PBS “The Donner Party”

                         The Donner Party
 
Structure: The structure is chronological, starting with the preparation and departure to the arrival of the survivors in California.  The documentary uses three main devices for telling the story. These are a narrator, historians, and readings of primary sources. The visual elements include old maps, photographs and shots of the wilderness.  The [...]

“Devil in the White City” treatment and promotion

This nonfiction work by Erik Larson has strong potential to be a successful three part series on HBO or Showtime. Each part would fill an hour and a half time slot and would premier on Columbus Day due to the fact that the fair itself was a celebration of Columbus’s arrival in America and also [...]

Dr. Death by Jonathan Kellerman–Treatment and selected scenes

Dr. Death could be made into a feature length film but the story and the number of characters make the book more suitable for a crime drama episode.               The main characters are Alex the narrator and his friend and colleague on the homicide squad, Milo. Alex is a physiologist who does consulting work with [...]