Development:
Creating a Treatment
There are tons of incredible resources for writing treatments!
However, treatments aren't always 100% necessary.
If you find yourself in a situation where someone asks you for a movie treatment, you plan to send out a treatment, or you, as the writer, need a treatment for the sake of perspective and layout, then write that film treatment! The purpose of a treatment is to communicate vital story elements to show that you understand and have a vision for the story and its core elements. It should convey all the essential scenes, themes, and tone of the project to entice or pitch to buyers and producers, encouraging them to read, develop, or even purchase your idea. Film treatments are also referred to as story treatments, script treatments, and movie treatments.
That said, a full treatment tends to look like:
Name + Contact
Project Format: Is this a feature, short film, etc?
Log Line: A one-sentence description of the film or series
A detailed plot summary:
For Film - This is up to a 2 paragraph summary taking us through the story's key elements with notes on how things sound/look/feel.
For Episodic - This is historically a detailed description of the first episode and an outline of the season, with notes on how things sound/look/feel.
Character Breakdown/profiles: who are your characters, what do they do, what do they want, their age/race/gender/sexuality, and other key identity characteristics?
Influences/Tone or “COMPS” (section: 6 - Know the Difference between Financial vs. Tonal Comps): What is your project influenced by? This supports you in communicating the project visually or tone-ly. What photography, art, or music inspires your style, or what is the project's vision statement?
e.g. “This show is Transparent meets I Love Lucy meets Game of Thrones”:
It might also include:
List of locations needed and secured
Average length of episodes, if creating a web series or TV series.
List of confirmed or desired collaborators - Partnerships, sponsors, fiscal sponsors, actors, producers, music, crew, etc.
Exhibition strategy - where/how to do the premiere, release schedule, Film Festivals.
Ideal production schedule - when and where are productions happening