Transcripts
1. Class Intro: [MUSIC] Hello, my name is Olaf. I'm a filmmaker from Iceland. I've been doing films, writing, directing, producing
for over 20 years. Over the course of my
two-decade career, the difference that
has made a difference in helping me
finance and complete over 12 feature films has been the ability to make
strong film proposals. My aim for this class is to
make my industry secrets available for everyone because I think knowledge
should be shared. In this class, I'm
going to give you my six step outline. I'm going to show you
directly how I make my film proposals
and in each lesson you will do a small task
and little by little, you will learn how to make a
film proposal independently. You will learn how
to write a logline, synopsis, a treatment, a visual statement
and much more. This class is for anyone who is starting out in
filmmaking or anyone who wants to learn
how to present your project in a film
proposal to investors. When you complete this class, you will receive a full on 34 pages document on how to make a compelling
film proposal. The only physical thing that
you need for this class is a writing application
of your choice. I look forward to helping
you learn or rather sharing with you my way of doing a film proposal so
you can then learn it and adapt it and do it
yourself beautifully, masterfully, and then
roar into this guy. This is getting a little
too long and let's just jump into the first lesson
is going to be easy. We're doing a logline.
Sorry. [MUSIC]
2. Class Project: [MUSIC] Thank you for
joining this class. In this video, I'm
going to provide you with an overview of
the lessons ahead. In order to teach you how
to make a film proposal, let me demystify a little bit. It is a method that start with a small box and each box becomes bigger
and bigger and bigger. We're going to start
small in this class. We start with a logline, then a synopsis, then a treatment. [LAUGHTER]
You get the picture. Let's discuss the class
project in the lessons ahead for you to learn how to do a film proposal for investors. Let's first look at
our final outcome or small brochure that will be the result of the six
fundamental steps and exercises in each
lesson in this class. In order for us to learn
how to do a film proposal, we're going to do an example
project in this class. We will be making a
short film hypothetical, proposal example, out of
the classic fairy tale, The Ugly Duckling
by H.C. Andersen. These are the six steps
we'll take in this class. Your task is to write a
minimum of one paragraph for each lesson with one
notable exception in the first lesson when
you write the logline. Let's look at these steps. We start with a logline
which is one line. Then we move into
writing a synopsis, which is in this
case a paragraph. Then we move into the treatment, which is a long form scene by scene description
of your project. After that, we move into
the author statement, which is all about you, your take on the project, and why it is important to you. From there, we move into
a visual statement. How are you going to approach
the project visually in terms of cinematography style,
and so on and so forth. Then we wrap things up by making a marketing and target
audience prediction. After you have
completed this class, completed all the six lessons, remember to write a review for the class and create
a class project. After you've done that, you
can send me an email with your name to receive the full
brochure for this class, a PDF document with
all the information in this class with more detailed
instructions and examples. I look forward to helping you learn how to make
a film proposal. Remember, this class is
just the core fundamentals. After you finished the class, you can add anything you
like into your proposal. Anyway, let's start. [MUSIC]
3. Logline: In this lesson, we're going to learn
how to write a logline. A logline is that one
sentence description that captivates your film idea. [MUSIC] A logline consists of that one sentence that
describes your film. The point of writing
a logline is to convey the concept as
quickly as possible, similar to writing a
short description of the film or what is
sometimes called a synopsis. A logline is a great way to give a quick sense
of your project. [MUSIC] A logline for The Ugly Duckling might
sound something like this. Set in a timeless
fairy tale land, a duckling fights to stay
alive in harsh environment, not realizing that it is
stronger than it thinks. This is just the first try for the logline and they're
not going to work on it and polish it even more. Your task in this
lesson is to write your first version
for the logline, and you can use this
example project about the fairy tale
of The Ugly Duckling. If you don't have
a project that is, and in the next lesson, we're going to expand the
logline into a synopsis.
