Scriptment form

[Steve Rotramel]

What do you guys think about them? Took me about 7 nanoseconds to get used to this idea.

The way I understand it uses treatment, script, and step outline elements.

Maybe nobody told me about this because the readers/producers hate it? My consultant (over 40 years industry experience) had never heard of it.

Talk about speeding the process for me. Far more intuitive; or maybe I'm just lazy.....

[icerose]

I've never heard of it.

[Steve Rotramel]

This is one of many examples listed on wiki:

"In 2005, Sony Pictures paid screenwriter Ken Nolan US $3 million for his 75-page scriptment that was an adaptation of the then-unpublished Whitley Strieber novel The Grays.[8] Nolan had only one produced writing credit at the time, the screenplay for the military film Black Hawk Down (2001), a project for which he had submitted three different scriptments to producer Jerry Bruckheimer and executive producers Mike Stenson, and Chad Oman for approval during the writing process."

I use "movie outline" software which is a big step forward over the others for me. If this became (or is) accepted practice it would sure save a lot of time.

I've always thought the treatment doesn't communicate enough because it lacks dimension, especially for character driven stories. So much more comes through with a little dialog.

"Of course everything is script dependent..." - Ben Kingsley to Christopher in "The Sopranos"

[Plot Device]

My understanding of a scriptment is that it's a super-expanded treatment with actual chunks of script and dialogue found here and there.

I also am of the understanding that it's highly discouraged among newbie scriptwriters because it's such an alarmingly free-form way of packaging a script --too loosey-goosey for Hollywood to put up with. So only big names who are already established can get away with it. Or (so I have heard) only small indie guys working almost 100% on their own can get away with it because those guys are essentially the writer/producer/directors (and often the cinematographers and editors) so they can write their script however they want.

The advantages of a scriptment are:

1) you can write it in a somewhat briefer format than a full formal script
2) you can write it in a far more expanded scope than a mere treatment
3) you can pick and choose which scenes you deem so crucial in your final imaginings of the story that you can write out those particular scenes in excruciating detail with your precise preferences for ttheir look and feel, while breezing past those scenes that you find merely cursory and self-explanatory
4) (the most important advantage) you can more accurately dictate your intended tone for the finished film via copious usage of prosaic/novel-like action paragraphs
5) (just one more plus) you can deliberately skew the execution of the scriptment to read more like a novel than a script, thus expanding the audience of potential readers outside of those Hollywood initiates who have already been trained in the art of how to read screenplays.

[Jim McLain]

The longest it ever took me to write an actual script was six months. It was my first script and I actually knew nothing about the process. (The shortest was 21 days and I actually sold that one.) I would rather spend my time and effort on writing an actual script rather than spend my time trying to short cut the process.

Remember, however, the only real rule - "Writers write." Keep at it until your fingers bleed and then buy bandaids. I just think the best use of my time is to write scripts and have them available for producers and those who have the money to make movies.

[Steve Rotramel]

Hey Jim, now that we're freinds - invite me fishing!

Dude your whole process is a short-cut. If you just sit down and start tapping out sluglines - you don't have a process!

I'll tell you what happens if I do what you do. I end up with scenes that I really really really love that don't have anything to do with the story.

Since I can't bear to cut them, my unconquerable passive aggression kicks in along with the OCD and the perfectionism and the whole thing goes on a shelf for "later".

Then later I trash the whole thing and start over with a step outline, still smarting from the actual time wasted.

God bless you if you can do it; unfortunately I can't!

[zeprosnepsid]

James Cameron is famous for scriptments. But he's James Cameron. For a newbie, it's pretty much a no-no.

They're more often replacements for Treatments -- like if you are at the level where you can sell a Treatment -- than replacements for actual scripts.

[mommyjo2]

I do scriptments - for personal use before writing a script, proper.

I see it as kind of a "story brain dump". At this point in my life, I don't have the luxury of always having writing time at the same time every day, so I dump as much as I can when I can.

I don't think I'd try to SELL a scriptment, though.

[Steve Rotramel]

I do scriptments - for personal use before writing a script, proper.

I see it as kind of a "story brain dump".

When I started doing this I ran into all kinds of trouble trying to keep the various formats for the various stuff straight.

One guy wants the synop, another the treatment, and another the step outline etc.

But like mommyjo2 says, for something that is really useful in helping me put together ideas, AND continue forward in writing the script; this really works.

But like you guys say, you need some creds to sell anything from it.

Thanks PD: thorough as always.

[creativexec]

I do scriptments - for personal use before writing a script, proper.

I see it as kind of a "story brain dump". At this point in my life, I don't have the luxury of always having writing time at the same time every day, so I dump as much as I can when I can.

I don't think I'd try to SELL a scriptment, though.

I agree.

Treatments, synopses, scriptments are best used as tools to help a writer perfect the story before dramatizing it in screenplay format. It is very rare that any sort of treatment sells. In this current marketplace, new writers must lead with a screenplay. It is unlikely that a treatment or pitch will sell from a new writer. And you'd be hard-pressed to find any sort of legitmate representation that would be remotely interested in looking at anything other than a screenplay.

In the climate of a shrinking Hollywood and reduced production, studios and producers want to spend little time and money in development. Most are looking for completed screenplays that are as close to production as possible. (Never an easy thing.)

As new writers, you want to be able to show off your craft as dramatists. A treatment doesn't accomplish that task.


:)