Shortly after beginning the project, I put together a board of advisors who are expert on the eighteenth century: on women's history, architectural history, medical history, music, and material culture. Being authentic or truthful about the past involves much more than getting the costumes and the architectural details right. The past is a foreign place, and a film's portrayal of the past depends upon thousands of choices about the physical, behavioral, and cultural details of the period and place being presented. Researching the Story, Exploring the Archives, Speaking with Scholars
![documentary script treatment example documentary script treatment example](https://dohistory.org/film/images/dialogNotes-575.jpg)
#Documentary script treatment example series#
And the final piece of production funding came from The American Experience, the PBS prime time series on American History. Scripting and production grants came several years later from the public program division of the National Endowment for the Humanities. I raised the initial funding from state humanities councils in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, from Tom's of Maine (the toothpaste people), and from several small private foundations. In this case, it took six years from conception to completion (many films do not take this long - although some take longer). It is the job of a film's producer to raise the funding for the film. The film I imagined would begin as a documentary (with the twentieth century historian and the eighteenth century diary) and evolve into a drama as Ulrich gradually figured out what happened in Martha Ballard's world.
![documentary script treatment example documentary script treatment example](https://i1.rgstatic.net/publication/317234842_Script_as_a_hypothesis_Scriptwriting_for_documentary_film/links/5e99920da6fdcca7892043c6/largepreview.png)
From the very beginning, I had the idea of interweaving the story of Martha Ballard's life with Laurel Ulrich's process of piecing it together.
![documentary script treatment example documentary script treatment example](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/samplescripts-150102114427-conversion-gate01/95/sample-scripts-treatments-screenplays-2-638.jpg)
They told me to speak with Laurel, the author of the book, which I did. Shortly after Laurel Ulrich's book A Midwife's Tale was published, I (producer/writer Laurie Kahn-Leavitt) read a review of the book, bought a copy, loved it, and called up rights division of Knopf, the publisher, to inquire about optioning the film rights. Process of Making a Historical Film: PreproductionĪbove: Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's book, A Midwife's Tale.Įvery film begins with an idea.