Programs for Public Television

Proposals are requested for programs in many genres including documentary, performance, cultural/public affairs, children’s and animation. Projects submitted to NAPT must be intended for national public television broadcast. Assignment of exclusive broadcast rights for four years, off-air recording rights, educational, home video, foreign distribution and Internet broadcasting rights are included in the NAPT Production License Agreement. The NAPT Public Television Program Fund is made possible by funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Project Priorities

NAPT is looking for:

• Quantity and quality of Native American participation in creative, technical and advisory personnel.
  Power of the finished program to illuminate the Native American experience.
• Originality of concept and style.
• Strength of production team to complete project within budget, schedule and the highest quality standards.
• Sound production and fundraising plans.
• Reasonable budget estimates and considerations.
• Potential interest to a national audience.
• Strength of sample work.
  

Eligible for funding

• Independent and public television producers, film and video makers are eligible to apply. The applicant must hold artistic, budgetary and editorial control and must own the copyright of the proposed project.
• All applicants must be 21 years of age and be US citizens or legal residents of the United States or its territories.
• All applicants must have previous film or television experience as demonstrated by the sample tape.
• Only one proposal per applicant will be accepted.
  

Not eligible for funding

• Projects that are primarily commercial in nature.
• Industrial or promotional films and videos.
• Student productions such as thesis films.
• Experimental videos.
• Programs that are not standard broadcast length (26:40, 56:40, or 86:40).
• Projects for which exclusive public television broadcast rights are not available.
• Projects intended solely for theatrical release.
• Producers or production entities that are foreign- based, owned or controlled.
• Projects funded in part by a government entity or group featured in the content of the program.

Fiscal Agents

ALL grantees must have a fiscal sponsor that is a nonprofit 50l (c)(3) IRS tax-exempt entity that agrees to accept funds from NAPT on your behalf. The fiscal sponsor is responsible for redistributing the funds to the project as needed. It maintains a ledger for all funds accepted and provides NAPT with financial accounting when requested. A fee of up to 5% of your budget may be charged for these services. Note that some fiscal sponsors have extensive review processes for accepting projects.

PRODUCTION PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS

NAPT Proposal Cover Sheet

Must be typed and fully completed.
Fiscal Sponsor can be identified now or during contract process.
All funding sources must be disclosed.
Must be signed by contact person and dated.

Project Description

Synopsis of the program

• Treatment that communicates your vision and passion for the story by describing story structure, theme, style, format, voice, point-of-view, camera-work, editing, sound design, lighting, production design, interviewing techniques, experts/consultants and related elements.
• Detailed production timeline.
• Explanation of its appropriateness for public television and how it applies to NAPT Project Priorities.
• Detailed Fundraising strategy.

Key Personnel Summary

List the names, positions and biographies (no resumes) of proposed key personnel listed on application cover. Include a letter of commitment from each person.

Opportunities for Training and Internship

Provide an explanation of how this project will provide specific training or internship opportunities for emerging Native American producers or technical personnel. These positions must be reflected in the budget. Include a bio and letter of commitment from prospective trainee/interns.

Sample Work

Sample tape by the producer and/or director must be in VHS format and cued to a 10-minute segment that you feel displays your strength as a filmmaker. Please include a description of how the sample relates to the proposed project. Applicants requesting post-production funding are strongly urged to submit a rough cut of the work-in-progress as well as a finished work.

Project Budget

Full project budgets are required for all proposals. The budget should have both EXPENSES and INCOME sections and include the following:

Under EXPENSES:

• Producing Staff salaries
• Talent
• Production and post-production personnel
• Rights (visual, music and literary)
• Production expenses (including liability insurance, publicity stills)
• Administrative expenses
• Broadcast expenses (including errors & omissions insurance, closed captioning)
• Equipment and services
• The budget breakdown should include quantity, duration, unit, rate cost and totals. Additional columns identify specific line item use of NAPT funds and expenses incurred to date.
• Subtotal should be for cash expenses.

Under INCOME:

• All sources and amounts of cash funding, indicating the year secured
• All revenues pending and present status
• In-kind and Producer out-of-pocket support with indication of year secured
• Subtotal should be for cash income.
  

The total of each of the above should be equal to the TOTAL BUDGET. If you are applying for post-production funding you may summarize your full production budget and detail your post-production budget.

Review Process

For the annual Open Call for proposals, NAPT will convene a panel of public television professionals, independent producers and cultural experts to evaluate proposals and sample tapes based on published project priorities. Following in-depth evaluation and discussion, the panel recommends the highest ranked proposals to the NAPT Board of Directors. All recommendations are subject to the Board’s final approval and successful contract negotiations with NAPT.

Questions? Contact NAPT at visionmaker@unl.edu.