Outlines, treatments and numbered pages

Outlines, treatments and numbered pages

I was looking through your library section at the TV shows you’d written and noticed a few things that caught my eye. I’m trying to write a treatment/pitch for a TV series and, well, first of all:

In writing it out, is it called a “pitch” or a “treatment” or a “write-up”?

I noticed that all three of your “write-ups” were different in terms of style, as in there didn’t seem to be any sort of template or format to follow specifically, like you would with a screenplay. How do you know what to do technically? Even down to the fonts used, and what is in bold. Sometimes there are bullets.

I also noticed your page numbers: 1 of 5, 2 of 5…. and so on. How did you do that? Did you do that manually or is there some setting I am not seeing in Word that allows for that, because I couldn’t find it.

— Jeff Fradley Anchorage

To me, an outline tends to be less prose-y and feature more bullet points, but there is no common consensus in Hollywood about what’s what. In features, we use “treatment” and “outline” and “beat sheet” interchangeably.

A “write-up” is generally a written version of something you’ve pitched. It could be long or short. A “leave-behind” is a written summary of a pitch that you literally leave behind after the meeting. ¹

As far as page numbers, I’m a big fan of X of Y headers — I even do it on handwritten documents. They were probably more important back when we were faxing documents around, but they’re a good idea overall.

Pretty much every word processor can do this kind of page numbering.

In Pages, Insert > Page Number. Then type “of.” Then Insert > Page Count.

In Word, use the header bar/ribbon thing to Insert Page Number, then “of,” then Insert Number of Pages.

In Google Docs, well. It’s hard to do in Google Docs.

1.    Leave-behinds are often a terrible idea, because this written version becomes the basis of all future conversations. And you’ve essentially just delivered free work. ↩

Specs, treatments, and pitches

September 10, 2003 QandA, Treatments

What’s the difference: spec script, treatment, pitch and outline?

–Fabio Bueno

These terms deal with different forms or stages of a screenwriter’s work. A "spec script" is a completed screenplay, probably about 120 pages long, that a writer wrote on his own. That’s the "spec" part, meaning that no one paid the writer in advance to write it, just like a house built on spec doesn’t have a buyer until it’s finished. Most writers’ first screenplays would be considered specs, because it’s rare for someone to hire a writer without reading his or her work first.

"Treatment" and "outline" mean different things to different people, and one writer’s treatment might be another’s outline. Regardless, treatments and outlines map out a movie story, often as a precursor to writing the full screenplay. An outline might be one page or might be ten; a treatment could be three pages or could be thirty. James Cameron is known for writing "scriptments" that are 70 pages or more. Ultimately, the length is less important than the function: hopefully, an outline or treatment will help a writer spot problems early on, so that the finished script will be better. Treatments are usually written in paragraph rather than screenplay form, but there are no hard and fast rules. Outlines are often more rudimentary, with just sluglines to refer to sequences.

A "pitch" is the oral presentation of a movie idea, where screenwriters explain to studio executives that their movie is "Ghostbusters meets Titanic." God knows why screenwriters – who spend most of their days typing in dark rooms – are supposed to be able to suddenly become eloquent and impassioned hucksters, but such are the weird realities of Hollywood. Ideally, a pitch should feel like how you describe a really good movie to a friend who hasn’t seen it yet. Casual but excited. Truthfully, I usually write every word I’m going to say ahead of time, then internalize it so it feels like I’m ad-libbing. There might be situations when you give a "written pitch," but truthfully, that document would probably be an outline or treatment.

I’ve been on panels dedicated to the topic of pitching, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not a skill that can really be taught. It’s like stand-up comedy. You have to learn through practice in front of actual human beings.

How long a treatment?

September 10, 2003 QandA, Treatments

I am currently writing my first feature length screenplay and have been asked to send in a treatment to a production company. What is the standard form for a treatment (how many pages, etc)? I have trawled the Internet to no avail.

–DOC

There is no standard. Ask the production company what they mean by a treatment, and they’ll probably tell you what they’re looking for in terms of pages. They may even send a sample.

For example, my assistant Dana is currently writing a treatment for a production company. The treatment will end up being 15-20 pages, single spaced. To me, that’s at the long end of a treatment, but that’s what the company wanted.

A treatment of any length generally describes all of the major scenes or sequences in the movie in prose form, but doesn’t get into specific dialogue. From a treatment, a reader should be able to get a good sense of the movie’s plot, but not necessarily its special flavor. A treatment is never a substitute for a screenplay.

RELATED PO

How many pages

September 10, 2003 Formatting, QandA

I have written a few short stories that turn out to be 5 or 10 minutes. Now I am currently in the middle of writing a full-length screenplay and was wondering, what is a good amount for a full length? I heard that there is an amount that, if it is under, studios will not except it. Is that true, and if so, what is that amount?

