Charlotte was a Princess during the 19th century who unfortunately passed away, young, at the location of our filming, 'Charlotte', our film, follows a group of teenagers who are looking to visit Charlotte's ghost. On the anniversary of Princess Charlotte's death, the teens visit where she died, a school abandoned in the midst of a pandemic. Emily, the known paranormal expert, pushes Gibby and Jack to their limits when communicating with what they believe to be Princess Charlotte's ghost.
However, when Emily becomes separated, she finds that the once friendly spirit may not be who she first thought after all. It becomes a challenge for the boys, a race against time, in order to save Emily from the demon and get out of Claremont before they are lost forever.
This treatment acts as a baseline of our film that explains the narrative simply. It is concise but allows directors to see the vision of the film.
We watched Frank Ash, a BBC Creative Consultant, in which we learned the use of the 'topline' which is one elegant sentence that sums up the film opening treatment and creating the 'big question' which is what happens next?
You must be critical when working out your treatment. You need to consider what your audience may want and be receptive to. He breaks it down into four areas which I have depicted in this comic below.
These four key bullet points are:
What's in it for the audience?
What's the big question?
Whose story is it?
What is the story?
Top Line: On the anniversary of Princess Charlotte's death, three teenagers visit the now derelict home and uncover hidden secrets she left behind.
The Big Question : 'Will they make it out alive?'
This line allowed for questions to be created from viewers such as:
'Will they find Emily in time?'
'Will they discover the demon's true nature?'.
