The script plays one of the most important role in the success of a project, be it a film, TV series, short feature film or a documentary. The direction and the marketing do play their own important part, but if the base of the project, which happens to be the script, is not up to the target viewer’s expectation, liking or comprehension, the project falls flat, irrespective of other factors.

Scripts for a documentary are very hard to write. Documentaries are based on real life stories. So, it is very important for the script to be flexible, more so at the start of the project itself. When the documentary is especially for a TV series, it becomes tougher as it would be shown in a series of 30 minutes or perhaps, a maximum of 60 minutes, which happens to include commercial breaks. So, it is important to divide the script into small segments that has a story of its own, with a subtle closing of its own, yet maintaining the continuity of the whole project. Here are a few tips on how a good TV documentary series script should be like:

1.The topic of the documentary needs to be researched completely before the shooting starts. Since, they are basically stories about real life, there is not much scope of dramatization. Although, like dramatic scripts, we need to have characters, interesting plots and subplots, the flow needs to be natural.

2.The outline of the script must be made before hand. The outline must contain the characters, and the plot revolving them, and a vague idea about how a conclusion would take place. The reason for allowing vagueness in the article is because the script would essentially change during the course of the shooting of the long series.

3.The narration of the documentary should be in tune with the theme of the story itself. It should be appropriate, and if required, a narrative voice could be used in the background, in places where the portraying the scenes through characters would seem redundant. However, it is the characters and their activity throughout would provide life to the documentary.

4.The above points depict the shooting script. Now comes in the editing script or the post-shoot script, where the editor must be given an idea of how to complete the documentary. The script need not be as tight as the first script, but by this time, the characters and the plot must develop perfectly for the documentary to end. The writer must now have a perfect outline about the final documentary.

5.The script, at this stage must be as detailed as possible as the editor must be able to manipulate the script according to his own vision.

A Film script treatment for a specific script is a short summary of the story that may be four to fifteen pages long. It usually reads like a novelette, describing how the story unfolds, with only sparse use of dialogue. It is quite different from the synopsis. While a synopsis summarizes the script and provides an outline of the story, the treatment is a novelette or short story in itself.

Script treatments are very powerful tools that attract the studios and potential investors even before the complete script is ready. This is indeed very useful for the scriptwriter as well, since the treatment would help him understand whether the flow of the story is indeed what he desired for. So, we can revise or cancel scripts before we put in our valuable time and energy is writing the actual script. However, for a spontaneous writer, treatment could be more of a bane, and that is why treatments are not absolutely essential component.

There are three different methods in which a treatment can be written. However, the main aim of writing a treatment is similar to that of a synopsis: to attract the reader and keep him glued all throughout.

a.Header-specific: This type of treatment would have the key scenes put down as headers (in capital letters), while a few lines could be chipped in below it, describing the scene precisely. This would allow the reader to breeze through your treatment, if required and is much more attractive if the content is good enough. An example would go like (from “Bluey” with permission of writers):

EXT. WALLIS HOUSE – NIGHT

Beatrice and Bertha, followed by Sarah, run out of the front door of the
house.

Bertha pushes Sarah down the steps.  Lighting illuminates the
sky as Sarah painfully lands on her knees into rain puddles and a
a torrent of rain soaks her.

This would also help us condense the treatment into a couple of pages, and also ensuring that the main scenes are described properly with proper dramatization, wherever necessary.

b.Prose-Style: This type of treatments tend to go longer, as the key scenes are explained with lot more details than in header-specific treatments. It is like writing the story without the details irrelevant to the scene. This type of descriptions would serve a script that needs the details to be fed to the reader. The script also contains the emotions and feels that the actual script might have. The above header-specific example could be translated to prose-style as:

As she steps out of a police cruiser, Sergeant Sandra Bohm, a police fortyish police officer with non-regulation bright red nails, irritably regards  Harold and asks him what his problem is.  Harold offers her a rude gesture instead of a verbal response.  Sergeant Bohm comments that she doesn’t have time for this and writes up a ticket.

c. Hybrid style: Well, as the name suggests, this type of treatment is a mixture of the above two methods, and is most popularly used, as it provides the flexibility and the freedom to exploit both procedures, while giving it an innovative yet attractive look.