In a nutshell, a treatment is a detailed outline of your film from start to finish - including all of your clever twists and turns. Some writers love them whilst others (usually the lazy ones) loathe them.
No matter what your view on treatments is, there is no mistaking that they are an immensely powerful tool for scriptwriters that force you into thinking about the path your story will take rather than focusing on the "cool scenes".
For the writers that prefer to skip this step and dive straight into the 1st draft of the screenplay, they tend to write really shit scripts which in turn make god-awful movies. It makes good sense to have a good, long think about your story before writing a script for your story.
Treatments are a very popular way of attracting attention from studios or people in the industry when you haven't got a completed script ready. Your treatment should be short and snappy so that it grabs peoples attention. The jury is still out on what is an ideal length for a treatment, but as a guide you should keep it down to 7-pages maximum (computer type) if you are writing a feature. If you are writing a short, you should be able to condense this down to one page
There are several different approaches to writing a treatment which you can read more about here (this article is particularly useful if you are planning on submitting a treatment for consideration by a studio).
However, our aim is to write a treatment for ourselves as we are going to be the ones making it. There's no need to wait for a greenlight by a studio - YOU ARE THE STUDIO! Understanding the principles of correct treatment layout and content though will prove invaluable should you ever decide to embark on a professional film career. And plus, it's going to help us right here and now to develop our own script.
There are three distinct methods for presenting a treatment. As you are writing for yourself, you can pick whichever method works best for you as you won't be seeking anyone's approval.
1. HEADERS
A short-hand outline of the movie where key moments or scenes are put as a header. This allows a reader to skim through your treatment if need be e.g.
THE BOMB GOES OFF
The passenger ship splits in two and swiftly sinks to
the bottom of the sea
THE WHITEHOUSE
The President rubs his hands together with a big grin.
Soon the president is crowded by his top officials. "What did you do" screams one.
A MACHINE GUN
The president pumps lead into his officials.
As you can tell from the example, if you were writing the script of the above, it would last for a couple of pages at least yet we swiftly condensed it to just a few, key lines highlighting the interesting bits. Click here for a better example of using headers.
2. PROSE-STYLE
This method, you are basically writing your film down as a story minus the excessive detail that a novel would have. Again you should keep length to a maximum (no more than 7-pages for a feature although treatments of 30+ pages aren't that uncommon) so, taking the previous example and adapting it to the prose method would be:
A huge passenger ship sails into calm seas. The
deck is crowded with holiday-makers and
the ships captain looks out to the horizon. The tension
builds as we cut between the happy holiday-makers
and the countdown on a bomb in the cargo bay.
Suddenly BOOM! A gigantic explosion rips
the ship in two. Flames and smoke fly hundreds of feet into the air...
As you can see, loads more detail but not too detailed. Certain scenes may be simply referred to in this type of treatment whereas key sequences may warrant fuller descriptions. Click here for a better example of this style.
When writing this form of treatment, try to offer a reading experience that tracks the emotions and feelings of the film-going experience. Tell your story directly and avoid like the plague using phrases like "I was thinking it'd be great if..." or "I'm not sure whether...". In other words, don't be indecisive. Stick to the story.
3. DIVIDE IT UP
In a way, this method is a mixture of the other two. You break your script down into five sub-categories: concept, characterization, theme, tone, and story. This method is a popular choice for some as it allows you to add into your treatment what is unique about your approach, what people will find interesting, as well as telling the story.
To see an example of this style, click here.
There is no definitive way to write and present a treatment. If you are writing for yourself, use the method most comfortable and useful to you. If you are writing to attract the attention of others then you should carefully consider who will be reading it (family, friends, studio execs etc.) and then take it from there. Your friends will be a lot more forgiving than a studio exec so do your homework first. |
