Red Light, Green Light, GO!
treat*ment [noun] the presentation or discussion of a subject.
In Hollywood 'the treatment' refers to a document written by screenwriters so that executives might have an overview of a screenplay's story, structure, and characters prior to the screenwriters going to draft. The treatment is an attempt by executives to correct, advise, change, and or doctor the screenplay prior to the writers writing and becoming so very enamored with every word they write and their characters speak so that the screenwriters never want to change a single comma thus leaving the executives with whatever drivel the screenplay writer drips out of their fingertips onto the page.
Ah, the treatment. Mike and I have been working on a new one for...a while. And somehow this little bitty treatment, 'really, guys we only need a couple of pages.' Has turned into a monster at 17 pages SINGLE spaced. Single. Now any writer knows that 17 pages single spaced...is well...it's about 40 pages double. Wow. But we've nailed it. Finally. Or pretty much. There are of course more notes. (See post from January 27 regarding notes.) But notes are to be expected. Always. But now, after oh...one, two, three, four....okay five passes, it seems everyone is onboard with this treatment; three producers and two writers.
So now: Green Light, GO!
The fun part begins. We start to write. The script. The real thing. With the scenes, and the characters and the romance and the funny bits (oh please let the bits be funny) and the drama....and the funny bits...I mentioned the funny bits right? And once we have a draft, a really solid draft we turn it in to the producers. And guess what?
Same dance different tune. More notes. More rewrites. But if we do it right? It won't just be a Green Light to write...but a Green Light to make a movie.
xoMaggie
In Hollywood 'the treatment' refers to a document written by screenwriters so that executives might have an overview of a screenplay's story, structure, and characters prior to the screenwriters going to draft. The treatment is an attempt by executives to correct, advise, change, and or doctor the screenplay prior to the writers writing and becoming so very enamored with every word they write and their characters speak so that the screenwriters never want to change a single comma thus leaving the executives with whatever drivel the screenplay writer drips out of their fingertips onto the page.
Ah, the treatment. Mike and I have been working on a new one for...a while. And somehow this little bitty treatment, 'really, guys we only need a couple of pages.' Has turned into a monster at 17 pages SINGLE spaced. Single. Now any writer knows that 17 pages single spaced...is well...it's about 40 pages double. Wow. But we've nailed it. Finally. Or pretty much. There are of course more notes. (See post from January 27 regarding notes.) But notes are to be expected. Always. But now, after oh...one, two, three, four....okay five passes, it seems everyone is onboard with this treatment; three producers and two writers.
So now: Green Light, GO!
The fun part begins. We start to write. The script. The real thing. With the scenes, and the characters and the romance and the funny bits (oh please let the bits be funny) and the drama....and the funny bits...I mentioned the funny bits right? And once we have a draft, a really solid draft we turn it in to the producers. And guess what?
Same dance different tune. More notes. More rewrites. But if we do it right? It won't just be a Green Light to write...but a Green Light to make a movie.
xoMaggie
posted by Maggie Marr at 3:20 PM
1 Comments:
What fun, Maggie!!! Good luck!
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