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Pre-production planning
Writing a Treatment
The purpose of writing a treatment is to give the reader a clear idea of your project. The treatment talks
about your project as a whole. Who is the audience? What is the tone or point of the view you will be
taking? What format you will be working in? In one sentence, describe the planned program, like a the-
sis statement.
Write the treatment as if you are speaking to your audience. Describe what they will see and what they
will hear, including music and sound effects (leave out any directorial comments or technical informa-
tion). Keep your one sentence description in mind, and then write a paragraph about how the show
opens, how the title appears and each sequence or section.The point of this is that you will start to
make many content and creative decisions well ahead of actually shooting.
Next Steps
- Write up interview questions: Make sure your interview questions are OPEN ENDED questions. In
other words, don't ask questions that would result in yes or no answer. You want them to elaborate
on your questions but also keep them focused on the topic.
- Make arrangements for the interviews: remember when setting up interview time to account for
setting up and breaking down equipment.
- Contact crew to inform them of the date.
- Think of the type of music that would help add another dimension to your story.
Production-Shooting the Project
- Organize all need equipment (camera, tape, charged batteries, mics, cables, tripod and lights if
needed). Two people can manage and carry this equipment, three is a plus.
- With your crew (crew is not mandatory but will be very helpful) do the shooting, interviewing and
audio recording.
- Set up your equipment. Check audio sound and levels. Make sure your shot is composed well, and
you have the interviewee in frame with proper headroom and lead room.
- Record: Be sure to leave pre-roll and post-roll when shooting (start recording 10 seconds before you
actually begin the shot and leave the camera recording 10 seconds after the shot).
*When shooting the interview you should limit the total time to 30 minutes. That means that each
interview should be around 10 minutes. Remember the final project is only a 4-6 minute piece so
you will have to select only the best 1-2 minutes of what each person said.
SONY PDX10 Handbook page 21
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