Step 2 Proposal Essay

Assignment: Step 2 Proposal (DocuShort on Beach Cleanups)

Write a formal 24 page, single-spaced proposal for a docushort you will create in partnership with:

• Partner: Justin Rudd / Community Action Team beach cleanups, Long Beach, CA
• Focus: Beach cleanups, plastic pollution, and their links to environmental justice and public health
• Intended uses: School environmentaleducation programs, volunteer recruitment, social media.

The proposal is a written pitch and plan, not the video itself.

What the Proposal Must Do

1. Explain the resource

• It is a docushort (short documentary video, e.g. 815 minutes).
• Content:
• Personal stories from volunteers and affected community members
• Footage of cleanup actions and visible plastic pollution
• Expert context from Heal the Bay staff and/or Justin Rudd
• Uses: schools, volunteer orientations, and online outreach.

1. Show that it is: useful, novel, substantial

• Directly address each criterion in a separate subsection:
• Useful:
• Addresses a clear need: an engaging, locally grounded, educational video that connects handson cleanups to plastic pollution, justice, and health.
• Helps the organization: recruit volunteers, educate students, frame beach cleanups as part of broader environmental justice work.
• Novel:
• A new, standalone docushort, not a tweak of existing materials.
• Combines local stories + expert explanation + simple data visuals + explicit justice/health framing, which they dont currently have as one integrated resource.
• Substantial:
• Comparable in labor to a 20page senior thesis:
• Research on plastic pollution, justice, and health in Long Beach
• Planning, scheduling, filming at cleanups
• Scriptwriting, storyboarding, editing, graphic creation
• Show that this is a complex, multistage project with significant intellectual and technical work.

1. Preview visual and textual/written components
2. Include concrete notes, outlines, or brief drafts:

Visual (all original)

• Planned footage:
• Beach cleanup scenes (volunteers, trash collection, before/after shots).
• Closeups of plastic waste, storm drains, shoreline, nearby neighborhoods.
• Interviews on camera:
• Volunteers (motivations, reactions, behavior change).
• Community members (impacts on recreation, health concerns, neighborhood conditions).
• Experts (how plastic reaches the beach, health impacts, policy context, solutions).
• Simple graphics you will design:
• 12 charts (e.g., types of trash collected, cleanup totals).
• Possibly a basic map of Long Beach cleanup locations and nearby communities.
• Onscreen text:
• Titles, speaker IDs, definitions (e.g., environmental justice), key stats.

Textual/Written (all original)

• Narration:
• Short sample paragraph (e.g., opening voiceover introducing Long Beach, plastic pollution, and the beach cleanups).
• Brief outline of narration sections (problem, justice/health links, community action, call to action).
• Interview questions:
• A few example questions for volunteers, community members, and experts.
• Onscreen text:
• Sample key lines and statistics that will appear in the film.
• (Optional) Mention any simple written companion piece (e.g., onepage teacher guide).

1. Feasibility

• 1 short paragraph on:
• Why this is realistic in the course timeframe.
• Existing or planned skills in filming, editing, simple graphics/mapping.
• Acknowledgment that any new tech skills will be selftaught (no extra teaching from past/current instructors).

Structure & Style

• Length: 24 pages, single-spaced.
• Use clear headings such as:
• Introduction & Organization
• Project Description (Format & Objectives)
• Usefulness
• Novelty
• Substantiality
• Visual Components (Notes/Drafts)
• Textual Components (Notes/Drafts)
• Feasibility
• Tone: formal, clear, and reflective; first person (I will…) is fine