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Synopses, Outlines and Treatments |
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OutlinesOutlines can be up to 10 pages in length, and contain a fleshed-out version of the story. They are written in prose, and typically don’t include formatted dialogue or scene headings.
Other than the length, synopses and outlines differ in a few key ways:
- Outlines contain subplots, showing how they progress through the story, and how they help to either advance action, reveal character or communicate theme.
- Outlines show how the main plot plays out the movie’s concept (or controlling story idea) fully, giving a deeper sense of the characters and tone. They illustrate the protagonist’s journey through the story, how that journey communicates the theme, and how the main conflict creates rising action.
Treatments
Tip:
- Read the guidelines carefully for treatments, since funders have
detailed submission requirements. For instance, Telefilm asks for 1. 5
spacing; Harold Greenberg, double spacing.
Treatments tell the story in a scene-by-scene breakdown, in the language of dramatic action. They are much longer than synopses or outlines. Telefilm Canada indicates in their Screenwriting Assistance Program guidelines that treatments are to be no more than 25 pages. Astral Media’s Harold Greenberg Fund indicates that treatments are to be 20 to 30 pages long.
In treatments, scenes are described in the same order as in the first draft of the script.
- What happens?
- Where does it happen?
- Who does what to whom?
- How does that activity lead to rising action?
Characters’ behaviour (as in the script) has to reveal everything. Dialogue is used very minimally, if at all, and only to add a sense of character or tone. At the end of a treatment, the reader should have a complete picture of the movie: how the story is told through plot, and how the plot causes character progressions that communicate the theme.
The writing should be vivid and reflect the tone of the movie. It needs to be energetic, filled with active verbs. However, while the writing needs to be dynamic and appealing, treatments sink or swim on the screen-worthiness of the content.
Writers can use treatments as roadmaps for the first draft, but typically writers will not prepare an industry-standard treatment unless they or their producers are looking for financing.
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