Core app document, which can be updated as
your project evolves. That will be your key to
several grants in the doc world.
HOW TO WRITE PROPOSALS
Ask yourself honestly: How good of a
writer are you? Not everyone is a great
writer, and that’s fine. Try to find someone
who has written a grant proposal before. Or
get a sample of one. You can ask for advice at
sources like The D-Word (d-word.com). You
might even get someone to review something
for you as a favor. Don’t think that you can
write your proposal in a vacuum, because
there is a style for grant writing.
You’re telling a story; you’re not only getting
across what your film is about. You want to
demonstrate on the page that you’re a great
storyteller, and the more your vision can come
alive on the page, the better. It’s not enough
that people reading your proposal say, “This is
a cool idea.” They need to say, “This is a cool
idea, and this person and their team have an
ability to convey this idea in an interesting
way—in a way that’s clear, in a way that’s emo-
tional, in a way that’s unpretentious, in a way
that is unique or special or surprising.”
IMAGINE A FULL PICTURE
I personally dislike when people say, “I want
to see something that I’ve never seen before.”
We’ve heard a lot of love songs, but I wouldn’t
tell anyone that I’ve heard a love song before, LEFT: COURTESY OF SHELLA FILMS; RIGHT: PHOTOGRAPH BY PETTER RINGBOM / COURTESY OF OPENDOX
34 SPRING 2020 MOVIEMAKER.COM
so I don’t want to hear their love song. If you
have a topic that people could quickly label as
familiar, how are you going to emphasize the
way that you’re approaching this topic differ-
ently? And why is it important that you tell this
story this way? That’s what a lot of people get
wrong about how they present their project—
it’s not just “this story,” but it’s also “this way.”
This can be tricky for documentaries, especially
if you’re applying for early funding, because a
lot of it is discovered in the making of the film
on location with your subjects, or in the edit
bay when you sort of write the film in post.
People think they can tell a grant maker
what has already happened with a film, and
that the rest will just magically take care of
itself. But a grant reviewer wants to know
that this person or team has the ability to
imagine a full film. Show them that you have
the capacity to envision and communicate afull story, and be transparent about what you
know already and what you’re anticipating
will unfold in front of your camera, even if
you don’t really know that full story will be.
As you start to win your first grants, you’ll
see that sometimes you win the grant, and
then the project changes. That’s OK.
Part of what’s interesting with grant
writing is that a grant application is like a
snapshot in the evolution of your project.
Think of it like a photograph of a field in
one season. In the next season, it’s the same
place, but looks different. Be honest about el-
ements you’re unsure about as you write each
application, but also use your writing and
work sample to demonstrate your creativity
and your ability to be imaginative.
Sometimes you will write something in your
grant application that hasn’t happened yet,
or is a hopeful outcome for the story you’re
telling. And then you make the film, and lo and
behold, your film told the story that way.PERFECT HARMONY
With your work sample, you definitely
want to gravitate toward emotional mo-
ments—moments that grant makers can
easily imagine becoming scenes, or parts of
scenes, with compelling characters. A sizzle
reel is not a good idea, because again, you’re
not just showing what the story is, but how
the story is going to be told. Do whatever you
can to communicate how your film will feel“
YOU WANT TO
DEMONSTRATE ON THE
PAGE THAT YOU’RE A
GREAT STORYTELLER.
”