WEEK 5 WORK

MES153 0902:  3/3 –  3/9 | MES153 1000: 3/5 –  3/11

  Week 5 Readings

WHAT A TREATMENT IS, IN BRIEF

A treatment is a detailed summary of the film. It describes everything that will be seen and heard in a film or video. It does not include things that happened to the protagonist before the opening of the movie. It does NOT describe things the character is thinking.

The treatment communicates all important visual and audio aspects of your movie or video — all scenes, sequences, and story points in a prose style that captures the entire story of your movie as well as its style.

A treatment is considerably shorter than a full script, but it contains all the action and beats and is used to get these ideas into the story before putting them into a formatted screenplay.

WRITING A TREATMENT

The treatment comes before the script but after some important preliminary work. After  researching their topic and developing the idea(s) they want to explore in the documentary film, screenwriters start to write:

• a logline,
• a beat sheet,
• an outline and/or step outline.

After all this preliminary work to try to focus on a solid story structure, it’s time to think about how it would all come together on screen — with every visual and sound from fade in to fade out.

The treatment is the tool that helps the scriptwriter imagine what the audience should see and hear from the opening seconds to the closing. Because documentary scripts are written *after* they are shot, writing a treatment is a bit like doing a full edit of the full film on paper. But rather than writing it in a script format, you simply use regular prose — sentences in paragraphs, one paragraph per scene.

Creating the Narrative in Full

With the treatment, the script writer creates the narrative from all the audio and visual elements that will appear in your film, using the audio interviews to primarily write around.

Since there is no scripted narration for the Doc Project, student script writers will build the treatment around the choice interview snippets from the article that the students think are the best to carve the story from (the “audio”) and then determine what visuals go well with which snippets.

Some of the visuals will be the on-screen camera interview. Others will be b-roll “shot” for the documentary. Important still photographs may be relevant to add. Or graphics or even an animated sequence if the documentary could benefit from it and it fits the documentary’s style. At times on-screen text can help tell the story.

For a Documentary, Focus on What Characters Say in the Interview

First and foremost, the audio clips of the interview subjects are pivotal to crafting a good narrative structure. That should be the starting point, using visuals to visualize the points the speaker is saying.

Other sounds such as nat sound breaks from the interviews or b-roll or sound effects gathered in the field or from a stock house can be added to heighten a moment.

Music is another consideration but take care in how you include it and where. It shouldn’t be a throwaway, Where would music help? Another powerful tool — silence. Where does complete silence help?

And here’s a big no-no: no direct quotes. While a treatment needs to describe both visual and audio content, it should not contain any exact quotes. Instead, treatments should paraphrase what it is that a given documentary subject is saying. Provide the gist, but not the exact words. (Also, don’t just say someone is talking; instead, describe in brief the point they are making.)

A treatment is written in first-person plural, present tense and often makes use of phrases like “we see … ” or “we hear … ” to help the reader completely imagine the program. But use these sparingly.

Avoid technical terms. Instead of “now we see a rack focus shot. …. ” write “we see the tree in the front go out of focus, while the barn in the background comes into focus.”

Keep in mind that the treatment is not a random collection of sounds and shots. You need to put the pieces together with a beginning, middle and an end. It is written in narrative form. So you are, in essence, writing a “short story” that explains what the audience will see and hear throughout the finished production.

REMEMBER THE SCREENWRITING MANTRA: DON’T TELL US — SHOW US!

Telling: “The young woman was really happy to smell the sweet fragrance of the roses.”

Showing: “We see the young woman lean over the rose bush, put her face close to the blossoms, breathe in deeply, and raise her head with a big smile.”

For example, let’s say I’ve been hired to do a one minute video about something in my neighborhood. I come up with the idea that I would love for people to know about the Boathouse in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. It’s a beautiful building that has been restored to its original 1905 elegance. It’s on a lake and you can take boat rides on a battery-operated boat that travels the waterways throughout the park.

Here’s the beginning of my treatment:

From black, we fade into a black-and-white photograph from 1905 showing the original Prospect Park Boathouse. In the background we hear the piano music of Scott Joplin’s “Weeping Willow” written in 1903. After a moment, we see the photograph begin to fade away as a shot of the boathouse today comes into view, busy with people on the patio and children playing on the nearby lawn. Historian Jackie Twomey talks about how the boathouse came to be and its significance in gathering community together from its beginnings. The music also fades away and we begin to hear birds twittering and children laughing  ….

