Writing Treatments – Get Out Of First Gear

Treatments are essential both for developing and for marketing your scripts – and yet many good screenwriters fail to write good treatments.

It took me a long time to realise why.

I assumed for a long time that writing screenplays took different skills from writing treatments and that you could not be good at both.

I was half right.

Three Gears for Treatment Writing

It was, ironically, while researching hypnotherapy for a novel that I realised that writing treatments needs extra writing skills that can be learned like any other.

As a good screenwriter you learn to be very specific in your work, searching obsessively for the most vivid image, the most focused action to tell the story. But in a treatment this leads to a clogged and indigestible style that goes “and then… and then… and then…” All too often, the alternative is to become vague and waffly.

A good hypnotherapist (and a good novelist) can also be very specific, but also learns to shift smoothly from the specific to the general – from the detailed to the abstract – and back again, constantly changing perspective.

This is one of the skills demanded of you when you write a treatment. Like a driver shifting gears, you learn to shift easily and confidently from bottom to top and back again.

For Instance?

For instance, a screenwriter might write:

“Suddenly the car shudders to a halt.”

This is what I call “scene” mode – or first gear. And you must write scripts in scene mode. However, for a treatment you learn next to move up a gear, to become more generalised. For example, you might continue:

“For the next five hours the team fights hard to get the engine to work.”

Such a sentence would never work in a script, it’s too general, and yet is crucial for a treatment to flow. You might even go up to third gear, even more general, and write:

“No-one can survive a night in the desert.”

From here, you can shift back down step by step into scene mode for some more specifics and the loop continues. This is how good treatments – like good short stories and novels – avoid the curse of “and then, and then”.

Before I learned this, I was like a driver who never got out of first gear! Try it out.

And if you want to learn more come to my next Exciting Treatments workshop to learn more about this and other crucial treatment writing skills they don’t tell you in the screenwriting books.

Quotes from previous participants:

Brilliant! - LS

Very condensed. Full of good information and tips from an experienced tutor. Encouraging. – MS

I recommend it to anyone dealing with narrative. Very liberating and dynamic. - TJ

Charles Harris is an experienced award-winning writer-director for cinema and TV. He sold his first script for production in Hollywood and has since worked with top names in the industry from James Stewart to Spike Milligan. As script consultant, he has helped professional writers from Britain, Europe and USA, sat on BAFTA awards juries and lectured on MA courses at London University and London Film School. He is also a qualified trainer in NLP

UltraShort Pitching Competition – The Answers

A few days ago, I wrote about the industry’s most famous pitch – a mere three words – “Jaws in Space.” It was the original pitch for Alien. And I promised to tell you about a two word and a one word pitch – the only ones I know of.

I’ll tell you about these below. But first I want to say I was lucky enough to have the time to work with writers on their pitches at Cheltenham last October. Writers went straight off from the Euroscript clinic and using the pitches we developed together got immediate interest from BBC Drama, Warners, Curtis Brown and other major producers and agents.

As a result of that, I added a one-day Pitching Masterclass to the schedule on the insistence of our member-writers – it is the only time it is scheduled this year.

The Day

One thing we’ll be going over is the difference between a pitch and a strap line. A strap line is the “pitch” on the film poster, and it does a very different job.

For example, the strap line for Alien was “In space nobody can hear you scream!” Very different – in its content and in its effect. You could never use it to pitch a movie to a producer. It just doesn’t have the content a proper pitch needs.

In this workshop, you will use exercises and feedback to clarify the strengths of your idea, and use that premise as the basis for developing an exciting, original and marketable pitch.

For example, that two-word pitch I promised to tell you about. It’s “Harry Potter.” Do you think that after three best-selling books, those two words might just have got the attention of a studio executive in under one second?

You will learn how you could use the same principle as that pitch, without having to option a best seller. You will also learn a number of psychological skills to help you gain confidence and reach a higher level than you dreamed you could. Using that principle you could maybe now guess the one word pitch…

On Saturday you will also have the opportunity to practise pitching to small groups or to all the others in a friendly and constructive setting, so as to become comfortable with telling people your story in any situation.

What people have said

‘Good tuition, good feedback on pitches.’ JB

(How would you recommend this course?) ‘Yes, absolutely.‘ TH

‘Very good indeed. Very useful.’ BW

‘Just to tell you that I sold my script yesterday. Attended the workshop on Saturday, made the pitch on Tuesday, did the deal on Friday. Thank you for all your help and advice.’
Dan Sefton, working TV and film writer.

‘Excellent.’ GP

When and Where?

