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7. The Outline Treatment
- Southern Illinois University Press
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83 7. The Outline Treatment You don’t have to do a treatment, but it helps, especially in fact-based films. The treatment is your first attempt to outline the drama. It will show you and your commissioning editor several things: The flow and development of the story Who your main characters are The situations they get caught in The actions they take and the results The focus at the beginning and end The main confrontations and resolutions The main action points The sense of the overall dramatic build up and pace The treatment is usually written as a series of loosely sketched sequences. They can be numbered or not according to your fancy, and they indicate a location and the action of the characters. Occasionally, they may contain dialogue or scraps of dialogue. Otherwise, they may indicate what the characters are talking about. The opening sequences of my treatment on the British explorer Edward Palmer go as follows: 1. Lawns of Cambridge University, 1865. Crowds of students and lecturers in 19th-century Dress. The building of Kings College dominates the scene. Voice of Palmer. Inside the college Palmer thanks the audience for making his trip to the Holy and possible. 2. A desert oasis. Three British officers stretched out in the sun. An officer arrive son a camel and dismounts. He indicates there is no word from Palmer, and he may be lost. 3. Dining room in luxury house. Dinner is over. Men in evening suits. Palmer is standing, pointing to a map. He indicates that this is Sinai, an unknown desert. Here the Children of Israel wandered for forty years. “Gentlemen, with my time, and your money, I intend to bring God to the heathen, and make darkness visible.” 4. British headquarters, Jerusalem. 1878. Officers hovering. They are looking with heads puzzled at sketchy outline Sinai maps. Silence. 84 From Treatment to Script An orderly enters and clears the cups. Major Bagley worries that the Turks may have Palmer, his life may be threatened, and the gold will be lost. Captain Franklin suggests he’s already dead, and that Palmer was mad ever to go into the desert. Bagley, decisively: “There will be hell to pay if the story gets out. Palmer must be found.” As you can see, the treatment is written very much in a shorthand form. It’s not a literary document for publication. It’s merely a device to help you and the producer see where you are going, and what you want to do. Put your sequences together and you have a step outline. This easy reference shows you exactly how your script is built, and how every sequence relates to the development of the action and mood. With the outline as your guide, you can see at a glance the function of each sequence, whether it is necessary, and whether it is in the right place. To show you an example of this, I analyzed the TV docudrama Her Final Fury: Betty Broderick, the Last Chapter. The plot revolves around Betty’s murder of her former husband and his new wife. It ends with a second trial, and a woman D.A. is shown as Betty’s main opponent in the film. Sequence Function 1. Murder of husband Introduces Betty and action 2. Betty phones parents Shows her fragile emotional state 3. Police at murder scene Murder now becomes public 4. Husband’s brother phones police Introduces Betty’s first opponent 5. Betty tells of murder Introduces Betty’s family 6. Betty turns herself in Law has taken over 7. D.A. goes to work Introduces woman D.A., Betty’s chief opponent 8. Betty in jail Loneliness, depression 9. Husband’s brother arrives Introduces funeral element 10. Visit in murder house Atmosphere 11. Funeral of husband and second wife Sadness, loss in husband’s family 12. Betty denied bail This and following sequences show the ugly sides of B’s character 13. Betty demands new lawyer So far, the sequences develop the plot and give us two clear sides. On the one hand, stands Betty, on the other side, her husband’s family and the district attorney. As the sequences proceed, we gradually realize that the [18.234.139.149] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 10:23 GMT) The Outline Treatment 85 main battle is between Betty and the woman D.A. We also have a number of action sequences that contrast with quiet emotional sequences, and as the film proceeds...