4. Synopsis - Long: [MUSIC] In this lesson,
we're going to learn how to write the synopsis for
the film proposal. What is a synopsis? A synopsis is a short
description of your project. Directly, the word
synopsis means a brief summary or general
survey of something. In this lesson, we're going
to talk about synopsis in a general manner and look at two long form synopsis
and in the next lesson, you are going to write a
one paragraph synopsis and I'm going to show you an
example on how you do that. In this lesson,
let's just talk in general about the
magic of a synopsis. The purpose of our
synopsis is to get your idea quickly
across to the reader, not as quick as a
logline, but close. It is the next step after you've done the logline like
you did in the last lesson. When writing a short
description of your project, I always suggest spending as
much time on it as possible. A well-written synopsis can pave the way not only for investors
to understand your idea, but I always say the same thing, also collaborators and
of course yourself. When you hand someone
your synopsis, it is almost like giving them a passport into the story
world you're creating. How many words or paragraphs
are in a synopsis? There are two types of
synopsis that you can write. It is common that when you are introducing a project
to investors that they ask for either
a short synopsis or a long synopsis and
sometimes both. A short synopsis is usually
one paragraph, 3-5 sentences. A long synopsis
can be 1-2 pages. The benefit of writing a
synopsis comes in many forms. One, you get to know your
story better by writing it. It will help coworkers
and collaborators to know quickly what
your story is about, and it is an essential
part of simply introducing the
project to investors film fountains and so on. I would suggest that writing the one paragraph synopsis is properly one of the
most important steps in making a film proposal. The upside of having a strong one paragraph
synopsis is that, of course it is short and can be sent in messages
and emails and so on, and also expressed verbally
at any given time. Let's look at two
examples of a synopsis. For these two examples, remember that you can download the full examples in a PDF document that
comes with this class. Right now, let's just check out the opening paragraphs for each synopsis in these examples. These are long form
synopsis, 1-2 pages. I definitely recommend that you download these two synopsis in the class resources so you can spend some time
reading through them. Right now, let's listen to a full reading of one
of these long synopsis. After a mother
duck's eggs hatch, one of the ducklings is perceived
by the other animals as an ugly little creature and suffers much verbal
and physical abuse. He wanders from the
barnyard and lives with wild ducks and geese until
hunters slaughter the flocks. He finds a home
with an old woman, but her cat and hen tease and taunt him mercilessly
and once again, he sets off alone. The ducklings sees a flock
of migrating wild swarms, is delighted and excited but cannot join them for
he is too young, ugly, and unable to fly. When winter arrives, a farmer finds and carries the
freezing duckling home, but he is frightened
by the farmers noisy children and
flees the house. The ducklings spends a miserable
winter alone outdoors, mostly hiding in a cave on the lake that partly
freezes over. The duckling now having
fully grown and matured, cannot endure a life of solitude and hardship and
[inaudible] anymore. He decides to throw himself
at a flock of swans, feeling that it is
better to be killed by such beautiful birds than
to live a life of ugliness. He is shocked when
the swans welcome and accept him
only to realize by looking at his reflection in
the water that he had been not a duckling but a
swan all this time. The flock takes to the
air and he spreads his wings to take flight with
the rest of his new family. Before you start working on the synopsis project
for this class, let's first in the next lesson, look at a thorough
example on how to craft a one paragraph synopsis. Let's jump into the next
lesson and then it will be your task to craft a
one paragraph synopsis.
