The GITS Club Treatment Challenge?
Mike Scherer, who serves as the moderator over at our peer script review site The GITS Club, and I have been mulling over some ideas to engender the learning experience both there and here, and we’ve come up with what we think is an interesting idea: A monthly TGC Treatment Challenge.
Each month, we invite TGC members to write and submit a 2-page treatment of a story they plan to write or have written as a full-length movie screenplay. One treatment will be selected in a process to be determined by TGC membership and Mike. I will read that treatment, then post an analysis of it, just like I do when participants submit a story synopsis at Screenwriting Master Class.
What’s the value? (1) Writing a treatment is a skill all aspiring screenwriters should master. Hopefully the process of writing them and resulting analysis will help. (2) Writing a treatment forces the writer to work out key plot points and dynamics in the story, thereby advancing their understanding of their story. (3) Feedback from me as well as TGC members and GITS readers can confirm areas of the story’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as provide ideas to improve it.
As a test run, I propose this schedule:
11/15–11/30: Interested participants write and post treatments on TGC. One treatment selected.
12/1–12/7: My week to read and analyze the treatment.
12/8–12/14: Post treatment and analysis on TGC and GITS for general review and feedback.
Anybody interested? If so, I’ll follow up with some tips on how to write a treatment.
UPDATE: Okay, looks like there’s some good interest. I’ll post something in the next few days on writing a treatment.