Visual Argument Treatment Proposal 11_27_07

Writing with Video
WRITING A PROPOSAL + TREATMENT

A proposal presents the film or video in a series of categories whereas technically a treatment
is a narrative version of what is or will be on the screen. Although both terms tend be used
interchangeably, they have different functions. The proposal is written first – and that information informs the treatment. Both are written to convince the reader that you can produce a video or film with impact and significance.

Visual Argument PROJECT PROPOSAL GUIDE

Working title: Lifestyle Modification

1) WORKING HYPOTHESIS and INTERPRETATION
What are your persuasions about the world you are going to show in your video, the main
‘statement’ that you want to emerge out of the video dialectics. Write a hypothesis statement
incorporating this wording:
Ultimately I want the audience to understand that diet and nutrition are not just short periods where people have fads, but that they are lifestyle modifications and need to be taken seriously.

2) TOPIC
Write a concise paragraph about:
a) The subject of my video is diet and nutrition.
b) I will be giving the basic information about diet and nutrition through professionals and also students in the field of dietetics. I will also be getting information from the general public about general misconceptions of diet and nutrition.

3) ACTION SEQUENCES
Write a brief paragraph for each sequence that shows activity. A sequence is usually what
occurs in one location, at one specific time, or an assembly of material to share one topic).
Incorporate the following:
I think the biggest activity will be me filming random restaurants, fast food places, people eating, buffet lines, and etc.

4) MAIN CHARACTERS
Write a brief paragraph about each of your main characters (subjects). For each include:
a) who (name, relationship to others in video, etc)
b) where (where does this person belong in the scheme of things)
c) what (what is the character’s role, what makes the character interesting, significant?
what is the character trying to do or get at?
a) Karen Plawecki b) Professional in Dietetics c) Clarification of what Diet and Nutrition should be like
a) Jessica Schroeder b) Student in Dietetics c) Student perspective studying in the field of Dietetics
(Also I will be asking random people about diet and nutrition in general, what “society” thinks about diet in nutrition)

5) CONFLICT
What is the issue in the video? Consider:
The conflict of this piece is the conflicting views of what “society” feels is the right kind of nutrition and the right way to eat and be in good health. I think it will be very interesting to see what people think about diet and nutrition and what is the real method that we should go about diet and nutrition.

6) AUDIENCE/AUDIENCE BIASES
Who is your audience? But go deeper – what are the stereotypes or expectations carried by your audience that your video must deliberately set up to alter?
I think that the audience generally believes that diet and nutrition are very sporadic things. I think the public believes that diet is something we do for a period and not something that we do the rest of our lives. The public believes that we can change our diet whenever we like, but the definition of diet is different that what most people think about. People usually think about diet as something we do when we want to lose weight, but diet is what we consume in our daily life, or habitual consumption of food.

7) TO-CAMERA INTERVIEWS
For each interview list:
a) Karen Plawecki & Jessica Schroeder, professional & undergraduate in the field of dietetics respectively, clarifications about the subject as far as what the right thing to do is.
b) The interviews will hopefully give a more educated perspective.
Questions: What do you think it means when I say the word Diet in correlation with Nutrition?
What do you consider to be a good diet?
What are the problems with diets?
Why are people obsessed with diets?
What makes a person healthy?
How can we be healthy while also enjoying what we eat?
How do people become healthy?


8) STRUCTURE
Write a brief paragraph on how you hope to structure your piece. Consider:
I want to show the misconceptions of diet and nutrition and then refute it with professionals and students studying dietetics. I want to show the audience the right way to go about our personal diet and nutrition.

9) FORM AND STYLE
Any special considerations in shooting or editing style that might further your video’s content.
Things like narration, lighting, camera handling, type and amount of inter-cutting, juxtapositions of scenes, parallel storytelling, use of text, special effects, color etc...
I think I want to be able to portray a society view of diet and nutrition so I will be trying to film not as smooth, to show the ups and downs of diet and nutrition.

10) RESOLUTION
Write a brief paragraph about how you imagine your piece will end and what you would like the ending to accomplish for the audience. Comparing any intended ending with the video’s
beginning also exposes what it must accomplish as a story to get there. The ending is your last
word – and has a disproportionate impact on what in the end, the video will mean.
I want to end the piece with people understanding the truths about diet and nutrition. I think the ending will be a question challenging the people to rethink what nutrition means and what it means to have good health.

11) BUDGET
Typically includes: all personnel, materials (tapes, gels etc...), equipment, location (travel, per
diems etc), post-production costs, graphics etc...

12) LOGISTICS
Shooting schedule, address feasibility etc...

TREATMENT

Using the information from the proposal, restructure your presentation into a written narrative, descriptive form written in the present tense. Write so the reader can see and hear the video you have in mind as a result of researching and careful consideration of each idea presented. Do not be afraid to use the language that elicits the emotional response you expect your video to evoke. A treatment does not include any philosophy or directorial intentions – so be sure to only write about what an audience would get from the screen (thus our early aesthetic writing assignment!).