Can a short story be a film treatment?

To first answer the question posed in the thread title, I'd say no. Film treatments and short stories are two different animals, both in length and in content. While one can likely be used to create another, they are not interchangeable.

I found a link that should be useful to you in researching just what a film treatment does, and different ways to write them.

http://www.filmmakers.com/features/screenwriting/treatment.htm

A treatment is to a screenplay what a synopsis is to a novel. Length varies, depending on the needs of the producer/publisher, but the idea is to describe the events of the movie/novel in such a way that the reader will want to read the entire screenplay/manuscript.

A treatment lacks the details and character development that makes a great short story. A short story includes all of the fine details and specific characterizations that makes a bad treatment.

-Kelly

I have to disagree. The Lawnmower Man and The Childeren of the Corn were both short stories that were made into screenplays.

I have to disagree. The Lawnmower Man and The Childeren of the Corn were both short stories that were made into screenplays.

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This is a bit different. It's not that a short story cannot be made into a film, but you can't use the story as the treatment to sell the work. They function differently.

Plus, the short stories you mention were by Stephen King and anything involving him isn't the norm. Also, both films bore little resemblance to the short stories (in fact, King had his name removed from Lawnmower Man because of the differences. When I saw it in theatres, I think King's name was still attached, but was removed shortly thereafter).

The screenwriters for those two films would have provided a treatment based on their scripts, not just photocopies of the story.

But, those two stories were great. The movies were okay. Children of the Corn was pretty spooky, but not as frightening as the story.

I just realized I misread the thread. I thought it said "Can a short story be a film?" oops..lol.

Yeah the Lawnmower Man was totaly different than the movie adaptation. They were nothing alike.

Without reading the treatment, I don't think there is a simple yes or no answer to your question.

The treatment for "Spiderman" (whether two pages or twenty) could never simply be added to in order to create a short story. Too much happens in the story for this to be feasible. Sure, you could write a twenty-five page short story about a teenager who gets bitten by a radioactive spider, gains cool superpowers, and puts on a costume, but you will lose too much in the telling. Characters, details, events, dialogue, all the things that make it work as a feature film.

If the treatment is for something smaller in scale and the story is more character focused than action-oriented, rewriting it into a short story could be possible. But I do suggest rewriting it completely, not just plugging in new details, as the two formats are very different.

Perhaps this why popular movies are novelized. If the story you want to tell demands a long format like a screenplay, it may demand another long format, such as a novel.

I took a screenwriting course several years ago, and at the beginning, the instructor asked us to write three 3-6 page treatments for possible screenplays. Then we had to pick one, and write the actual screenplay. I could probably pick out the salient details of each of those treatments and create short stories out of them, but I fear something would be lost.

The story will demand its format. Maybe it isn't meant to be a screenplay treatment at all. Maybe it's a short story. Maybe it's a novella.

Maybe I'm talking in circles..... It's getting late....but I hope it's been somewhat helpful....

-Kelly

I think they are interchangable. My favorite book, Ray Bradbury's 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' began as a screen play before ending up a novel.

OFFMason said:

What I mean is this...

If I write the treatment and people begin to tell me that it won't work for film, for any reason, can I simply add detail to the treatment to turn it into a short story?

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Highly unlikely. You're looking for the lazy short-cut. There aren't any. Treatments and shorts are different beasts; treat them as such. Moving from one to another will require a complete rewrite, if you expect to sell it.