proposal guidelines

Guidelines for project proposals

A project proposal is a working document. It will change as your project evolves. It will enable you to be able to present your project to others (funders, producers, colleagues, etc.) in a concise and hopefully effective way.

The length and the format of a proposal will depend on the intended reader, requirements of the funding agency, etc. Keeping in mind that film is visual, feel free to enliven your text with images that will help the reader imagine what kind of a project you are proposing to realize. For our purposes, the proposal should contain the following and could either be in Turkish or English:

- Cover page: title of the project, an image about the project, and name of the filmmaker/writer

- Brief description of the project in 1-2 sentences

- Background/Context: a few paragraphs putting the project in (a) social/historical/political/artistic AND personal context(s), answering questions such as why this project, why you? why now?

- Synopsis/Abstract: a narrative (content) summary of the project (1 page)

- Treatment: a few pages or more on how you will treat this subject matter and content (summarized in the synopsis) in your project. Describe the project that you have in your mind in detail and in chronological order. We should feel its style/taste/smell as well and able to imagine the same project as you do! How do you intend to show/say what you have described so far? What will we read/see/hear? And, why in these ways? This is also where you discuss your particular approach and your rationale for the choices (stylistic/aesthetic/ethical/methodological, etc.) you make.

- Budget & Resources: a realistic 1-page budget and a brief description of how you intend to fund this project and resources available to you. (Also: who are the people who will accomplish the described project? what are their credentials/experience?)

- Schedule: a realistic 1-page schedule (what is the time-frame? when will you accomplish what?). A weekly schedule that takes into account the three phases (please see the syllabus) will be useful.

- Distribution/Exhibition plan: to whom and where do you plan to exhibit and how do you intend to use/distribute your end product?