5. Synopsis - Short: Now that we've looked at two examples of
long form synopsis, lets look at the craft or how to make a one
paragraph synopsis. Lets do a proper example. First, let me copy and paste the long synopsis for
the ugly duckling. Right now for the sake of the example document
that we're doing, we're going to work out
a one paragraph synopsis out of these three paragraphs. This is also something that I do sometimes for my project, that is to write out first a long version of the synopsis and then
I shorten it down. It really depends on
the project, it's time. Here we have the synopsis. Of course, when you do
write one of these, you isolate yourself
away from the world, away from the phone and so on. I'm going to try to do this
as quickly as possible without doing that because we have this text
here ready-made. Let me just do one bad
attempt, one mistake. I'm going to collect
mistakes as I call it. I'm going to try this
and try to fail. [MUSIC] This version is something
that I'm happy with as the first attempt to create the synopsis for
the ugly duckling, the one paragraph synopsis. I'm just going to tidy
it up a little bit. One little nifty
thing that you can keep in mind, for example, here we see ugly little creature and then I repeat it at
the end of the synopsis. It sometimes helps to repeat phrases just to help
people remember it. I'm saying without fixing it, edit it, fix that. That's the one paragraph
synopsis example. [NOISE] Your task lesson
for this lesson is to write your version of a
synopsis for the ugly duckling. Remember, if you are
working on a project, of course you can write
a synopsis for that, but I always recommend
that you first go through the simple
steps in this class. Take a little break
here and write the synopsis for
the ugly duckling. In the next lesson,
we're going to expand even further into
a film treatment.
6. Film Treatment: [MUSIC] In this lesson, we're going to learn how
to make a film treatment. A film treatment is an extended
outline of your story. So far we have done
a log-line and a synopsis and we're now
moving into the treatment. A synopsis is the
short version and treatment is the long version. The goal of a film
treatment is to provide a complete scene by
scene account of your story. A film treatment tells the
story from start to finish. Tell the full story. When writing a film treatment, it is essential to depict the entire plot of
your film project. Investors need to grasp the
process from start to finish, including all the details of the narratives beginning,
middle, and end. If for some reason you would not rather reveal the
ending of the movie, which can be understandable
in some cases, just keep in mind that
sometimes we need to reveal the ending depending on where we are
applying for funding. If you decide not to
reveal the climax, make sure that the finale of the treatment is
satisfying to the reader. We want to avoid being
annoying at the end and leaving too much of an open question about the story at the end
of the treatment. How long is a film treatment? The page count for
treatment can vary. For a feature film, for example or even
a long documentary, a film treatment can vary 10-20
pages and yes [LAUGHTER]. Writing a treatment
is very hard work, but it's hard work
that pays off. Writing a treatment demands your full focus for a
period of days, even weeks. But committing that time to writing the
treatment always pays off because it really helps you get to know your story on
a very intimate level. Delivering a treatment with
your film proposal also shows the investor that you are really committed
to the project because of the hard work that comes with making a treatment. When to write the treatment? At what stage should you
write the treatment? Some prefer to
write the treatment after they have
written a screenplay. Some do it side-by-side with
writing the screenplay and some even do the treatment
before doing the script. It all depends on what
works best for you. In my case, I don't have really a preferred way of making a treatment in what
order that is. I just know that making one helps me understand
the story and it is inevitable that I do want just to make the
story extra clear. In our class we are using as an example HC and
there's a story about the ugly duckling and because our focus in this class is to learn how to do a treatment, we're not going to do
10-20 pages [LAUGHTER]. That only applies when you're
doing a full length film, be it a feature film
or a documentary. In this class our example is making a short film proposal. It is enough just for this
class that you simply do the first three paragraphs
for your take on the project. Your task in this
lesson is to write three paragraphs in
a treatment style and what is a treatment style? Well, let's look an example
before you jump into it. What is a film treatment style? A film treatment style
isn't a novel style. It is something in-between. If anything, I would describe
writing a film treatment, it is somewhat of a dry account of your
story scene by scene. This dry method gives the reader a very neutral
intro into the story. We want to be careful not
to be over descriptive. Here I'm doing a
little example of how for example my version of The Ugly Duckling might look
like in a treatment format. Also remember that
you can download this example as a part
of the class resources. As you can see here, I'm even adding a little bit of a dialog, but I'm doing some
camera description, some like here I
have a time-lapse. This is something
that gives the reader a sense of my approach and in what order I'm telling the
story and how I'm telling the story and here I'm even
adding a little teaser, a metaphorical image of one
act contrasting with others. This was my version
of the treatment. Now it is up to you to write the first three paragraphs
of a film treatment for The Ugly Duckling and remember to download
the class resources. There are some examples
there that you can use and in the next lesson, we're going to talk
about genre and help you pick a genre for your take
on The Ugly Duckling, which is also going to be helpful when we
continue in this class.
