What is a Film Treatment?
A pitch is used to convince a film company to produce your film. The pitch is usually a one page summary of the main action, characters, and setting of the film. Essentially it deals with the idea or premise of the film.
The film treatment is usually a 2-5 page document that tells the whole story focusing on the highlights. Actually, the professional ones are more like 5-30 pages, but we'll shorten that for you.
A film treatment is more detailed than a pitch. It can include a scene by scene breakdown of a script. It is used BEFORE writing the real script so the author can plan his/her project. Yes, you read that right: plan.
How To Write a Treatment
The treatment should read like a short story and be written in the present tense. It should present the entire story including the ending, and use some key scenes and dialogue from the screenplay it is based on. For a sample of what this looks like, check out the handout "Terminator" by James Cameron.
What Should Be in the Treatment?
Basic screenplay structure for a full length film usually has three acts.
In The Poetics, Aristotle suggested that all stories should have a beginning, middle, and an end. Well, duh. You know that. But really. You need to remember this advice.
Breaking the plot of a story into three parts, gives us a 3-part or act structure. The word "act" means "the action of carrying something out. For our purposes think act one (beginning), act two (middle), and act three (end) of your short film.
Act 1, called the Set-up, The situation and characters and conflict are introduced. This classically is 30 minutes long. For a short film it can be only a few minutes or 1 minute.
Act 2, called The Conflict, often an hour long, is where the conflict begins and expands until it reaches a crisis.
Act 3, called The Resolution, the conflict rises to one more crisis (the last one called the climax) and then is resolved.
How To Write The Treatment
Find A Title
Your treatment should include a synopsis.
Treatment sample #1
Treatment sample #2
HOMEWORK: Your treatment is due Thursday at the BEGINNING of class. We'll be watching The Maltese Falcon Thursday. To prepare for this, please read the article on Film Noir for Thursday. You should know the stylistic characteristics of this genre of film.
A pitch is used to convince a film company to produce your film. The pitch is usually a one page summary of the main action, characters, and setting of the film. Essentially it deals with the idea or premise of the film.
The film treatment is usually a 2-5 page document that tells the whole story focusing on the highlights. Actually, the professional ones are more like 5-30 pages, but we'll shorten that for you.
A film treatment is more detailed than a pitch. It can include a scene by scene breakdown of a script. It is used BEFORE writing the real script so the author can plan his/her project. Yes, you read that right: plan.
How To Write a Treatment
The treatment should read like a short story and be written in the present tense. It should present the entire story including the ending, and use some key scenes and dialogue from the screenplay it is based on. For a sample of what this looks like, check out the handout "Terminator" by James Cameron.
What Should Be in the Treatment?
1. A Working titleThe Three Act Structure
2. The writer's name
3. Introduction to key characters
4. Who, what, when, why and where. Describe each setting. Describe each MAJOR or important character. Describe the "what" of each scene: what's going on, etc. and think about the WHY: why does the character do this, live here, work there, want this or that?, etc.
5. Act 1 in one to three paragraphs. Set the scene, dramatize the main conflicts. Break your treatment into BEGINNING, MIDDLE, END. Your beginning will deal with exposition, the inciting incident, and maybe a couple of conflicts presented in the rising action. It is typical to end the first act with a turning point for the protagonist.
6. Act 2 in two to six paragraphs. Should dramatize how the conflicts introduced in Act 1 lead to a crisis or dark moment.
7. Act 3 in one to three paragraphs. Dramatize the final conflict and resolution. The third act typically includes the climax of the story and its denouement or resolution. For help in plotting, read the next section carefully.
Basic screenplay structure for a full length film usually has three acts.
In The Poetics, Aristotle suggested that all stories should have a beginning, middle, and an end. Well, duh. You know that. But really. You need to remember this advice.
Breaking the plot of a story into three parts, gives us a 3-part or act structure. The word "act" means "the action of carrying something out. For our purposes think act one (beginning), act two (middle), and act three (end) of your short film.
Act 1, called the Set-up, The situation and characters and conflict are introduced. This classically is 30 minutes long. For a short film it can be only a few minutes or 1 minute.
Act 2, called The Conflict, often an hour long, is where the conflict begins and expands until it reaches a crisis.
Act 3, called The Resolution, the conflict rises to one more crisis (the last one called the climax) and then is resolved.
How To Write The Treatment
Find A Title
The first contact a prospective producer has with a script is the title. Pick a title that gives a clear idea of what genre the screenplay is written in. Blood House is probably not a romantic comedy. Americans like one or two word titles: Psycho, Saw, The Hobbit, Rocky, Pan's Labyrinth, Star Wars, Animal House, Tangled, Avatar, Pinocchio, etc.After a title, start a logline: a brief one sentence summary of the movie. For example: And Then Came Love is a character-driven romantic comedy about a high-powered Manhattan single mom who opens Pandora's box when she seeks out the anonymous sperm donor father of her young son.
Your treatment should include a synopsis.
Treatment sample #1
Treatment sample #2
HOMEWORK: Your treatment is due Thursday at the BEGINNING of class. We'll be watching The Maltese Falcon Thursday. To prepare for this, please read the article on Film Noir for Thursday. You should know the stylistic characteristics of this genre of film.
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