doctor needs help

A couple of quick notes:

* Congratulations on the interest. The 'go away and write a treatment' may just be a blow-off, but it may also be a genuine interest. The only way you'll find out is to write the treatment, which you should do anyway.

* "then secure it with say the writers guild or something that legally copyrights our idea"
The story is copyrighted from the moment you write it down. For a start, you can't copyright an idea - only your implementation of it. When they insist you register it with the writer's guild (or whatever) first, it is their gesture of good faith - they are making it clear that they aren't trying to pinch your work.

* An example of a successful treatment is here: http://www.tvwriter.com/resources/star_trek/startrek2.htm
It was written for a Star Trek Voyager episode - from memory the final episode follows it quite closely.

* One technique that I've found useful is to start with a ONE PAGE treatment before expanding it.
Get rid of all extra characters, explanations etc & limit it to a single page.

Review it, pull it apart etc.

* When that single page treatment is OK, expand it (or rewrite it) to be about 6 pages. By doing it as a single page first, it forces you to concentrate on a single thread of story that will avoid the longer one getting confused.

Good luck,

Mac.
(Disclaimer: Take everything you read on the internet (including what I say) with a grain of salt)

You've got to be kidding.

Do your research--don't expect other to do it for you.

This article on the Site link removed per request of other site's Webmaster site discusses treatments (with cynical tongue in cheek, as usual) and has some good advice plus links to a couple of actual treatments:
Site link removed per request of other site's Webmaster
-Derek
My Web Page - naked women, bestial sex, and whopping big lies.
Stop reading this and get some writing done instead.

What Derek and MacH said.


Also, read through these:


http://www.simplyscripts.com/treatments.html


And go back through this thread:


http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23040&highlight=treatment

Considered one of the best treatments ever written, Mr. & Mrs. Smith can be found here:

http://www.creativescreenwriting.com/csdaily/SmithsTreatment.html

Mac H. said:

The story is copyrighted from the moment you write it down. For a start, you can't copyright an idea - only your implementation of it. When they insist you register it with the writer's guild (or whatever) first, it is their gesture of good faith - they are making it clear that they aren't trying to pinch your work.

Click to expand...

(Sorry for posting this, but I've done some searching for copyrighting treatments, and nothing has come out of it)

Hi Mac,

What sort rights and security do you have by simply having it written down? I've had this 'idea' in my head for over 10 years, and in the last year or so I've decided to do something about it.

I've currently bitten the bullet and started to write the screenplay myself (as I can see the entire movie in my head... everything!) but I'm now wondering after reading this Mr and Mrs Smith treatment that got picked up and assigned to a screenwriter, if it's possible to just write a 'treatment' of my idea and copyright that?

I would just like some security and knowledge that while I work on a screenplay of it (and try to get someone to help, or submit the treatment to agencies/prodco's etc.), it's not going to get stolen by someone who decides to turn it into a screenplay and copyright it for themselves.

Any thoughts and advice are greatly appreciated.

Mevado, I just reposted the lost "Copyright question" thread, which may be worth a look. I wouldn't hesitate to register a treatment before I sent it anywhere.

-Derek
My Web Page - naked women, bestial sex, and whopping big lies.
Take the critiques you get with a grain of salt. Invariably, some of the critics will be kooks, bitter curmudgeons, or complete fools. ~odocoileus

At this point Altaman

you don't need your hand held so much as you need to be pointed in the right direction.

A search of the net for screenwriting will yeild a plethora of information.

I personally approve of these three sites.
Here, (the water cooler)
Done deal http://207.5.19.9/boards/index.php?
and scriptsecrets. http://pub18.ezboard.com/bscriptsecrets


The site link removed per request of other site's Webmaster which was all ready linked for you has a bunch of great articles.

Some books you should read are The Screenwriter's Bible by Trottier.
How NOT to write a screenplay, How to make a good script great by Linda Seger, The Hero's journey by Vogler.
There may be others that deal with the buisness side of it but I haven't seen a list of these.

OH, and the big one, READ SCRIPTS!
There are some great ones linked over at donedeal and scriptsecrets has a library of them.

This should get you started.

Lots of luck and happy writing.