The Treatment: Getting Your Story in Order

Now it is time for me to work on the treatments for the first four episodes. I have a concept, I have an idea of the cosmology - not that I have actually shared that with you all yet. (Hey, got to keep something for the final show, right? :D) Now I need to get the story in order and ready for scripting.

What is a treatment?

In the simplest terms, a treatment is a short story that covers what will be in the episode. It doesn't have to be literature, but it does need to clearly outline the story and events that will be filmed. Most treatments are literally written as short stories. They tend to be 3-6 pages long, although more ambitious projects can have treatments that are 60 pages long and outline setting details, history and all manner of other information that will be vital for the production. In many ways a treatment is a kind of series bible.

Why do I need a treatment?

As I mentioned above, treatments can become series bibles. They help the writers keep the story straight and see at a glance if there are any issues they have overlooked. This is especially important when you're dealing with scripts that are 60-120 pages long. A script focuses on each scene and what happens, a treatment focuses on the story first.

Having a treatment allows you to have a series of signposts while writing your script. When you are script writing it is easy to get distracted and off course. Your treatment will help you keep focused or even identify where you need to change things in your story.

The other benefit of a treatment is that it is easier to read than a script and as such is a good tool for pitching your idea to investors/producers. In some cases you even need to get more simple - for example the NZ Film Commission expects one page summaries of your film when applying for grants or funding. Having a treatment makes it easier to then cut down to a one page version that identifies the key plot points you want to hit.

How do I write a treatment?

Well this is the million dollar question, really. Like so much writing, there is no sure fire way to do it. Each writer has their own method and style of writing that works for them. My advice is to keep the salient points. Reading a treatment should help me visualise the series, have a solid idea of what is going to happen in an episode and what big secrets will be revealed.

If possible it will have a bit of the series tone in it, but most of all it needs to hit all the beats. By reading a treatment I should get an inkling of the pacing of the production.

Some treatments explicitly spell out the acts of the episode/film, some are more dry and just get down to the guts of what is going to be made.

No matter how you do it, aim to keep it simple. You'll be able to flesh things out in the script when you get to that point.

A treatment shouldn't be more than about 5 pages if you can help it. Again, this isn't a hard and fast rule, but I tend to find that if you are starting out it is important to be as straight forward as you can with your idea.

Given that Urban Numina is going to be 7 minutes an episode, each treatment should be between 1/2 a page to a page long.

My core storyline will follow these beats.

1. Deus shows up
2. Devon and Deus start dating
3. Deus starts dreaming of Anima
4. Urge shows up
5. Andrena tries to make sense of what is going on
6. Urge meets the others
7. Devon discovers that Deus is asexual
8. Melissa starts spending time with Urge
9. Devon and Deus break up.
10. Anima vanishes from Deus' dreams
11. Andrena tries to convince Devon to give Deus a chance.
12. Melissa and Urge get closer
13. Anima shows up in the real world

That's a lot to try and squeeze into four 7 minute episodes. So there is a good chance that I wont be able to cover all that. Naturally there is more to this than I've revealed. But as I said, I want to save something for the show. :)

Series Bibles

I touched on this before. It's not so important when I'm the sole writer of the series, but when you are dealing with a group of writers it is very handy to have a series bible. This is a set of "rules" and notes about the setting, tone and details of the series. The point of this is to ensure consistency among the writers as they can be working on a number of episodes all at the same time.

It helps them keep on the same page, as it were. I will be working on some ideas for a bible - but it is unlikely to be as detailed or big as more professional shows are.

Next Up: Scripts

Conan