7. Bonus: My Experience With Film Proposals: [MUSIC] In this video, I wanted to share with you my personal experience regarding
making film proposals. This takes me back to New York, back in around 2012, where I really started
to develop my skills on making film proposals when I
was presenting my project. As an example,
early in my career, whenever I would come up
with an idea for a movie, I used to jump straight into
just writing the story, writing the movie, but I would always eventually
hit a brick wall. However, after I designed this process and learn
from others how to make a film proposal and
through experience and just basically
creating these steps that are in this class. I thoroughly plan out the
log-line when I get an idea, the synopsis and I even write the treatment which
is hard work. Then I do go over thoughts
about vision style, connecting theme in there. I think about the target
audience and so on. I work on the project, it goes hand in hand with
writing the script and understanding the project,
and it just takes time. After I do the film proposal, I'm much more
comfortable in writing, developing, and executing the project that I'm working on. I would say making one
simply helps me understand my story much more
than if I will just directly jump
into writing it.
8. Genre: [MUSIC] In this lesson, we're
going to choose our genre for the example project that
we're doing for this class. In order to continue, let's think about
the genre you want to make out of the example
project in this class. The genre is important
because you're going to be doing in author's statement,
the visual statement. Think about if you want to do an animated film, a thriller, a comedy, a cartoon, or even a live-action film
out of The Ugly Duckling. Just don't linger
on it too much. Just quickly, what
genre do you want or what type of film do you want to make in this example project? Before we move into
the next lesson, which is riding the
other statement, let's decide on what
genre you want to make out of the fairy tale
about The Ugly Duckling, which is our example
project for this class. Think about the kind of genre you want to make
out of this story idea. What type of film would be your take on H. C.
Andersen's fairy tale? Deciding the genre is necessary to continue
in this class. Being a filmmaker is all
about making decisions, and in this lesson, you're going to think about
your approach or take and what kind of genre
you want to make out of the example project. When deciding the genre, the type of film
you want to make, for the example film
proposal in this class, here are some ideas
to get you started. You can make an animated
film or you can choose to make a
live-action film with your creative twist, for example, with
child actors in costumes reenacting
the fairy tale. Or maybe you want to make a documentary about the
fairy tale, its origin, and the effect it
has had on the world since it was first published
in the 18th century. [NOISE] I suggest you take a break here
in this lesson and write down what kind
of genre you want to make for the example film
proposal in this class. Remember, deciding the genre is only for the example
project in this class. We don't have to
overthink it too much, but it is necessary
to take a genre, take a take in order for us
to move into the next lesson, which is writing the
author's statement.
9. Author Statement: [MUSIC] In this lesson,
we're going to learn how to write an author statement. Now that you have decided
your genre, you're take, and you've decided what type of hypothetical film we're doing in order to do this film
proposal for the class, we can move towards writing
a short author statement. [MUSIC] Writing an
author statement is all about expressing
your vision, your style, and your
take on the story. This is the area where you
share your personality, and make it as
personal as possible. In my experience, the more
personal you make it, the more intimate, the more chance you have of
getting support. Let me help you a little bit
with your author statement. These are the two main questions to ask yourself when you
write the author statement. These questions are:how do
you connect to the story? And why is the story
important to you? You are basically expressing your connection to the
story for the reader. [MUSIC] Because this class is all about demystifying
the steps, let's break down the author
statement into two parts. First, we have vision, that is your take on the
material as an author, and then we want to connect
the theme into that text. You want to have two
things playing together; your personal take
and the theme. In case this sounds a little
bit confusing do not worry, I will be showing you an example on how you combine your vision, and the theme together. Let's look at an example of how to write the
author statement. I am doing the author statement. I have written a
part of my vision. Then I have written my theme, and then I'm going
to combine the two. I combine the theme
and the vision together by copy and pasting it and putting
it next to each other. Because the theme and your vision are
inherently connected, they will work well together. I'll do it like that. As you can see, I have (THEME), and then above I have (VISION) and I copy
paste it and put it together, and make sure that
the text makes sense. A reminder, please download
the class resources. There you will find
these examples listed out in a PDF document. I want to remind you
that we're going to keep the author
statement short, like all the sections
in this class, because we are doing
an example document. We're not doing a full document, we're only practicing because we want to be able to do this
for our personal project. Focus on getting
through the class and finishing a short
version of each section. Your task is, I wouldn't say simple, but I
would say it's very doable. Write your vision, your
personal take on the project, write what you consider
to be the theme, and combine the two. In the next lesson, we're going to move into
a visual statement.
