![]() While your logline tells us what we're getting into, the tagline gets us excited and most always a play on words. Whether you're crafting a documentary logline or tinkering with loglines for short films, your logline is never the same as your synopsis. While your logline is a short summary of what your movie is about, your synopsis is a beat for beat retelling of your story's plot. It's the most important part of a logline definition. While we’ll get into what makes the best loglines pop and get our attention, it’s important to note that movie loglines are concise. If someone asks you what your screenplay is about, respond with a logline. that hooks the reader in and describes the central conflict of the story. They’ll probably have useful feedback that’ll make your treatment even better.A logline, or log line, is a brief (one to two sentence) summary of a movie, tv show, etc. Hold off on sending it to funders or interviewees until you’ve had a friend or collaborator cast an eye over it, though. Once you’ve got a first draft of your documentary film treatment together, it’s time to show it to some people. And definitely don’t describe camera directions. Only describe what’s seen and heard on cameraĭon’t include characters’ desires, emotions or inner thoughts. Introduce characters in CAPS, followed by their age in brackets: ‘ROCKY (25) greets PAULIE (40s). Make sure you don’t use any inside filmmaking terms that the average reader won’t understand. Not everyone reading your documentary treatment will be a cinematic expert or screenwriting buff. Use vivid, colourful language and avoid generic phrases or cliches. Your treatment needs to describe situations, locations and characters in precise detail to make the story jump off the page. This will make your treatment feel more alive, immersing the reader in the story.Ĭheck out this post for more information on the active and passive voice. Don’t say ‘Apollo was punched by Rocky’-this is in the passive voice and past tense. Tell the reader what they’ll see and hear on the screen as the documentary unfolds, from beginning to end. But there are a few golden rules that’ll ensure your treatment’s up to industry standards.ġ. Naturally, every documentary treatment is different. Stick to the meat of the story and the main characters. You should aim for something that outlines your basic three-act structure but without the screenplay format. Your treatment doesn’t need to include the whole story, so it’s a good idea to cut out non-critical subplots. It needs to include the key plot points and give a flavour of the tone you’re shooting for, but it shouldn’t be overly stylised-like a novel, for example. When formatting your documentary treatment, you should write it in the same way that you would write a present-tense short story. What to include in a documentary treatment His treatment for Terminator is worth a read. James Cameron, for example, is known for writing epic 70-page film treatments. Sometimes readers have a certain page count in mind. If you’re writing your treatment for someone specific-like a reader at a production company-then screenwriter John August suggests asking them what they’re looking for. If you’re writing without a specific audience in mind, then a ten-page document is a good length for a documentary treatment. Your treatment needs to be short enough to be snappy and engaging, but long enough to cover all the plot points and sell the story. While there are strict rules for how long a spec script should be, documentary treatments can vary quite a lot. How long should a documentary treatment be? It’s an evolving document that’ll flex as you move through the writing process. ![]() While it’s important to invest time in making your documentary treatment as good as it can be, you’ll constantly need to update it as the project progresses. It explains your vision in word form, helping others to understand what you’re trying to create. You’ll need it to get potential investors, participants or supporters involved in your film. So it’s an essential part of the development process.īut your documentary treatment is useful for other reasons, too. ![]() As a filmmaker, it’ll help you get all your ideas on the page, working through potential themes and story angles. Your documentary treatment is a written document that describes your entire documentary project. Need help writing a logline? Check out our comprehensive guide: How to write a logline.
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