–Ross

Most of the time, you’ll hear 120 pages, which is a good rule of thumb. Honestly, a script could be anywhere from 100 to 145 pages and still be a reasonable-length movie, but the majority of scripts that go into production fall between 110 and 120 pages. That’s generally what I aim for.

I thought it was Hollywood urban legend, but Warner Bros. actually has in their screenwriter contract that a feature-length screenplay can’t come in at more than 120 pages. I suspect they made an exception for the recent Harry Potter movie, which based its running time, probably weighed in at more than 140 pages.

Ratio of pages to screen time

September 10, 2003 QandA, Words on the page

How do you (roughly) calculate the ratio of script length to screen time? Would you use a different calculation for different genres?

–Rebecca

The very general rule is that a page in the script should equal a minute of screen time, which is one reason the industry has standardized around 12-point Courier for the font. Since most screenplays are around 120 pages, the movie should work out to be 120 minutes, or two hours, assuming every scene in the script makes it into the movie.

Of course, a page full of action would likely take longer than a minute, just as a page of rapid-fire dialogue would be a lot faster. That’s why before a movie goes into production, the script is often "timed" to estimate how long the movie will be, so the director and producers can plan accordingly.

A "script timer" is a professional reader who estimates how long each scene will play, and thus, the length of the overall movie. Generally, the script timer will take into account the director’s vision and style when timing the scenes; the David Lynch version of a scene would tend to run longer than the Michael Bay version. Many script timers are in fact the script supervisors, who will be set during the entire production helping the director, actors and editors maintain continuity and catch mistakes. From the screenwriter’s perspective, this is one of the most important people on the set, since he or she always has the director’s ear, and will be the person correcting actors who mangle their lines.

How long is a scene?

September 10, 2003 QandA, Words on the page

I’m about 50 pages into my first screenplay, a family film. For research, I decided to watch at least a dozen children’s movies, and I started with the current blockbuster HARRY POTTER. I was fascinated by the pacing. Virtually every scene (there are one or three exceptions) is only 1 – 3 minutes long, with most coming in just under two minutes. That seems very short. Comparatively, my writing is averaging 2 – 5 minutes per scene. Should I be concerned? Is it possible anymore for a children’s movie to be marketable if it doesn’t run at a breakneck pace?

–Barb

First, kudos on doing the experiment. You taught yourself something that no instructor could ever beat into you: movie scenes are short. Much shorter than you would think.

If you were to expand your research to include other genres, you’d find that most scenes in most movies are no more than three minutes long, which means no more than three pages of script.

It’s not an iron-clad rule; scenes can be twenty minutes long. But it’s a very useful rule of thumb. If I get to the third page of a scene I’m writing, I automatically stop and re-examine it to figure out why it’s so long, and whether it really needs to be.

Since this is your first screenplay, I’m hesitant to tell you to cut your scenes down now, for fear that you’ll never actually finish your script. But always look for economy: what is the latest moment you could come into a scene, and the earliest moment you could leave? You’ll probably find that your character waste a lot of time before getting to the meat of a scene, then chew on the bones longer than needed.

Script length

September 10, 2003 Formatting, QandA

Your advice of 110 to 120 pages for script length agrees with what others say, but upon sampling a large number of films I find their lengths usually fall between 85 and 115 minutes, including five minutes of credits. At a minute per page, something doesn’t click. Do producers expect 15 extra pages because they feel scripts usually have fat that needs trimming? Or perhaps producers know that during script development, writers find it less distressing to eliminate scenes and hope no one notices, rather than turn them into something far removed from the original vision. Just a thought.

–Ryall

It’s true that a lot of movies clock in at 100 minutes or less, and that the one-minute-per-page rule of thumb really depends on whose thumbs are doing the measuring. Moviemaking is more art than science, so it never holds up to much mathematical scrutiny. Whatever the reason for the discrepancy, I assure you it doesn’t come from producers trying to spare writers’ feelings.

One variable that really effects running time is pacing. GO was about 102 minutes long. The script was 126 pages, and almost nothing was dropped. The movie never dawdled, however, which is how it got the story told so quickly.

Even movies that end up at 85 minutes probably began as screenplays in the 110 to 120 page range. In the course of production, or post-production, scenes often get cut. Either they are never filmed, or they end up on the cutting room floor, just waiting for the DVD version.

Since scenes are going to get cut, why not just start out with a shorter script? It’s not a bad question. In television, where programs have to be delivered to the network at a precise running time (at ABC, it is 42 minutes, 20 seconds for a "one-hour" drama), it is obviously preferable to avoid shooting scenes that couldn’t possibly fit into the allotted time.

In terms of features, however, anything shorter than 100 pages "feels" too short. It’s literally just not enough pages in your hand. And if you go much beyond 120 pages, people get nervous. Even if it’s great, it feels long.