10. Visual Statement: [MUSIC] In this lesson, we're
going to learn how to do a visual statement
for your project. [MUSIC] What is a
visual statement? A visual statement is
your account on how your film is going to
feel and look like, how it's going to come
across to the audience. Let's check out the
following questions, the following prompts
to help us get started on our visual statement. We can start a visual
statement by describing the cinematography approach
to the story in general, the philosophy behind it. After we've done that, we
can list out in more detail how we're going to use cinematic technology
to execute our film, be it in terms of editing or lights and so
on and so forth. To help us get going, I'm going to do a brief
example on how I would start my visual statement for the example
project in this class. How do we begin a
visual statement? It depends, of course, on the genre that you picked
for the class example. In my take of the Ugly Duckling, I have decided to
pick a thriller, a horror genre, and right now I'm going
to work on my example. [MUSIC] This document
that I was just showing you now remember that you can download it
in the class resources. Let's look at some further
visual statement prompts. Let's run through them quickly. They shall statement
prompts and let's go start with cinematography. You can answer the
question if you will use a specific camera angles
to tell your story, then you can talk about
the camera movement. Will your camera be still or moving or handheld or tripod? After you have talked
about the above, explain the reason
behind your choices. This is very important.
The choice is here, how do they support your
telling of the story? Let's move to some more
technical prompts. You can talk about how would
the colors be in your film. Then you can describe
how you will use light to tell your story. What part of the story will
be dark, what can be bright? Will you use silhouettes
and so on and so forth? Here you can put in
any film references that might be similar to your film and that might
support your case. After we have done
the second part, the same goes for both parts; always when we make a choice
in the visual statement, we always have to list
out the reason for it, the why of our choices. Let's look at some examples on how to answer these questions. Here's an example on how I might work through
these prompts. To these questions
here that we've posed, I give my reason how
it supports the story. I say my style and the rationale behind
it. For example, here. Here I'm saying that the
camera angle will be on eye level for every character in the beginning of the story. Then if we move along with it, I'll add a 'bird-eye' shots to emphasize the isolation of the main character
or Ugly Duckling. But I'm careful to say that this bird-eye will not
be a drone because I want the film to be filmed in a classical style with
no unnatural technology. That also means that the
camera will be still on tripod all the way
through and no movement. For the second
batch of questions, let me see how I
worked through that. I'm always reminding you, you can download these examples
in the class resources. For example, how
will the colors be in your film and how
would I use light? Start with the colors and
the colors will be faded, but not black and
white and the reason for that is that I
want the film to look timeless like a fairy tale and describe how you will
use light to tell the story, what parts of the
story can be dark. I answered that
with the light in my take on the
Ugly Duckling will grow as the film progresses. At the beginning, we'll
have a dark world. Boom. Then little by little, the use of light will
become stronger to oppose the downward spiral
of the duckling's dilemma. Then for the film references, I am just naming a couple of film references here that
are similar to the style. Boom, I think you're
ready now to do your visual statement or your
take on the Ugly Duckling. Work through it. You can
learn it through action. Remember to download, of course, the class resources. Have fun. [NOISE] Take a break
here and really dive into your visual statement. Enjoy it. In the next lesson, we're going to dive into
marketing and target audience.
