Client Proposal - The Final Draft

The final proposal for my client proposal was a 30 page bound document to include the following sections:

• Background & Introduction
• Synopsis
• Treatment
• Characters
• Locations
• Style & Format
• Structure
• Production Plan
• Budget
• Audience & Distribution
• Production Personnel
• Appendices
• A: Playworks Newsletter
• B: Play Parade flyer
• C: Work in progress DVD
• D: Location Photos
• E: Visualisations
• F: Script
• G: Scene Summary
• H: Detailed Shooting Schedule
• I: Detailed Budget
• J: Production Personnel Details
• K: Management & Legalities
• Bibliography

Writing the actual proposal was a lot easier than I had expected. Although I think this was only because I had done a lot of background research and 'preparation' for the proposal (for example the proposal organiser in Michael Rabiger's book).

I found it very difficult to produce the budget as I lack skills on Excel, which is not good considering I want to go into Producing. I found it interesting however to find out professional rates for crew staff and prices for hiring equipment. In total the foretasted budget came to a grand total of £85,000. This is the cost for the entire production including salary, insurance, staff, pre-production, production, post-production and distribution. One of the largest cost I found was my salary (if the documentary was being produced commercially for broadcast).

Producing a detailed schedule was not only time-consuming but also difficult as certain aspects had to be decided. For example I used the Production Management Software Celtx to write a script, for which I needed to know precise details. The script then acted as a backbone to create a detailed schedule, scene summary, catalogue etc. Once all the main details were inserted the software efficiently produced reports, this indirectly saves time for the rest of the pre-production phase.

Ultimately the appendix items made up most of the proposal and supported the main written section. I enjoyed producing the proposal and it gave me an insight into aspects I wouldn't have otherwise thought of. Although the proposal had been handed in there is still a great deal of pre-production to do:

• Detailed call sheets for crew
  
• Recce of all locations
• Risk Assessment for all locations
• Obtain talent and location release plans
• Shot Lists
• Equipment Lists
• Production Briefing Meetings