It's all about the story.  Story, story, story. 

•     If you can write it up in one page, then you can take the next steps.  One page, single-spaced.  Answer the questions:  what is the doc about, what's the style of the doc, what elements will be used to tell the story, who's it for, what's the tone, how will you get it seen. who's your team?

•     What are the next steps?

              Write a treatment, a narrative telling.  

                               Tell the story as you would see it unfold -  "the documentary begins with....and then you see....and then so and so is on camera     and says..... then we cut to.......and dissolve to."  This is key to helping funders understand how you would tell the story.  Tell it from beginning to end, reveal who your main subjects are going to be and their part in the doc.  Do it in three to ten pages.

           Flesh it out, write the script.

                                Imagine your doc fleshed out.  With scenes, talking heads, montages, visual storytelling, music, structure.  Works as a shooting script, a script that tells you what to shoot, who to shoot, how much to shoot, where and what else to shoot.  Break it down -- in terms of shooting days it will take.  The "script" is a great tool for organizing the work ahead.  You can even write out what your interviewees say, or what you want them to say, and when filmming your interviewees, aim for that "byte".

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