VENUE
Room 103
Clore Management Centre
Birkbeck College
Torrington Square
London WC1E 7HX

DATE
Saturday 16 January 2010
Registration 10.15am
Course 10.30am to 5.30pm
Light refreshments included

Last call – a few remaining places available.

PRICE
£85 (£75 concessions)

On this course we are offering the concessionary rate to members of DGGB, WGGB, WIFTV, TwelvePoint and Writernet.

Click here to book online now.

Please note, places are strictly limited to ensure personal feedback.

Oh, and that one-word pitch? “Superman.” Tell me if you come up with any others.

Best TV drama, my arse

I know that the point of lists is to argue with them, but come on! Who in their right minds could put Prime Suspect eighteen places above The Shield? – the Guardian, today, that’s who.  Prime Suspect is watchable, if cliched, with a good strong female lead, but it can’t hold a candle to a seven series noir drama that beats it on every count, including plot, character, dialogue, cinematography, sound, originality, theme.

When every drama that runs more than one series inevitably turns to soap, one of The Shield’s many achievements is to create a gripping, horrifying arc that holds convincingly from the start to the bittersweet end. And in Vic Mackie is created one of the most complex, tragically flawed characters in TV history.

That opening episode had me in its clutches by half way through, and the series never gave up its hold… I’m not going to say any more about the brilliance of the twists, the unexpectedness of seeing Film Noir in a cop show. (How dare the Guardian call it a “police procedural”!) If you haven’t seen it, well, repent at speed and grab the DVD boxed sets before it is too late to retrieve the ashes of your wasted life.

OK, I know everyone’s gone bananas over The Sopranos and The Wire and yes, they’re good, but somehow after The Shield has shattered so many stereotypes and developed such a strong personal style, they just always felt a bit, well, predictable.

And then, talking of unpredicatability and a cast of complex, flawed, fascinating characters: no mention at all of Spiral. But of course, silly me, it’s in Frog. Nothing made not in English could possibly be on the list, could it? Well, I don’t see any.

It’s official: all great TV drama is Anglo-Saxon.

The Guardian should expect a very loud knock on the door, imminently.

Power Pitching Tips

Can you imagine being able to grab the attention of industry professionals in just a few words?

Actually, that’s an essential if you want to succeed as a writer, director or producer in film or TV.

And the biggest mistake that most people make, the way they give away their amateur status, as well as the best tip for being successful and professional, is already contained in that opening line.

It’s the first and most important tip:

Just a few words

Forget everything you’ve seen in the movies. The professional pitch is best started with just a few words. Your pitch should be two to three sentences, no more.

Why? Your only important goal is to get your script read. Unless you have a track record already, your best outcome is that they say, “Send me your script.”

That’s actually good news, because it takes the pressure off. You don’t have to tell them the whole story. You just have to get them interested.

On the way to getting them to read your script, your secondary goal is for them to say, “Tell me more.” And they won’t say that if you’ve been rabbitting on for five minutes non-stop.

Nobody has ever complained a pitch was too short!

Give them the key idea and theme that will grab an audience. And then stop. And wait for them to say…

“Tell me more!”

Ultra-Short Pitch Competition!

Of course, doing all you need to do in just two to three sentences, and sounding relaxed and informal at the same time, takes a high level of understanding, skill and practice, but when you get good at pitching you’ll find that very soon two to three sentences feels long.

Indeed, the most famous pitch in industry history was only three words – the pitch for Alien – which was “Jaws in Space.”

I’ve even heard a totally persuasive two word pitch – and a one-word pitch. I’ll leave those for you to think about. Feel free to email or post any suggestions – an Ultra-Short Pitch competition – the prize is your own pride and satisfaction. I’ll post my own in the next few days.

If you want to get powerful at pitching, you need to put in the work. Analyse as many as you can. Short written pitches are everywhere, in adverts, in Radio Times blurbs, even in the body of film and TV reviews.

Also listen to people pitching – at network events or pitching workshops or just friends talking about what they just saw. Analyse every pitch you see or hear.

You can find more pitching tips here

Practice Makes Confident

If you want to work on your pitches, develop your skills or just make sure that the premise of your script is totally solid, then I suggest a number of ways.

You can book a personal session with a script consultant, and work on your pitch in person, on-line or on the phone.

You can work in a group – for example at a Euroscript Monday evening development workshop.

And you can come on the Pitching Masterclasses that I’m running. Here you’ll learn the techniques of developing a top-class pitch, as well as work on your presentation skills. You’ll also learn how to develop a calm and confident mindset for taking meetings with producers so you can pitch with self- assurance – and power.

If you’re interested I would urge you to grab the opportunity while you can.

Click here for more details now