Software for writing treatments
by Pamela Patton
on
Oct 9, 2008 at 3:35:07 am
Hi all, new to the forum. I've been searching for a template/macro/software program that will help me write treatments for corporate videos. Surprisingly (to me) there's nothing with FInalDraft AV. My searches keep turning ScriptWerx, but it doesn't seem to work with the latest versions of Word.
I work on a Mac, run Leopard and Word 2004. Any direction is greatly appreciated.
Re: Software for writing treatments by John Morley on Oct 17, 2008 at 4:13:40 am
Dear Pamela,
Bob is right. I updated the final version of Script Werx for Macintosh for Word 2004, and that is what I'm running on my computer as well. It is Word 2008 on Macintosh that no longer supports the programming language used to develop Script Werx (Visual Basic). Although I am no longer selling the retail version of Script Werx, I believe that ScreenStyle.com still has some copies selling for a discounted price.
That acknowledged, the formatting for a corporate video treatment is pretty straight forward. It is mostly full margin with a few bullet lists and a budget and timeline at the end. Which is to say that the value of the treatment template is primarily in the advice provided on how to craft the language, rather than software functionally. So even if you were using it with Microsoft Word 2008, it would still provide most of the help available for writing a creative treatment. It's the screenplay and video script formatting that make heavy use of macros that no longer works with Word 2008.
If you would like to also see a sample treatment, I would be happy to send you the example out of my book, Scriptwriting for High-Impact Videos. Just contact me through the ScriptWerx.com Web site and write that you are taking me up on my offer made through Creative COW.
Best of luck with your treatment.
--
John Morley
Though you won't need me to point out that pretty well any word processor will do ... what makes a script (or a video) sing is the quality of the ideas, not what it was done on!
