September 1, 2023 deadline
General Expert Panel comments
Comments made by the panel during the assessment of applications are outlined below. Please note that these comments provide a summary of the panel's assessment and do not necessarily relate to every application submitted to this deadline. The panel does not provide individual comments.
Project description
- It is important to identify members of your crew and the principal artists who are confirmed to work on your project.
- As per the guidelines, make sure your detailed project description includes all the elements asked for since these are vital for the panel to assess your project:
- objectives
- activities
- timeline
- expected results and benefits
- The panel valued projects that stretched the applicant’s artistic ability from themes or genres the artist normally works in. Panelists also appreciated those stories that dug deeper and offered more layers in terms of a personal connection or adversarial challenges.
- If you include a list of film festivals, explain the rationale for attending the festival and your overall strategy plan. Include only those festivals that are most appropriate to attend.
- Be clear in your objectives about what you are trying to do; what does the story mean to you and why are you doing this now? Explain clearly what your project is, e.g. a short or feature. Get to the essence and heart of your description with concise writing while still providing details about your project, e.g. answer the who, what, where, when, and why.
- If possible, artists should consider how their project represents or affects the community and include letters of support where relevant.
- At the beginning of your project description, include a synopsis or a one-page outline describing your project.
- It is highly recommended that emerging artists engage a mentor to work with on their project.
- In your description, mention what the next steps will be for your project and why you are taking this approach.
- Understand what you can accomplish each day and set a realistic timeline for shooting your film.
- One more polish on your application can make the difference between a successful and unsuccessful submission. Engage a mentor or colleague to review your application and provide critical feedback before submitting.
Budget
- The project description and budget should support and complement each other. Activities and items defined in the project description should have a matching line item in the budget and vice versa.
- Make sure you compensate any artists featured in your project and any artwork used, including in kind donations, and add this to your budget.
- The more detail you provide in your budget, the easier it is for the panel to understand the scope of your project. Please indicate how you determinate your rates.
- Identify what your units are, e.g. days, weeks, or minutes, etc.
- If possible, please upload your budget as a pdf under Attachments.
Support material
- Help the panel picture what it is you want to do by including appropriate visual support material in your application. Make sure you identify a specific downloadable link labelled as support material, and not embed links in your resume for the panelists to find.
- If your video support material is longer than five minutes, please indicate the time code for the five minutes you want the panel to review.
- For those projects requesting funds for scriptwriting, it is helpful to include visual references like a storyboard or a visual treatment of some kind.
- If you have attached a script, it is helpful to identify the range of pages you would like the panel to read since panelists will not have time to read the entire script.
- If your project involves biographic subject matter, make sure you include the necessary permissions and consents from the family or estate.
- Be thoughtful about what support material you are including since the panel has a limited amount of time to review material.
Attachments
- Please remember to attach only PDF documents and not Word or Excel files.
