Wednesday, 7 October 2015

PLANNING MY PRE PREP FOR TREATMENT

Today in class I looked at FutureLearn.  I was asked to think of a movie and think what the top line is. The film I chose was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. The top line in this film is that there is a clash between good and evil which awaits as Harry Potter prepares for a final battle against Lord Voldemort. The big question is will Harry be able to defeat Voldemort?


For Franc Ash, Creative Consultant who has taught storytelling and creativity techniques to teams across the BBC and beyond, it is important to focus on the audience: what will interest the audience? How will the narrative develop?

He believes that if you're aiming for your film to reach a large audience online, making sure it has universal appeal will be key. Franc Ash created these couple of points below so that I was able to really think about the big question and top line for when it comes to making my own treatment:

  • Think about your favourite book or film or any ‘good story’ you recently watched online, could you sum up its narrative into ‘one elegant sentence’ to provide its ‘topline’?
  • What was its big story question, and how important was it to your appreciation of the text?"

In my treatment I will aim to define in my treatment:
  • the top line 
  • the big question
As I begin to tell them a story, the first question is going to be, what is the story? What's it all about? What kind of a story is it? What's the issue, the content that this story is going to be dealing with? 

A good way of finding these answers is to begin to think about I can synthesise and focus my story into one beautiful, elegant sentence. This is called the top line. 

The second point, is to give them a sense of what the big story question is. What's going to happen? Will they win? Will they find the girl of their dreams? It's very much about giving them a question that gives them a sense of anticipation and suspense. It gives them a sense of waiting to hear how it's all going to be resolved at the end of my story. 

In my trailer the top line will be - a man tries to avenge his sisters death by catching her killer without being convicted himself.  The big question is - will the brother be able to catch her killer without being found guilty of her death in the process. 

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