From Event to Action: Accelerate Your Decision Making with Real-Time Automation
Treatment sample
1. MULTIMEDIA TREATMENT SAMPLE MMD2163
Example 1
Music Video Treatment
“All My Life” – Foo Fighters
An epic song deserves an epic music video. This is a dark song and therefore I will have
it be a dark music video. There will be a lot of lighting that will help put across the effect
of it being really dark and oppressive. We see black lights to keep the imagery that's
dark and distorted, and flood lights to create harding lighting and long shadows.
The speed of the action in this video is varying from slow, to fast, to normal.
There are multiple people singing the song in fast and slow motion while things are going
on around them at different speeds.
The beginning shows us a dark room with dark walls and only black lights illuminating
the room. Our main character is in all black with a white pic playing guitar. We see only
select parts of him that are illuminated by the black lights. He starts playing the part with
close ups on his eyes and mouth, that are closed. Once the lyrics kick in, he starts
singing, with a close up back on his mouth. Once the music kicks in with the rest of the
band, the dark person under the black lights opens his eyes extremely wide and screams
with the music.
After the intro and into the verse, we see someone walking downtown at night, the street
lights creating hard lighting from above, casting shadows over our character's face. The
people and the cars in the background will be going very fast as our character moves
slowly.
The chorus kicks in and the band is playing the song in a dark room with a single flood
light that lights the band.
The next verse is similar to the verse before but instead of walking down town, our main
character is walking on the waterfront which once again, is a dark setting and with the
person singing the song in fast to slow motion.
Now the “build-up” part of the song, has quicker cuts, which go from one scene to
another. From the man in the intro in the black light, to the band playing, to the scenes
in the verses. On every scratch, the man in the black light would starts to appear in all of
the scenes.
The “build-up” reaches its apex, to a scene of the guitarist in the band jumping up in the
air, shot from a low angle with a flood light behind him, so all you see is a black figure
with a guitar jumping through the air in slow motion. The scene then cuts to the man in
the black light scene screaming the lyrics while playing the guitar.
During the final chorus, we see quick cuts of the band rocking out to the song, and at the
very end of the song the man in the black light lunges at the main character.
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2. MULTIMEDIA TREATMENT SAMPLE MMD2163
Example 2
Story treatment
ICARUS'S FLIGHT
1. Day. Icarus and Daedalus imprisoned in a room at the top of a tall tower. Icarus
stands at one of the parapets, gazing out at sea and sky; Daedalus sits at a crude table,
working on a plan of escape.
He looks up, sees Icarus dreaming, and orders him to sweep the room. Icarus takes his
time about obeying.
2. Night. Daedalus asleep on a cot, Icarus gazing out, as before.
Daedalus stirs, sees the boy at the parapet, and orders him back to bed. When he closes
his eyes, Icarus makes a face at him.
3. Day. Daedalus at the table, Icarus at the parapet. From his point of view, we watch
seagulls ride the wind. Quietly, he spreads arms vyide and dips and turns in place,
imitating them.
4. Day. Icarus collects discarded feathers from the sills of the parapets and adds them to
a pile by his cot. Icarus at work, trying ways to paste feathers onto his arm.
5. Night. Daedalus at the table, working by candlelight. Behind him, Icarus swoops about
on feathered arms. He knocks against a stool and Daedalus looks up. "Stop that!" Then
he really sees what is going on, jumps up, and crosses the room to touch the feathers on
his son's arm. Icarus pulls away. We watch from his point of view as Daedalus goes back
to the table and scrapes up a bit of melted candle wax, rolling it between his fingers.
6. Montage of Icarus and Daedalus crafting the wings: gathering wax and feathers,
stripping a cot of its straps to make an armature, and so on. As they work together, side
by side, Daedalus impatiently corrects everything the boy does.
7. Night. Sound of a key in the lock. Quickly, they hide their work underneath one of the
cots, and Icarus sits down on it, dangling his legs to hide what's underneath. The door
opens and the jailer comes in with supper tray and fresh candle. He leaves these and
goes. Icarus runs to light the candle.
8. Day. Icarus and Daedalus gaze down at the completed pairs of wings, which are huge
and very beautiful. Now Daedalus warns the boy to stay close behind him when they set
out and-above all!-to be sure not to fly up toward the sun. Its rays would surely melt the
wax that holds their wings together. They help one another tie on the wings. A winged
Icarus stands out on the sill of one of the parapets. He gazes after his father, already in
flight toward the distant shore. He takes a deep breath and launches himself into the air.
9. In the distance, we see the two figures flying, Daedalus in the lead. Intoxicated by his
new freedom, Icarus begins to swoop and glide, flying up toward the sun. Daedalus
turns, sees what is happening, and calls out to Icarus to come back. But at the sound of
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3. MULTIMEDIA TREATMENT SAMPLE MMD2163
his father's voice, the boy soars even farther. As Daedalus's cries grow faint in the
distance, he begins to find it hard to move his wings and looks back over his shoulder in
terror to see that they are losing their shape. Icarus cries out to his father to save him as
he begins to fall.
10. A wide shot of sea and sky as Daedalus, wings beating furiously, races to catch the
boy. A shot of Icarus, plummeting down. The camera follows as he plunges into the sea
and the water closes over his head. He descends slowly underwater, twisting and turning.
10a. A wide shot, with Daedalus circling above the place where his son vanished, calling
Icarus's name over and over.
This last shot may not work in the film, because it leaves us contemplating Daedalus's
suffering rather than that of our protagonist, Icarus. But it is worth thinking about,
possibly even shooting, with the final decision left for the editing room.
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