Writing a Film Treatment

A film treatment is a written outline of a film including all elements of the production from lighting to music to dialogue to the inclusion of specific images.  For this assignment you will be working together to write a film treatment for the first 10 minutes of a movie version of the novel Graceland by Chris Abani.  The treatment should be written in standard paragraph form and consider all of the following:

1)      Sound – music, sound effects, volume (what are we hearing, is it loud, is it soft)

2)      Lighting (is it bright or dim, are certain people or objects illuminated)

3)      Characters (who do we see, what are they doing)

4)      Dialogue (what are they saying)

5)      Images  (are there any special images you want to show for thematic reasons)

Remember your film treatment is an outline which describes the opening of your movie.  You are not simply recounting the novel in a different format; you are presenting your interpretation of the novel as a film.  You will have 20 minutes to complete this assignment.