Question about treatments

A

arowe214

Member
for you guys how make docs do you write scripts or treatments or jsut a brief outline and just go with the gut....

im trying to clean up my approach and wondering if i really need to worry about knowing how to write good treatments.

usually what i do is write out in a comp book my working title, goal duration, names of subject and location, tone ,and estimated filming days . after that ill write proposed questions for interview and thats it .

any tips or advice
 
Good question, depends if you're after sponsorship or not.

Obviously to snag a sponsor before you shoot a frame, the whole schmele needs to be top notch. The script, the budgeting, classy storyboard, pix of locations, the meeting, presentation, the restaurant you take 'em all to, need research and careful planning, eg: right down to the fact one of their wives can't eat crustations.

If you're not chasing money, funding or cash, just wing it like you're currently doing it.

Cheers.
 
We just finished yet another grant application for our artsy feature-length doc:
http://swlthemovie.com/

Grants are pain in the behind but writing those applications forces you to clarify many, many things.

For once all the sudden you are forces to think clearly as you are asked to put your vague ideas on paper. Then re-reading this stuff you realize that you need more concrete sentences - thus more concrete ideas. What i like is to come up with stakes (just like in a narrative film) so that you know why anybody should care to watch it in the first place. Incidentally the stakes only matter if you are NOT making a niche film. Truth is many, many docs ARE niche films. For instance besides "proper docs" i like films about extreme machines, structures etc - in those the quality of filmmaking or story telling doesn't matter - all you have to do is provide some historical context and some cool facts and you are really done. That said those are films that you watch only once, and watch in the first place to kill some time - there is very little ambition in those films. The ambitious films have a very specific point of view - they want you to walk away being changed inside and to do that they need to know what they are talking about.

We are at half-way point of principal photography and what was vastly important is to make 25 min edit of the footage to see where we are standing. That clarified the story arcs of the characters AND how the characters connect one to another. We've written treatments before (for grant applications) the 25min cut but there were way too vague - only now when we understand the footage i can say that the treatments are actually telling stories rather than simply fishing for one.
 
yea i dont or havent shot niche at all im more attracted to doing stories ..as you may know being a fly on the wall in some cases or playing interviewer you cant predict what will be said or happen. you kinda hope for something great if not you make something great happen in post. i dont like doing vanity pieces i am kinda trapped into one now which i have discovered truly bores me but even with it im letting the story happen. with all of that it makes it really tough to make a treatment from the examples of treatments i have seen or write a script. but i am seeing when you want help on that budget this is the kinda stuff they want to see. i am not exactly looking for budget help but some of my themes i would like to get involvement from related companies...

for instance in another post i talk about doing this doc on a meth head but i want to get maybe a drug clinic or program involved and end with a little psa. doing things the right way i cant just slap a number or hotline on the end even in good will they may not approve of how i handled the film and hit me with a suit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top