write-a-documentary-treatment

name	write-a-documentary-treatment
category	write
description	Write a documentary treatment that turns evidence, characters, access, scenes, uncertainty, and ethics into a production plan. Use when a factual film concept needs a truthful narrative proposal.

write-a-documentary-treatment

Describe the film that evidence and access can support, not a predetermined conclusion disguised as discovery.

Procedure

1. State central question, audience, relevance, format, duration, and current thesis as provisional.
2. Summarize verified background, chronology, competing explanations, and unanswered questions.
3. Introduce participants by actual relationship to the story and access status.
4. Describe observable scenes, locations, archives, processes, and interviews available to film.
5. Outline narrative movement, stakes, turning points, uncertainty, and possible endings.
6. Define visual, sound, archive, narration, and point-of-view approach.
7. Address consent, vulnerability, representation, safety, rights, conflicts, and editorial independence.
8. Add access, research, schedule, budget class, and evidence dependencies.
9. Review every factual claim and label aspiration separately from secured access.

Guardrails

• Never invent scenes, access, quotes, or participant intentions.
• Do not write a vulnerable person as a narrative device without agency and care.
• Keep unresolved facts and alternative explanations visible.

Done

• A documentary treatment records question, evidence, scenes, participants, style, and ethics
• Claims, access, rights, risks, and dependencies are verified or labeled unresolved
• Editorial and production owners approve the next evidence gates