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DRAFT ZERO

DZ-71: Treatments & Loglines - Development Tools 1

How can I develop my plot before writing the screenplay?

Legacy Episode — Migrated from our original site. Will take time to tidy up!

⏱ 1h 26m
1 SEP 2020

Show Notes

Stu and Chas are joined by fan-favourite, Stephen Cleary, to NOT look at what makes great screenplays work – but what makes great “short documents” work. We draw on Stephen Cleary’s wealth of experience in developing work with writers, as a producer, as a script editor and as a former head of development.

This recording turned especially epic and so we have divided it into three parts that can be listened to in any order.

Part 1 (this part) explores the short documents and tools you can use to develop your story’s PLOT before going to script, including the Premise, the Logline, various synopses, character documents, and - of course - the dreaded Treatment… But also looks at development tools that aren’t written like: script reads, mini-shoots and animatics.

Stay tuned for :

  • Part 2 (DZ-71) which delves into documents that develop your story’s theme; and then
  • Part 3 (DZ-73) where we look at how to write short documents differently when your objective isn’t story development but rather selling your idea/project.

Thanks to our Patrons, especially Theis, Jack, Chris, Khrob, Sandra and Matteo.

As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.


Chapters

  • 00:00:00 – Intro
  • 00:13:32 – The writing gym
  • 00:19:32 – Animatics & Script Readings
  • 00:28:08 – Telling your story out loud
  • 00:31:07 – Why Treatments suck
  • 00:36:49 – The Premise
  • 00:44:43 – Exploring WRITTEN short docs
  • 01:04:29 – What about non-hero's journey?
  • 01:14:36 – Using short docs to keep going
  • 01:21:04 – Back to the Premise
  • 01:24:37 – Moving from Premise to Logline
  • 01:25:33 – Stay tuned for Part 2!

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We are @stuwillis, @mehlsbells and @chasffisher on Twitter. You can find @draft_zero and @_shotzero on Instagram and Twitter.