Week 3: Treatment Time!

Today we watched Episodes #1 and #7 of Clark and Michael — and I strongly urge all of you to watch the rest of the episodes. There's a lot to notice about the development of the series arc as well as individual episode structure, and about avoiding the "running gag" danger.

I didn't collect your 5 ideas today, but don't throw them away — I want them next week! For now, they're mainly to help you weigh some options and think about which ideas are most likely to generate good story and character material.

Also consider what will be producible in Studio 2. This means a 3-camera shoot, some props and set dressing but nothing too expensive or difficult, a manageable cast size, etc. This is not to say that you can't write an animated or sci-fi series in this class, but for this assignment keep it in the realm of what can be made with department resources.

For those of you already starting to panic a little, stay calm. There are lots of things to think about, but no writer covers everything in one draft — different layers will develop at different rates and at different stages in the writing process. We've got lots of time to workshop and change things around, so if you feel yourself getting stuck or overwhelmed, just hang in there and get something on the page. Even if it gets radically changed later, at least you have something solid to go on in the meantime.

Feel free to check in with me any time.

HOMEWORK:

1. Write a short blurb (length up to you) describing the premise, characters, look/tone/feel, or whatever else I should know about, of your series.
2. Write a 2-page treatment for the pilot episode. Double space, 12-point font, 1-inch margins, don't go over 2 pages. Remember the treatment is to help the reader imagine what your episode looks and sounds like, as well as giving the basic storyline. Don't worry about getting lots of specific lines of dialogue and jokes and stuff in — that'll be in the script. Treatments are written in present tense (like film reviews are) and in the order that we see it on screen (so even if your story jumps around in time, you write the treatment to match the way you'll write the script, with scenes in the order they'll be seen by the audience).
3. Proofread and spell-check! I don't want to see any sentences without the correct end punctuation, or contractions without apostrophes, or plurals masquerading as possessives — or any other stuff covered in the Writing Mechanics handout (see link in sidebar).
4. I insist that you have some fun writing. I'll know if you don't.