but what’s it about?
I am currently taking a screenplay writing class and ⅓ of the way in, I think I’ve learned more about story dev than from all the writing craft classes and books I’ve read and taken. Particularly helpful to me is this week’s class on the various documents that go into the development of a story in a collaborative setting - all the kinds of documents that can happen between the idea and the screenplay itself :
pitch / logline: one line summary of the story.
This is a selling document. You have one line and if all goes well, they’re interested and ask questions and long conversations happen, or if not and no one has anything to ask or say, then that’s your queue to leave with your tail between your legs.
beatsheet: 1 - 2 pages.
This is a development document that contains the spine of the story to test the story’s arc. Usually written out as a list of sentences or sentence fragments to highlight key moments.
treatment: 2 - 12 pages.
A prose description of the story in a manuscript-ish format - 1.5 - 2x line spacing and usually in Courier instead of Times New Roman ’cause that’s how screenplay writers roll.
A shorter treatment is usually a selling document to present to an executive. A longer treatment - 8 to 12 pages - is usually a development document because it’s much easier for a team to mull over 10 pages vs 100 pages of actual script.
outline: longer and more detailed than a long treatment.
This is the document that goes from beat to beat and fills them in.
Not every project has every document. For example, if the movie is an assignment, then you probably don’t have to write a logline - or, more probably, someone already wrote it for you. Or if the project is small enough, say 10 minutes, you might go from a long treatment straight to the screenplay. But, there’s a process and that process goes from the idea in its most condensed form and works its way to the idea’s most developed form.
❀
On writing fanfic: I already use outlines but I love the idea of a beatsheet - a one-page something to glance at. The treatment? Blah. The pitch? I’ve been doing that already for story summaries but now it feels more like . . . “One line or die!” Or maybe the feeling will pass after this homework assignment is done - loglines where one sentence is ideal, two max, three is an automatic fail.
