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Writing a screenplay treatment is a way to rehearse the emerging story on paper before getting into the nitty-gritty of creating a scene-by-scene, fully realized script. It's a way to find out if the story works in a three-act structure. To discover where the holes are. To play with the material. (Some writers prefer to develop the story beat outline, a less detailed, punchier way to plan the script's structure.)
Rehearsal is an integral part of the writing process for any genre. And the treatment is a valuable tool for the corporate or educational media writer as well.
When writing the spec screenplay, the treatment is primarily for the writer's benefit. But in corporate media writing, treatments serve as a critical document to validate the creative concept with key decision-makers: client, subject-matter experts, producer and director. By writing the treatment and gaining buy-in from the team, the writer can proceed to detailed scriptwriting confident that the creative approach is sound. Likewise, it's better to discover that the client or producer is uncomfortable with the creative concept early on-before committing a draft shooting script to paper.
A media script does not typically conform to a three-act structure-but there is still an underlying framework. A chronological sequence of events takes the viewer from FADE IN to FADE OUT. The treatment communicates this sequence of events in prose form. (This structure may not correspond precisely to the content outline you created at the end of the research phase.)
Equally important, the treatment conveys a sense of the program's style. The narrative voice. The visual content and how it will be conveyed (location footage or animation, for instance). It is a written description of the viewing experience-what the viewer sees and hears throughout the program.
Treatments are not nearly as detailed as shooting scripts. Still, they should contain certain key elements:
Describe the location and principle on or off-screen participants for each major scene.
Describe the sights and sounds viewers will see and hear. If your action is studio-based, what set do you have in mind? If the content consists of graphics, what is their function? What is the "look and feel" of the program?
Give the reader a feel for the pacing of the program. Will you use special effects, layered images and fast-paced cutting? Or, if you're writing a training piece, will it unfold at a more deliberate pace?
Intersperse a few lines of narration or dialogue to communicate the narrative voice you've selected. If there's an interview involved, give a sense of what key points will come out of the interview.
Indicate the major transitions-how you'll move from scene to scene.
If your media treatment is complete and descriptive, the client and subject-matter expert will be able to visualize the program. Likewise, your producer and director will have sufficient information to budget the program and estimate a shooting schedule. But don't overwrite. The treatment is a general description of how the program will unfold in prose form. Keep it simple. Capture the essence of your creative concept.
If you get a "green light" from the key decision-makers, you can move forward to the shooting script.
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