8th resources
How to make a Film Treatment
Project 1 - Film Treatment
The 4 Elements of a Film Treatment Treatments contain detailed descriptions of the setting, theme, character roles, and plot in order to show how the story will play out for the audience. There are four main things a treatment should contain: 1. Title. Give your treatment a title, even if itās just a working title. 2. Logline. This is a short sentence summarizing the premise. Learn how to write a logline here. 3. Plot summary. How long you want your story summary to be depends on you as a writerāsome writers give short one-page summaries, while others use 70 pages to tell their filmās story. 4. Key characters. Provide a breakdown of key characters, including their arch or how their character develops in the story.
How to Write a Treatment in 6 Steps While there are different ways to style your treatment, there are a few general steps most writers take. 1. Start with your title. A title should be something that encapsulates the essence of your story. Some titles use the characters (āThe 40 Year Old Virginā), the setting, (āManchester by the Seaā), or the premise, (āGet Outā). Titles can also be metaphorical, (āSilence of the Lambsā). Titles should be as original as possible, and not sound like or be too close to an existing film title. 2. Compose your logline. A logline is just a brief sentence (or two) that captures the general premise of your movie. In your log line, include who the protagonist is and what theyāre up against in their world. This condensed summarization of the overall concept of your film should make the reader want to see the rest. 3. Summarize the concept. Here is your chance to expand on the shorter log line, and provide the next step in understanding how the film will play out. This is also where you can establish theme, tone, and cite any relevant background related to the conception of your story. 4. Set up the main characters. Who is going to be in this story? What do these characters want? How will they develop? Give a brief version of their possible arcs. You want to emotionally invest the reader by giving them a sense of who these characters are and what will become of them. 5. Explore the acts. Once youāve set up the world and its inhabitants, itās time to delve into the story itself. Write out how the story begins: What do we open on? Who do we see? Tell the tale of your film as if it were a short-story, and include the juicy moments to keep the reader engaged in the world youāve created. 6. Epilogue. The final paragraph of your treatment wraps up the narrative. State what the ending is, how the premise concludes, what happens to all the characters, and what they learn (if anything). Here is where you tie up any loose ends, and give the reader a sense of what will now happen to this world.
Assignment
Create a film treatment that includes a log line, a tagline & graphics. Give as much information as to what your film is about and what it will look like as you can (refer to the articles in links on this page called How to write a film treatment for Documentary, log line, etc). Also project about how long your finished project will be & how long it will take you to make it. Decide on roles for your group and present these in your treatment. Questions to consider: What interviews do you need? What interviews to you have? What other footage do you want to include? What footage do you need to film? (re-enactments) What techniques will you use to tell your story? (Ken Burns, Split Screen) What is your story structure? What 'kind" of documentary is it? (Refer to definitions in Link on this page ex Poetic, Expository, Performative, etc) What happens if you can't schedule the interview, what might be a good work around?
