Film Treatments

Film Treatments turn ideas into a synopsis of the action. They are usually about 5-15pages long and are, essentially, a summary of the story told in present tense prose.

The first part of writing a treatment (in my opinion) is to try to make sure you have a clear three part structure for your film (Set-up, conflict, resolution). This will give you a clear through line for your story to follow and should help you frame each part in further detail. You don't always have to have a three part structure but let's walk before we can run eh?

Then I would storyboard the main beats/scenes/episodes of the movie that are crucial to understanding the movie's action as a whole. It is not necessary to use camera angles in the panel's at this stage. Leave that for your two minute piece!

Your treatment should:

take the reader through the story of the film. It must bring across the characters and events as they will appear in the film.

not give more information than the audience of the film will have.
go through each sequence, but does not have to contain every scene.

come to about 10 pages for a 90 minute feature film (double spaced, 12 pt arial font)

Be separated into acts and sequences (with titles) if it helps.

A treatment sells the film to both creative and financial minds, therefore it must:

grip the reader in the first line of the first page.

make the reader want to turn to the next page at the end of every page.

move the action forward and not linger on descriptions



You should have a look at the following websites.

This one explains the nature of a treatment:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Movie_Making_Manual/Treatments

This one gives an example Treatment. Look at the style:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/4089756/Film-Treatment


I think you should aim for about a five page treatment. It ain't Hollywood baby!