Many
extraordinary writers cannot begin to create a
viable treatment as a creative-development-marketing tool,
even if (or when) their lives, project, or careers depend on
it.
Many
producers and studio execs - some of whom are quite
exceptional at treatments - often find they do not always
serve the purpose intended, either because the story itself is
lacking or the document fails to capture and communicate the
real vision and/or viability in play.
Patrick
Horton combines a long history as writer and past lives as
marketing executive with his skills as facilitator and story
coach regardless of the use or layout of the document. Patrick
first uses his skills and techniques for drawing out and mapping
the story with an eye to its subsequent lives as marketing
campaign and creatively satisfying yet commercially viable
commodity. When multiple parties are involved, these first
steps are used to draw out and negotiate both individual and
collective visions/intentions to assure that the document is
not only capturing the best possibilities, but assuring that
everyone is having the same conversation.
In
those cases in which the document is intended by development
executives as a device for guiding potential writers and
collaborators, the skills and techniques as story coach noted
throughout this website are brought to bear to assure viable
coordination and communication of the best story possible.
Producers can be exceptional coach's and guides in the
development of story, but often fail to develop or communicate
their vision to others who must guess (and fail) at what they
are after.
Treatments
can vary in length and format from the industry useful 'One
Page' to a 6-10 page narrative synopsis (or a bible in the
case of television) for discussion or marketing purposes. Or
they can run all the way up to documents that exceed the
length of an actual script itself.
These
can be effective tools for refining a writer's thoughts and
handle on a story and can be particularly important as
discussion documents. Most generally, they are either a
promotional tool used for the marketing of a completed
screenplay or are used for acquiring development funding for
the execution of a screenplay from a fairly worked out story.
As
a final application of treatments, they can serve as an
effective bridge between divining and executing the best story
possible and converting that into an effective marketing
campaign. They can also serve, to determine when either is
lacking OR identify when a story that seems similar in likely
campaign is in fact stronger as product than another that did
not do well.