A treatment is a summary of your script or screenplay idea. They are used for a variety of purposes, but mostly to pitch an idea and approach for a film or video. Writers typically use treatments for corporate work, influencer scripts, YouTubers, documentary films, short runs, and other quick pitches. They are the fastest way to convey your idea for visual or audio formats.
Learn what to include in your writer’s Series Pitch Bible for television and novels. What to include and why. How to format it and where to find samples. Part II of III.
The first moments of your script or novel matter. They set up what is to follow and hook the audience. Or they don’t.
The best film openings establish tone, settings, and character. They establish context for what will follow or establish expectations that will be thwarted later on. They do more than simply open the film. They start the story and grab the audience.
How you start your script or screenplay matters. These opening scenes establish an expectation and either appeal or repel an audience. What a film shows in the first five minutes is critical to how an audience will react, how engaged they become, and how long they will sit watching your story unfold.
The opening shot is your chance to hook them. It’s the first exchange of information. The first connection. How you approach that is everything.
In film, producers often use loglines to discuss the content of a film. A logline is a summary of the dramatic narrative in a story that makes it easier to encapsulate the idea and sell it. Basically, a logline is the core essence of your story in 25 words or less—the shortest form of narrative summary.
Writing scripts is not like writing for the page. It takes a different set of skills. Here are my top tips if you want to write scripts for a living:
The writing I contract the most is scriptwriting. I love the combination of writing with moving images and sound. Film and video expands what I am able to do on the page. Besides it’s fun to collaborate with a production team.
The challenge with writing scripts is that it requires a different approach than writing for the page. Sometimes formal grammar has to go out the window. This is writing for the ear, not the eye, which means you can get away with more. There are also challenges working with footage and designing a script that can be filmed in budget.
In my business, I am not always the first call and I like it that way. Call me weird, but I love being called in to fix writing that isn’t working. Luckily, there always will be those clients who think they can write their own scripts, speeches and manuscripts. They think taking English classes in high school and college means is enough preparation, and sometimes it is. Then again, sometimes it is not.