"Unlocking Tobago" Documentary Proposal

by Avion Anderson
(Tobago, Trinidad & Tobago)

The objective of Unlocking Tobago is to identify new and existing small and medium-sized businesses that create value for their customers, owners, workers and future generations and inspiring a culture of entrepreneurship by showcasing their stories of success.

Format: Multi-episodic Feature-length Documentary Series

Intended Audience: The general public

Previous Works: Rough Justice – Trinidad and Tobago Police Service Recruitment Video Project Proposal; Trial by Fire – Trinidad and Tobago Fire Service Recruitment Video Project Proposal.

Style: Stories of success and the creation of robust networks will serve as concrete examples of what can be accomplished in even the most challenging business environments, thus inspiring a new generation of entrepreneurship on the island of Tobago. Cameras will follow each entrepreneur around their business place, as they interact with their staff, customers, suppliers and the general public; with a few studio interview cutaways to break scenes, as they discuss how they came up with the idea for their business, why they chose that particular business field, and how they work to achieve success and even what they hope for in the near future, in terms of their business goals. Studio interviews will include the entrepreneurs, their family, staff, customers, business development officers and others, who have assisted them in some form to making their business a reality and a success. There will also be a narrator to enhance narrative structure.

Soundtrack: Musical underlays and transitions where necessary. Most music will be pertinent to the mood of the scene. Local music is preferable, but there will be a mixture of regional and international music to complement each scene.

Consent: It will be important to gain the consent of each entrepreneur and business profession, as well as their staffs, their customers and the personnel’s from the National Entrepreneurship Development Company Limited, the Business Development Unit, Business Loan Officers and others. This is the most important part and most difficult part of the project and adaptions will be made according to wishes of the entrepreneurs and other professionals.

Treatment:
The video opens with a musical credit sequence featuring personal photographs of each of the entrepreneur to be followed throughout the series. The photographs show a glimpse of each entrepreneur’s life and the day they embark on starting their own business and making it a success. The music during the sequence will be somewhat on a happy note, excellence and victorious.

As the credits finish, the view of the photographs continue as a narrator introduces the topic of the documentary: Unlocking Tobago: showcasing the talents and successes of individuals, who took the brave step to start their own business to help themselves and also to boost the country’s economy. In this introduction the narrator gives facts and figures about many young people and others in Tobago, as well as in Trinidad and in other parts or islands of the Caribbean and the world over, who have decided to start their own business and help themselves, their family and the country as a whole move forward, giving scope to the video. Then the narrator gives an overview of the remainder of the video: that we will be viewing the lives of several Tobagonians whom have made a success on starting their own business and see it grow and what they want to see accomplished in the near future and beyond. The narrator then gives a quick overview of each person that we are about to follow. As he talks about each person, a photograph of them appears onscreen. Finally, the narrator moves onto the first entrepreneur.

The narrator provides an overview of the entrepreneur and describes what made them make that bold decision, to start their own business, the sacrifices they had to make and the time, energy and passion that they had to put into making their business a success. We also watch them interact with their staff and customers; and listen to dialogue between them, their staff and the general public. The scene cuts to studio interviews and reactions from various characters involved.

A similar process to what occurred for the previous entrepreneur, will occur for the other entrepreneur and continuing, however each individual been showcased has a different story. More entrepreneurs will be introduced, each telling their own success story, as this is a continuous drive and effort to showcase many, if not all the individuals and/or partners, as well as groups, who chose to take that bold step to start their own business. We will also hear from business development officers, banks and other organizations and financial institutions, who lend loans to young people and the general public who is interested in starting their own business and the do’s and don’ts of writing a business plan, to what companies who give business loans look for apart from the business plan; as well as from the do’s and don’ts of designing that perfect office space, shops, restaurant and other commercial properties; and more.

Each entrepreneur place of work and success story will be different, and without shooting the footage following each entrepreneur, it will be hard to describe their success stories, which will not only be of beneficial importance to them, but will also, help to give a good overview of Unlocking Tobago.

Needless to say, each of the entrepreneurs we follow will have different success story. However, we will be jumping around from one entrepreneur to the other.

As each episode approaches the end, each entrepreneur will have a positive message to send to the viewing audience on others wishing to start their own business. Throughout the process, the audience will grow closer to each character. Then the credits roll.

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