Treatments

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  • Treatments

    I've never written a treatment, so I was wondering if anyone had any examples of a treatment from a produced script? Or if there was a template or standard method?

    I've read that it's far more prosaic, it shouldn't include specific dialogue and it can be anywhere from a few pages to thirty or more?

    Any resources you could point me to would be much appreciated!

  • #2
    Re: Treatments

    There are treatment examples all over the internet. We have a partial one on our main site to at least give a good, basic idea of what they look like:

    http://www.donedealpro.com/members/d...&section_id=13

    And yes, they can vary in length, but I wouldn't worry too much about doing one any more than say 8 to 10 pages. It's really a tool for the writer more than anyone else, unless a producer absolutely insists you do one. Thus in most cases it should be more what works for you, the writer, than anything else. In college, my roommate and I did a about a 20 something treatment for a script we were working on. I've never done one since, though.
    Will
    Done Deal Pro
    www.donedealpro.com

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    • #3
      Re: Treatments

      Oh really? I was under the impression that I might have to submit a treatment at some point in the marketing process.

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      • #4
        Re: Treatments

        I'd just worry about a synopsis, which is a paragraph or two. I've been asked to do a bible before for a tv pilot and I had never done one before. So I submitted a couple pages. The guy said that was ok, but he was looking for even more. So he e mailed me David Simon's bible for The Wire--- it was about 70 pages long. I was quite humbled.

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        • #5
          Re: Treatments

          I used to suffer through treatments, but these days my manager only asks for a one paragraph summary when sending out my material. Any requests from that go straight for the script.

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          • #6
            Re: Treatments

            Treatments (based on my own experience) tend to be something you'd do if developing a project with a producer/ production company/ execs etc before going to script. Both in tv and film. I have had scenarios where I've put together a 20 pager for prod cos with discretionary funds such as say a working title where they're looking to take an idea and run with it. You'd then shape that idea with the head of development before it is then sent up the chain to the likes of a Bevan/ Fellner to see if they wanna take it further with you or another writer. In tv (again based on my own experiences, and it may be different for others) you'd go from treatment to a scene by scene and then to script. If it's just for you on spec then there aren't really any rules. It's more about prep.
            Last edited by Mintclub; 04-04-2015, 06:32 AM.

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            • #7
              Re: Treatments

              Use either the treatment for THE TERMINATOR or MR & MRS SMITH as a template.

              Both are the best I've ever read.

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              • #8
                Re: Treatments

                A treatment is a writing tool that the writer uses to help storyboard the concept with words. The hardest thing to do is vet a story well. Good writers know how to vet a story to its core and they know how to vet characters. The treatment, the outline, or even free flowing narrative are ways writers vet a story. I guess sometimes people on the business end want to see a 'treatment' but I think that's more when a writer has been commissioned and the producers want to see the treatment prior to scripting. As a writer writing on spec, it is usually the logline that gets the script request and then you get ten pages to show you know how to lead the reader down the page.

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