Project: Writing and Developing your Treatment

Exercise: Start Writing Your Treatment

To enable me to start structuring my story into a treatment, I decided to plot some of the main story events onto a model of the three-act structure.  This enabled me to ensure that my story contains all of the main elements needed to construct an interesting and dramatic screenplay. 

Along the way, I made the decision to link my overall story theme with Kubler-Ross model of The Five Stages of Grief.  Each of the main characters’ ‘cycle of infection’ is detailed below in my three-act triangle.  I will describe this in further detail in my reflective commentary of Assignment 3. 

 

Following the initial ideas in my diagram, I have listed what I believe to be the main story events from my original story outline.  These are:

·       Following her parent’s absence at a piano recital, Sally is forced to take the bus home.

·       When she arrives home she find her parents, deeply Catholic, hanging from the rafters of their cottage. 

·       Sally is unable to call the police/ no one will stop on road and she has to run to police station.

·       The police are acting strangely and will not respond to Sally’s situation.

·       Sally stumbles across a meeting of young people in the woods and witnesses a woman being dragged onto a stage and tortured.

·       Running from the group, Sally hides in the woods and is drugged by Blaine. 

·       Sally wakes in a warehouse and tries to escape, but is caught by Tara and tied down.

·       After realising that Sally is not ‘infected’ Tara and Blaine introduce themselves as The Resistance, telling Sally that subliminal messaging in music is affecting people.

·       They kidnap Brandon for information and believe that PEAR is behind the infection.  Blaine kills Brandon.

·       The group go to PEAR HQ but find the place empty, finding just a few government files.

·       The group return to their base to find a mob of angry youths.  They are involved in a violent incident and manage to escape.  

·       The group witness the damage as they walk through the city streets before taking shelter in an abandoned library.

·       Sally finds a link between PEAR and the Prime Minister and uncovers the Government’s role in the infection.

·       Tara disappears causing Sally to suspect Blaine is ‘infected’.  She kills him in a violent rage.

·       In a whirlwind of depression Sally prepares to kill the PM, heading to steps of a speech at No. 10.

·       Whilst listening to the speech, Sally sees Tara amongst the crowd and realises that she too has been infected all along.

·       Fighting with her moral convictions Sally decides whether to shoot the PM or herself. 

Although this is a far from comprehensive list of events, this exercise did enable me to further develop my own ideas of how to create a more believable and complex story.

Exercise: Developing your Treatment

As the previous exercise gave me quite a few ideas about how to further expand my story, I have added these to the ideas above in preparation for creating a more definitive scene list.

1.     Following her parent’s absence at a piano recital, Sally is forced to take the bus home

2.     After the recital Sally talks to her old music teacher and catches up about her life at university.

3.     On her way home, Sally stops at a music shop where she notices the shopkeeper missing and sees a group of girls who are laughing at her music and fashion taste.

4.     On the bus home, Sally is ignored. She notices that she is surrounded by hooded young people silently tapping a beat.

5.     When she arrives home she find her parents, deeply Catholic, hanging from the rafters of their cottage. 

6.     Sally is unable to call the police/ no one will stop on road and has to run to police station.

7.     The police are acting strangely and will not respond to Sally’s situation.

8.     Sally stumbles across a meeting of young people in the wood and witnesses a woman being dragged onto stage and tortured.

9.     The group notices Sally and a chase begins through the woods, causing her to fall down a riverbank. 

10.  Injured, Sally hides in the woods and is found and drugged by Blaine. 

11.  Sally wakes in a warehouse and tries to escape, but is caught by Tara and tied down.

12.  After realising that Sally is not ‘infected’ Tara and Blaine introduce themselves as The Resistance, telling Sally that subliminal messaging in music is affecting people.

13.  The group watch the Government Emergency Broadcast message from the newly elected Prime Minister.

14.  They kidnap Brandon for information and believe that PEAR is behind the infection.   Blaine kills Brandon.

15.  The group go to PEAR HQ but find the place empty, finding just a few government files.

16.  The group return to their base to find a mob of angry youths.  They are involved in a violent incident and manage to escape.  

17.  On their journey to find shelter, Sally, Tara and Blaine enter a house after they hearing screaming from inside.  Once inside they find a TV blaring out an old horror film.

18.  The group taking shelter in an abandoned library.  The group begin deep research on PEAR and subliminal messaging.

19.  Sally finds a link between PEAR and the Prime Minister and uncovers the Government’s part in the infection.

20.  Sally and Blaine share a passionate night together.

21.  Tara disappears causing Sally to suspect Blaine is ‘infected’.  She kills him in a violent rage.

22.  In a whirlwind of depression Sally prepares to kill the PM, heading to steps of a speech at No. 10.

23.  Whilst listening to the speech, Sally sees Tara amongst the crowd and realises that she too has been infected all along.

24.  Fighting with her moral convictions Sally decides whether to shoot the PM or herself. 

Although I still hope to include many more story events within my final treatment, I feel as though this is a good start in trying to further develop the complexity and depth of the overall story.