Organization a lost art

In order to have a good production there needs to be a lot of organization in the preproduction process. There are very few good productions that turn out without going through planning, writing, and re-writing. The only productions that do well with little planning are still organized have a strong story and the actors are highly skilled in improvisation. For beginners it is important to embrace the planning process.

A rookie mistake that is made by novice writers is looking at highly successful shows, such as "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia." 90% of the show is improvised but the actors are trained and still follow a structured outline. Actors on any show know they have to get from point A to B to C somehow. Good writers will write a script that can allow actors to stray from but still know where to get to. Never compare yourself to professionals that have been working on their career their whole life. You will get there but start at page 1. You'll get to where they are at if you keep working at it.

Improv is something that people pay thousands to learn. It is not something that an everyday ordinary person can do and writers should take that in to consideration.  Make your script as detailed as possible, write lines that actors can work with  if they can't improvise and never assume actors will come up with something better on the day of the shoot.

As an aspiring actress myself I can tell you that I need my script. I need the details and I need to know what I am working with. I'll add the personality in as I go but with out an organized script I have no way to find A, B, and C. The best scripts I have read allow for improv but are still structured and organized.

Preproduction takes time and that is ok. The best work comes from an organized process if you want your work to stand out then you will take the time to organize. Amazing work rarely comes from chaos. What little good comes from the chaos probably started out organized at some point. Preproduction involves research, planning, outlining, writing a treatment, dozens of rough drafts, a decent piece, and several rewrites before it can be ready for anyone to take seriously. It takes time but if you use your time to plan and organize it will be time well spent.

By Anne Orban 

Blogger/Photo Journalist 

Ipsum Films

Write a Treatment

Having written a handful of stageplays, short screenplays, and two features in the works - organizing and planning is nothing new to my process. That said, I have ignorantly avoided writing "Treatments" for scripts. 

Recently, I was encouraged to write a two page Treatment for a script that has been giving me a lot of trouble and have never felt my eyes more open about a script. 

A Treatment, in my eyes, has always been  an elusive creature ready to tear my fingers off. And while that is an unchanged opinion, I am excited to embrace the Treatment. 

It is a document, whether one page or thirty, that tells your story from start to finish. Similar in style to a super short story, or novella, in that it's dramatic and feels like a very precise and detailed work of fiction. The reader should be able to see, smell, and feel, the world and characters involved with the story, and every word in the document is chosen with pitching the script in mind. 

It is quite common, and often requested, that a Treatment accompany a script so it can be read before opening the script's coverpage. For that reason, the Treatment should be revered as the first impression readers will encounter and the way it is crafted will determine if your script will be read or thrown away. 

From start to finish, Treatments provide an eye opening truth that tell you where you are at in the development of the story. Trying to organize characters, scenes, plots, refine dialogue, pacing, overall continuity, etc, can get overwhelming and your brains starts to fill in the blanks of where the bigger picture needs to get to. By doing that, it's easy to say, "I'll fix this later. I'll come back to this. I'll remember this hole and fill it in." And so on. 

By writing a Treatment you can stay on top of where a script is at instead of assuming you've got everything in place. These periodic Treatments expose the height of stakes, relationships, and how entertaining the story actually is. 

Long story short, a Treatment is a very detailed summary (not an outline) of your screenplay. An outline has bullet points and facts, a Treatment paints a well crafted picture of your script.

Treat yourself and the stories you want to tell; read some example treatments and make write one yourself.