first treatment of the year -!!

Already after watching and breaking down the elements of the movie Amélie, we are asked to incorporate the elements we found into our own short film ideas.

treatment overview
[1] A treatment is designed for a busy person (a producer) to read it at a glance. Avoid any uneccessary complications.
[2] It is written from ACTION to ACTION--it follows the action with a minimum of description.
[3] There is NO camera description.
[4] It does mention what the actor is thinking or feeling as he moves through the piece, because by doing so it helps the reader imagine the scene.
[5] The verbs it uses are ACTIVE: he moves, he climbs, he opens, he goes, he runs, etc. Everything is kept in the present. Sentences suggest a series of shots, separated in terms of location and scenes (that’s why they are separated.)

Treatment idea: Puppy Love

A mailman walks over to deliver some mail in the boxes of a brick-building. Birds are softly chirping and cars are busily humming through the background. A man steps out the building door and greets the mailman a good morning. The mailman responds in a cheerful manner and then departs.

The man stands and starts to take in his surroundings when a women dressed in a charcoal business suit steps beside him carrying one bulky suitcase.

The woman snaps her fingers in front of the man's face to get his attention. Her foot starts tapping on the concrete.

The man snaps out of his daydream, smiles at the women and then whistles for a taxi.

A yellow taxicab appears at the pairs' footsteps. The driver gets out and places the woman's suitcase in the back of the cab before returning to his place as the driver.

The woman turns to face the man, her face sorrowful. The man smiles wryly back at her and tries to comfort her with reassurances. They embrace each other tightly before the man opens the cab's door, urging the woman to climb in.

The woman slides in and looks up woefully up at the man. She smiles timidly as the taxicab driver starts to pull away. The woman raises a hand in farewell as the man does the same.

The man watches the cab disappear before stuffing his hands deep in his coat pockets. He sighs and scuffs the edge of his shoe on the sidewalk.

He then looks up at his cheerful surroundings and decides to take a walk around town. The man passes a coffee shop where he goes in and buys a latte before continuing his stroll.

The man stops by an animal shelter on his way back. He listens to the variety of sounds coming from the shelter: dogs barking, cats meowing, parrots squawking. He smiles at a lady working inside the shelter, biding her a good morning.

The man is about to leave when he spots an airedale terrier looking up longingly at him. The man freezes and stares down into the terrier's brown eyes. The terrier paws at the side of his cage, trying to get close to the man.

The man shakes his head, chuckles quietly to himself and then returns home.

He starts to do his regular routines, while still thinking about the dog. He makes dinner and burns his fried chicken because he's daydreaming about playing fetch with the dog.

He calls the woman to see how she's doing but he can barely hold up the conversation because the airedale terrier is on his mind.

Later that night, the man dreams about the dog. He dreams of slowly bathing the terrier and throwing a food treat so that the dog catches it in his mouth.

The man walks up and feels confused. He gets ready and goes outside to buy some groceries. He realizes too late that he is about to pass the pet shelter. Before he can turn away, he spots the same airedale terrier he saw yesturday.

Dog and man stare at each other again. The man shakes his head, feeling a sense of deja vu come over him and goes into the supermarket for groceries before returning home.

The woman calls the man, telling him that she will be home soon. The man can't concentrate on anything else he does so he finally goes and adopts the airedale terrier from the shelter.

The man's mood is immediately changed and he spends all his time with his dog.

The woman arrives into their apartment, waiting for a warm welcome. She sees that the man is sleeping with the dog at his feet on the couch. The woman smiles and goes to sleep in the bedroom.

The next day, the man doesn't pay much attention to the woman. Whenever he looks at her, all he sees is his dog's face. The woman gets offended and runs off. The man and the dog stay companions forever.


*I sort of rushed the ending. I know it doesn't make any sense, but I'm still working on it.
Overview(if I still haven't made anything clear: A man is saying goodbye to his fiancée as she gets ready to leave for a business trip. He goes out his usual innocent routines when he spots a dog at a local shelter. After the encounter with the dog, he is never the same again. Everything he sees, hears and thinks about is about the dog. Finally he adopts the dog around the same time when his fiancée returns. She comes home to find the man completely entranced by his dog, so she leaves him.

Amélie Textual Analysis

1. There are more uses of magical realism in the film when Amélie is shown taking pictures of clouds shaped like animals when she was a kid. The shapes the clouds make connect with the audience, giving them the feel of going back in time and thinking about something whimsical from their childhood. The part where the man tells Amélie that her camera makes disasters happen is evidence of her innocence. Amélie's creative mind believes the man because she is innocent.
2. I noticed how the director showed Amélie's imagination at work using magical realism. The screen shot on the left shows Amélie checking the heartbeat of an alligator. We as the audience see how lonely Amélie is being stuck at home all the time because of her heart. The alligator symbolizes Amélie's imagination and how throughout her life, she believes that living in her imagination is better than reality. This idea of her always having her head in the clouds, so to speak, also gives us the impression that she is an outsider to everyone around her. She doesn't make many connections with people in her town; she is separated because of the way she views life.

3. This movie focuses a lot on the little details. In the beginning of the movie, once Amélie is grown up, we learn that she loves sinking her hand in a bag of grain, listening to the sound of cracking crème brûlée, and looking at people's faces in a movie theater. All these little details about her help the viewers know the main character better and also connect with her because everyone has those pleasant little things that they love to do that aren't explainable. These series of details reflect the director and how he sees the movie as that every single object and move adds more to the movie. It makes the movie more realistic in showing that Amélie enjoys simple things.
The use of close ups are also used many times during the whole movie. It gives the viewers a connection and intimacy with the character. We are able to see the emotion, whether shock or despair, clearly in the characters' faces so that we feel the same exact way.
4. There are many uses of filtering throughout the movie. The screen shot on the left for example, shows how a bright orange-yellow effect is put during this sequence to give a more powerful feel. Amélie has just given a whirlwind description of the city streets to the blind old man. When she leaves him, he is so overwhelmed with the descriptions she has given that his feelings are expressed by him glowing brightly in orange. The bright orange color is meant to overwhelm the viewer and that's exactly what we get.