The Concept Development phase consists of these 5 parts:
This will need to describe which piece you are proposing and give an initial sense of your approach, what will happen, what it will look like, and what the narrative is about. Include your proposed project title and approximate length.
Describe what kind of work you are imagining (i.e., experimental, fiction, documentary, hybrid), what the piece will be about, what will happen, and what visual techniques and treatments will be used (i.e. time-lapse, hand-drawn animation). For example, Let’s say your chosen object is a chrysalis you found on a walk…
A one-minute experimental documentary film, Metamorphosis follows a caterpillar’s transformation from an ugly larva to a stunning butterfly through a delicate dance of time-lapse and macro cinematography.
Identify the key themes you will be exploring and communicating. What is your project’s main idea(s)? What do you want to say? If you think you are dealing with multiple themes, try to sort out which one is most important and how others follow
For example, Metamorphosis is about: There is no such thing as change for the better or change for the worse: all change is growth. Change is inevitable and not something we can control. It is natural but can be disruptive and life-changing.
Or I could decide that it is about: Beauty as a quality not of the things of this world but of the attention we give to the things of this world.
Sorting out the theme will help you make all kinds of decisions at the next stages.
Explain why you want to make this particular project. What do you want to learn (this can be a technique, subject matter or an approach)? Why is this project worth making? Why should your audience care?
Describe what you envision unfolding on the screen – i.e., what we will see happening as though we are seeing it now. This is the “what” of your piece. This will be the main body of the proposal.
If your work has fictional elements, describe it here, in visual terms, as you imagine it unfolding on screen: This happens. Then this happens. Then this happens. **
For example: “A spider dangles at the end of its thread. A single raindrop plonks then splatters across a bright green leaf. A yellow worm inches up along the stem.”
If you are proposing an improvised shoot of a particular place, person, or thing, then describe it in such a way that we can imagine a narrative unfolding on screen. If you can imagine your piece as a series of images, events, or moments, describe it as such. Use the present rather than the future or past tense (“the raindrop splatters” NOT “after the raindrop splattered” nor “the raindrop will splatter”).
Describe as though we are seeing and hearing it now. Do not write in camera directions/framing or audio cues at this stage rather focus on sequencing of visual story.
The equipment and facilities you anticipate you need to make this project. Where will you shoot the video, and are there any props needed? This will help you secure your location and acquire any materials needed in advance.