I sat down the other night to write a finally write a treatment for my animated short: Annabelle’s Bistro. There was a Woot-Off going on while I was writing it and I ended up buying a Roomba. (That is a story for a different time perhaps.)

Anyway, 3 beers and 3 1/2 painful hours later I ended up with a treatment that was 3 pages long. Much longer than a treatment for a three minute short needs to be, yet not quite detailed enough to be what I would consider a script. So I have a hybrid here which I call a Scriptment. (Not a term of my own invention. James Cameron gets to claim that prize.)

I actually don’t think a full script will be necessary now. This is detailed enough that I can probably take this and go right to storyboards. And considering that dialogue is rather light, a full script probably wouldn’t do me much more good than this does anyway.

So feel free to read the first page of my Scriptment for my short film after the break! I am going to keep the other 2 pages to myself because I am not sure I want to give out spoilers just yet. Enjoy!

ANNABELLE’S BISTRO
Treatment by: Matt Forcum
5-8-08 revised: 6-25-08

EXT. SMALL FRENCH BISTRO

It is a crisp spring day. A warm sun shines down brightly on a small town in southern France. The town is awake and full of life. Windows are open and soft music fills the air. Birds chirp as they pass overhead and butterflies can be seen visiting small flower boxes.

A man sits alone in front of a small bistro reading a newspaper and enjoying a fine glass of wine. He is thin and smartly dressed wearing a nice brown suit. A handkerchief is carefully folded and placed neatly in his breast pocket. He is relaxed and there is a smile on his face, yet his heavy eyes are tired from stress. He is enjoying the calm, fresh air and the quiet afternoon.

The Man looks up from his paper for a brief moment and realizes that he is being watched.

Sitting at a table just across from the Man is an Old Woman. She has a small birdcage containing a little red bird placed on the table in front of her. She is smiling and looking up at him.

“Bonjour!” she says and with a pleasant grin on her face. The man does not respond. Instead, he returns to his paper, lifting it higher in front of his face to block her from his view.

The Old Woman, put off by the Mans reaction to her, shoots him a dirty look. She then turns to the little bird in the cage and begins talking quietly to it as she carefully sips soup from a bowl placed in-between the two of them.

Abruptly, an overweight waiter bursts through the front door of the restaurant carrying a plate with a sandwich and a glass of wine. The waiter walks to the Man’s table and places the food down in front of him. The Man, delighted to see his food has arrived, folds his paper carefully and tucks a napkin into his collar.

“Will there be anything else sir?” The waiter asks politely. The man waves his hand in dismissal, and the waiter bows slightly and walks away.

As the waiter opens the front door of the restaurant to walk back inside, a small, purple basset hound pushes her way past the waiter and runs out the door in the direction of the man…

-Matt