ABSTRACT
Print materials are useful for sharing with collaborators before and during shooting, as well as while editing, to ensure that everyone is in agreement about the story being told and necessary resources. A film's outline, like the pitch, will continue to be revised and honed over the course of research, production and editing. An outline is both a planning tool and a diagnostic tool. It lets writers see clearly what job a sequence is doing in writer's overall story and what storytelling role writer's characters are playing. In watching films that don't have sequence titles, writers can often identify a sequence through visual and storytelling cues. Some funding agencies and commissioning editors require scripts, or at least detailed outlines and/or treatments, so that they can get a sense of the film's approach and focus. For films of events that will unfold as writers shoot, it's still possible to draft an outline based on what writers anticipate happening.
