Screenplay Treatment
The Screenplay Treatment
A Blueprint for Success
Ideas are meaningless unless you write them down and then transform your stories into screenplays that fascinate buyers who can greenlight their production. Fledgling writers often stare at that blank page as if it’s a huge obstacle—a barrier since you have to fill the page with cogent, clever, fascinating dialogue and action. Screenplay treatments provide a bridge over those obstacles.
Screenplay treatments reflect the intricacies of plot and subtext, conflict and resolution as well as character dynamics. They also present the tone of a story—ironic, wry, humorous, melodramatic, romantic, mysterious or eerie. They help you fully visualize the story rather than rely on dialogue. That isn’t to say that dialogue has lesser importance. Certainly no Woody Allen film could exist without clever, witty, acid-tinged, neurotic and sanity-challenged language.
On the other hand, motion pictures have an abundance of signs and symbols that communicate everything from a character’s motivations to the subtext of the story. Without those visual clues the story would become diminished. After all, we do call the medium motion pictures: pictures that move. Putting a story together without dialogue forces you to think visually.
This web site will walk you through the process of writing a screenplay treatment and describe the benefits you will receive from following this approach.
Chapters
1. Simple stories, Complex characters
Characters in the best screenplays push the story and the plot forward. The stories are fairly simple, but the interrelationships between protagonists and everyone else are complicated and complex forcing the stories to branch into dangerous territory.
2. “What If” Storytelling
The path to creating the story or the screenplay treatment takes many turns. Some writers prefer beginning with a character and playing the “what if” game. From whatever source the character derives writers ask themselves “what if” this person takes the left fork in the road instead of the right.
3. The Screenplay Treatment as Process
Screenplay treatments range from one or two pages to more than 90 pages. Developing the screenplay treatment is an exercise in creative discipline. Without the story as a guide, writers often find themselves faced with the infamous “writer’s block”. This chapter presents a comprehensive method to developing your story.
4. Adaptations
Books, short stories, and plays form the basis for many films. Writers developing screenplays based on another medium face the inevitable question: “How faithful must I remain to the original story?” This chapter presents a step-by-step process.
5. Screenplay Treatments for Television (TV Treatments)
Writing for television—and that includes everything from miniseries, movies-of-the-week, hour episodics to half-hour sitcoms—usually requires writing television treatments as part of traditional contractual requirements. Her is an overview of the process.
6. Selling Your Screenplay Treatment
“After I finish my screenplay treatment or my screenplay how do I get someone to read it?” There are three ways to have a screenplay treatment or screenplay read and hopefully purchased.
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