WRIT2120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Step Outline, Present Tense
Lecture 3 – 7/3/18 – Writing the Treatment
Treatment
- Present tense
- Condensed version of film
- Covers basic story/themes, introduces main characters and location
- Ending is given
- Has minimal dialogue
- Treatment is blueprint for a screenplay
- Useful for pitching & developing story
- Sets out dramatic & cinematic way you intend to treat the story in terms of style and
unfolding narrative
- It’s a sellig douet, ut ot a hped-up teaser – no superlatives or hyperboles
- Reveals there is a cinematic story here and the writer has a firm grasp on that story
- Two-fold: 1) help you understand for yourself what your film is going to be (see where the
story has strength and where it has weakness); 2) once the treatment is strong, we can use it
as a pitch document (something you might email/present to a producer/production
company)
- Usually about 20-30 pages long
Purpose
- Diagnosis tool – helps diagnose where your story problems might be
- Present your film – selling point
In Our Treatment – what are we looking for? (Similar to in the real world)
- Originality – have we heard it before?
➢ Look at films nominated for Best Films (not that they were the best, but as a starting
point)
- Characters who lift off the page
- A plot e hae’t head efoe, o at least ot uite in this way
- Unpredictability married to common sense
➢ How do we tell a story especially when we known the ending?
- Potential rather than completeness
➢ But the better your understanding of the story, the better you will do
- We do’t ae aout gee, e ae about story
- Scriptwriting is a skill that requires creativity, thoughtfulness, and craft. These are the three
elements that will be rewarded.
- Think in pictures/images. Be cinematic, not literary or academic.
In particular
- Story elements
➢ A hook (what makes us want to know what happens – this goes in the pitch)
➢ A protagonist (how can we make our protagonist someone whose fortunes we want to
follow)
➢ Antagonist (a protagonist is only as good as the antagonist – not necessarily a villain, or
even a character, soeoe ho opposes the potagoist’s poit of ie
➢ Central conflict
➢ Supporting characters (include all the main and major supporting characters in the
treatment, leaving out the minor ones – we can have a lot of fun with the supporting
characters)
➢ Central emotional line/mood (how it changes throughout)
➢ Action (broad strokes to paint the most dramatic scenes)
➢ Simple language
➢ Climax
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
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