11. Audience & Marketing: [MUSIC] In this
lesson, we're going to talk about the marketing and the target audience part
of the film proposal. In order to make a marketing
plan for your film, it is important to understand
the target audience. Let's take a close look at these concepts to gain
a better understanding. A marketing plan for your film
should list out a plan of actions and specify the
time-frame of these actions. For example, when should
the poster be ready? When should the teaser be ready? The trailer and so on. Then you can identify where specifically these
elements will be placed, for example, on social media, on a specific TV station, in theaters, and
in what locations. Before we execute
the marketing plan, it is necessary to identify
the target audience in order for you to know where to aim your marketing material. To identify your
target audience, it is necessary to
do some research, for example, you can find similar film projects and study what groups
they were aimed at. The advantage or the gain from identifying your
target audience early, even as early as if you're
writing the project, it can help you edit
scenes, for example, certain scenes do not work for a specific target
audience and others do. To help you with the vocabulary
that is sometimes used in a marketing plan and when
identifying target audience, let's examine a couple
of examples [MUSIC] Keep in mind when we're doing this exercise project
for The Ugly Duckling, it is good to do simply a version of this because
making a marketing plan and target audience is something that a lot of people
avoid because it's hard. Therefore, I really encourage
you to just try it. Write one paragraph
for each section, one paragraph on
a marketing plan, any one paragraph on
your target audience, just to try it out,
just to practice. In the next lesson, we're going to gather
everything the way it's done and put it together.
12. Lesson Recap & Assemble: [MUSIC] In this lesson, we're going to take
everything that we've written and
done so far for this class and assemble it
together in one document. Keep in mind that this
class is about teaching the fundamental steps of
making a film proposal. After you've completed this
class or the six steps, then I encourage you to add as much personal touch
to the film proposal, like at any kind of
images you think will fit the proposal you
can put information on the character's backstory, world information, or even any film references or
even newspaper articles. Just anything that
comes to mind. Just thicken it up and make
it rich and beautiful. [MUSIC] Let's put
it all together. The logline,
synopsis, treatment, the author statement,
the visual statement, and the target audience
and marketing report. Let me show you how this
document looks like on my end. Here you're seeing
my example document for this class about
The Ugly Duckling. Remember that you can
download this document in the class resources to
use as a reference. These are the basic steps. I want you to keep in mind that this class is about
learning how to do the fundamental chapters
of a film proposal. When you do a film
proposal for your project, I always encourage just adding as much as you want
into the document, for example, images, references, and any kind of information that you want to
put in there about the world and the characters
in your story and so on. Make it as rich, detailed, and as strong as possible. Make sure to get feedback from trusted friends on
your film proposal. Make sure that the grammar
and spelling are tip-top, and that you have an overall
good feeling about it. [NOISE] I always
suggest completing your film proposal and
then at least wait a week before you do the final pass to make sure everything is
in order. [NOISE]
13. Thank You & Final Words: [MUSIC] Congratulations
for completing this class and thank you
for participating in it. It is really important to me that when I'm doing
these classes, to put in a lot of sweat equity, a lot of extra work to share
the knowledge that I have. The teaching also just
helps me make my projects. It just feels wholesome. It feels, how do
you pronounce it, ecological to share
my experience. I really hope that this
class was helpful for you. [MUSIC] After you have
completed this class, remember to review it and remember to share
your class project. After you have
reviewed the class, share your class project, then you can send me an e-mail with your name
and you will receive a full on 34 pages
dense document from this class on how
to make a film proposal. In case you want to learn more about what I'm
teaching in film making, you can jump into
my website world where I have tons
of free resources. I also have free film
seminars on Zoom. I also want to
point out that I've made several other film classes. If you liked this class, then you can also check out my other classes on film making. For example, if you want
to write a screenplay, if you want to learn
how to do a short film, learn how to edit
a film trailer, or even learn how to
do a documentary. I'm here to share my
tools as a filmmaker, everything so you can
create your vision, use your voice
until your spirit. Again, thank you for taking
this class and best of luck for your future film
endeavors. Thank you. [MUSIC] What inspired you to
become a director? When I was 20, I
broke up with a girl. You discover all
things about yourself. You ask yourself serious
questions and I found this answer to try to express myself
through film. [MUSIC]