Upon joining my new Content Creation class, I was assigned to think of my “Dream Project”; something I’ve been longing to create that must be created in just 140 hours (20 hours a week). When initially thinking of my idea, I began to think a bit broad. My first initial idea was creating a video series to explore different fashion styles. After a bit more thinking, I thought about creating my own magazine. After a very helpful meeting with my professor, however, I finally landed on my idea: Style Files.
Interested in both fashion and creating content, I’ve always wanted to publish my own content on my personal YouTube channel. So now’s my chance!
In the planning process, it is crucial to create a proposal in which all of your ideas are laid out in front of you. When doing this, I made many decisions which would have been more difficult to make later, such as knowing when to post or which topics to cover in the series. Attached at the bottom is a PDF of my proposal for my video series, though I plan on going more in depth about my thought process in this post!
Explaining My Idea
To give just a bit more information about my idea, I plan on creating a video series explaining some of today’s most timeless fashion trends and items. From the mini skirt to ballet flats, I plan on diversifying both my current fashion palette and my viewers’, by showing how these pieces can be worn. Through a video essay format, which has shown a recent surge of popularity in YouTube, I plan on informing viewers on these fashion takes and informing myself as well.
Inspiration for this idea comes from YouTuber Drew Joiner, who has attracted fashion-interested individuals through his video-essay format. Informing them on current fashion trends and giving outfit advice, Joiner uses B-roll footage and pop-up text to keep viewers engaged, and also speaks in a conversation-like tone. One other influencer I took inspiration from is Jasmine Le, as I am a long time follower. While she recently has strayed away from fashion-related content, her editing style has attracted myself and many more viewers, and keeps her content very engaging and visually aesthetic.
While technical details like equipment and the series’ format is all included in the proposal, I want to stress the importance of creating one. This proposal has not only helped guide me in knowing exactly what I wanted to talk about, but it also kept me much more organized than an outline would. Presenting my ideas in a professional manner kept me from confusing myself with a mindmap or outline, and also helped me in deciding the overall aesthetic of the video series, which I somewhat matched to the portfolio. As I also love anything creative, I enjoyed creating this proposal, as it allowed me to express my thoughts in a new way.
When researching the art of creating proposals, an incredibly helpful source I came across was Qwilr.com. This article, written by Dan Lever, explains the importance of creating proposals, as well as common mistakes made by professional media companies. While I did tweak some of the information to fit my project idea, this source really outlined the information to include, as well as highlighted the importance of choosing the right aesthetic for your proposal.
All in all, creating this proposal has done nothing short of wonders for starting my video series. From having absolutely nothing, this proposal saved me from the stresses of beginning a new project, and has kept me more organized than ever before. I definitely plan on incorporating this practice into all of my future projects, and I suggest you do too!
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