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Benchmark #06: Film Treatment Proposal

due 3/6–7

Filmmakers must sell their ideas before they can produce them. In the industry, the written document used to sell a film idea is called a treatment. Before you have clearance to work on your Bill Nye video, your team must write a treatment and propose it to the class.

Written in prose, at least 500 words, your group’s proposal must include the following:

• the educational subject of your film: What is the scientific or mathematical concept that your film will teach?
• how this topic connects to your group’s book: Where does your film idea come from?
• the goal of your film: After watching your film, what do you hope your viewer knows that he or she did not know before? Be specific.
• the general strategy of your film: How will you grab your viewer’s attention? How will your presentation appeal to your viewer’s intellect and emotion? What features are you borrowing from the educational science videos that you have been watching in Gina’s class?
• a narrative description of what your five-minute film will look like, from start to finish: Be specific (i.e. Greg walks into a bare white room wearing a lab coat)
• a production plan: How will you execute your vision? What challenges do you forsee and how will you meet them?

Your group must also make an oral presentation, supported by a Keynote slideshow, that covers the main points of your written proposal. As is custom, every group member must speak during the oral presentation. Sketch out a script that addresses all the questions listed above, and divide it among you. More than one group member can address particular questions.

All the Metro standards for public speaking apply: face the audience with confident posture, prepare notes that allow you to maintain eye contact with your audience, do not read from your Keynote slide.