How to Write a Plot Treatment

Screenplay Project: Part ONE

What should be in a plot treatment?

A Working title

A short logline

Introduction to key characters

Who, what, when, why and where

3-Act Structure

Act I = Setup

Act II = Conflict

Act III = Resolution

Pouring water into a thimble… the LOGLINE

The logline is a ONE sentence statement that encompasses what your film is about.

It reads like a teaser, or marketing tool, to promote the film.

The higher the concept, the easier it is to write the logline.

The logline is the LITMUS for good ideas and bad ideas BEFORE you invest time in the entire screenplay.

Example Logline

And Then Came Love is a character-driven romantic comedy about a high-powered

Manhattan single mom who opens Pandora's box when she seeks out the anonymous sperm

donor father of her young son.

How to Develop a Logline Start with a list of all the important elements

of the script.

Who are the main characters? What happens to them? What is the most important moment in the script? What do the main characters do to overcome

adversity? How does the story end? What psychological change(s) takes place by the

end?

Name that Movie

An intergalactic saga which begins as a simple tale of one boy’s destiny, an

ancient religion and infuriating computer generated sidekicks.

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

Name that Movie

An unassuming US Navy chef and a band of vicious mercenaries.

Essentially, Die Hard on a boat.

Under Siege

Name that Movie

One man’s compelling struggle against poverty, poorly tended public toilets and India’s answer to Chris Tarrant.

Slumdog Millionaire

Name that Movie

On an infamous doomed vessel, a street-wise hustler crosses paths with a stifled aristocratic dreamer to create

an unsinkable love story. And a suspiciously accurate erotic drawing.

Titanic

Name that Movie

A band of miss-matched laborers are called up to board a space shuttle, fly it into space, land it on a moving rock (roughly the size of Texas), drill a hole on the moving rock and

blow it up before it collides with Earth, all to a soft-rock soundtrack. The title will be

something end-of-the-world based.

Armageddon

Name that Movie

A high-octane action adventure that offers a dizzying glimpse into the

thrills, adrenaline-fuelled battles and elongated volleyball montages that characterise the world of elite Naval

aviators.

Top Gun

Name that Movie

In the distant future a desperate war is ripping apart an endangered alien planet

until a battle-hardened hero fights to preserve the twinkling beauty of the rainforest and the lucrative future of

stereoscopic 3D glasses.

Avatar

Name that Movie

Vietnam, Sixties counterculture, Watergate. A Southern simpleton has a

bumbling hand in some of the 20th century’s biggest events in this

touching story of love, courage over adversity and snappily-named shrimp

chains.

Forrest Gump

Name that Movie

An archeologist is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the

Covenant before the Nazis.

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Name that Movie

A comedic portrayal of a young and broke Shakespeare who falls in love with a woman, inspiring him to write

Romeo and Juliet.

Shakespeare in Love

Name that Movie

A 17th Century tale of adventure on the Caribbean Sea where the roguish yet charming Captain Jack Sparrow

joins forces with a young blacksmith in a gallant attempt to rescue the

Governor of England's daughter and reclaim his ship.

Pirates of the Caribbean

Name that Movie

When a Roman general is betrayed and his family murdered by an insane and corrupt prince, he comes to Rome

as a gladiator to seek revenge.

Gladiator

Name that Movie

In a future where criminals are arrested before the crime occurs, a cop

struggles on the lam to prove his innocence for a murder he has not yet

committed.

Minority Report