens at the very
end? Is there an epilogue?

Documentary synopsis - A synopsis is a short overview of your story,

explaining why it’s important and how you’re going to tell it. A synopsis varies in
length from a couple of paragraphs to a few pages. - The more you produce and
explain your idea the clearer it will be.

Documentary logline - A logline is a one-sentence summary of your film that

entices someone to read the entire script. Loglines explain the key parts of your
screenplay—like the main character, inciting incident, central conflict, and
antagonist—in a tight, hooky sentence. - Think of 3 for your idea.

Documentary tagline - A tagline is like a mini version of a logline. It's a quick,

catchy sentence used by marketers and distributors to advertise and sell your
film. You’ll often see it on movie posters, DVD covers, film catalogues, adverts or
TV guides.

Documentary treatment - Much like a script, your film treatment details exact
scenes, main characters and story structure. It’s a constantly developing
document that you’ll need to tweak as the story comes together. Large funding
agencies might want to see your treatment if you approach them for fundraising
—however, this can be difficult in the early stages of the pre-production process
due to the unknown nature of documentaries.

Create an outline. Think about HOW you’re going to tell your story. What’s the
structure? The style? Is there existing footage or photos that help tell your story
or will everything need to be shot brand new? Who is your primary character(s)?
What are your core story points? What are the elements of your story that are
compelling and/or make you “tingle” with intrigue? How can you create that
intrigue for your audience? Is there some existing situation you can film or do
you need to create the moment?

Outline:
➔ Styles → Participatory - interactive, Performative, Poetic and Expository
➔ No existing footage → everything’s new
➔ Primary characters
➔ Core story points
➔ Elements of the story
➔ Create intrigue for the audience
◆ Negative impact/overview → Positive impact/overview
➔ Some existing situations able to be filmed or do I need to need to create
the moment

Proposal:
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? (Credibility of production team)
• How will this work be distributed? (Which markets, any distributor on board
already?)
• Project history or current status of project.
• Historical background or context of the story
• Who, what, where, when, how, why?