I would continue in this manner, describing specifically what I want you to see and hear. Perhaps at one point I would show two young boys playing while we hear one of their voices telling us why he likes the boathouse. Or I can have a narrator ( a voice-over) explain how you get to take a ride on the electric boat, while we see people buying tickets and getting on. . ….. etc ….. .

Here’s the end of my treatment:

As we return to the same view of the boathouse that we opened on, we see the words “Prospect Park Boathouse: A Journey to the Past” appear on the screen and we again hear Scott Joplin’s “Weeping Willow”. After five seconds, both picture and music fade out.

Read more on treatments, including examples, here.

MORE ON BEATS – TYPES OF MOMENTS TO CREATE

Remember that in writing a script, whether nonfiction or fiction, you are building structure for the story. It is the structure that makes a story work or not, good or not.

In creating a good structure, it is imperative to know the story beats throughout the scenes, sequences, and acts. The beats below represent the types of beats that should be present in your story. This is NOT a template. It is an idea of the kinds of important emotional moments and changes the screenplay should incorporate.

Beat 1. The opening frame – Grab the viewer’s attention and set the tone for the entire story that is about to unfold. What is the first quote from the article that engages the viewer and sets the story in motion?

Beat 2. Introduce the story world – What voice or voices help fill in the details of WHERE this story takes place? As we hear those voices, show us the story world (setting, specifics of that setting).

Beat 3. Introduce the protagonist – What does the protagonist or other major character say to introduce who the protagonist is, what makes the character tick, and what does s/he say that “makes us care.”

Beat 4. Identify the protagonist’s want – What is the main character’s want or goal, and what does s/he say to identify this?

Beat 5. Introduce the first obstacle – There should be multiple hurdles. What does the main character (and others) say to help identify these hurdles? Maybe the antagonist says something that helps set up this first obstacle.

Beat 6. Shake up the protagonist’s world and force him/her to change course – Does the main character describe an inciting incident, “an explosion of sorts” that completely changes the regular course of the protagonist’s life and sets her/him on a new course of action? If so, what is that quote? Or are there more than one?

Beat 7. Why go forward? How does the main character describe the most daunting challenge or lowest point? And what do they do and say to step up to the challenge to try to meet it?

Beat 8. Deliver on the promise of the premise

Beat 9. Describe another obstacle (and another …) for the protagonist, more challenging than the preceding one(s)

Beat 10. Put the protagonist to the test with the biggest obstacle of the story – what is the biggest challenge the documentary subject faces? How does s/he rise to the occasion to attempt to resolve this climactic dramatic point, the biggest moment of crisis in his or her favor?

Beat 11. Make the protagonist fear that all is lost – Find where the protagonist hits rock bottom

Beat 12. Create the bounce back – The protagonist finds his or her footing. Identify how s/he describes this moment.

Beat 13. Show the triumphs – The protagonist is a new person, the story has changed this character (for the better), the main character has grown. What is the closing quote? It should be memorable and help the viewer understand what the story is about.

Beat 14. Leave viewers with a memorable final frame

Read about the Doc Project Requirements Below

• Guidelines
• Loglines & Examples
• Treatment & Examples
• The Synopsis & Examples
• The A/V Script & Examples

Read Examples of Doc Project Deliverables

Candor in Comedy: Shattering the Glass Ceiling

Title, Synopsis, Treatment, A/V Script – Read here »

Blue Hunter Diving

Title, Treatment, A/V Script – Read here »

  Week 5 Videos to Watch

How to Write a Script for a Documentary (1:49)

Documentary producer Faith Fuller explains her process for writing a documentary script. Learn step-by-step how to write a script for a documentary.

 

 Week 5 Writing Assignment – Be sure you have completed DP4 with a passing grade.

Assignment DP4

UPCOMING ASSIGNMENTS AND DUE DATES TO HAVE ON YOUR RADAR

• Doc Project Pitch for in-class PITCH FEST
  
• Doc Project
  
• First Assignment for Fiction Project