What is a Film Treatment?

Today, we learnt about Film Treatments. What they are and why they are necessary.

A Film Treatment is necessary because it allows the screenwriter to communicate their screenplay idea in a brief but compelling way, it is also a powerful and creative tool. Writing a Treatment is a fast way to test out an idea before it is transformed into a script because it allows a screenwriter some distance between the idea and the script.

It can also help the screenwriter to work out problems and determine if the narrative holds up. Also the narrative can then be developed according to what the people want to see. The length of a treatment is appropriate to the final product. It is necessary to communicate the narrative and the treatment should tell the whole story and focus on the highlights.

A treatment is a document which is a scene by scene breakdown of the actual script. A Treatment should read like a short story and should be written in the present tense. It should present the entire story with its end and maybe even use key scenes and some dialogue from the screenplay that it’s based on.

It should include a working title, name and contact information of the writer. Also an introduction to the key characters and answer the questions ‘who, what, when, why and where’. Another important aspect is that it should break up the story into three parts which are the foundation stores for the making of the narrative.

· Act 1 - Situation, characters, conflict is introduced.
· Act 2 - Conflict begins and expands until it reaches a crisis
· Act 3 - Resolution; conflict rises to one more crisis and then it is resolved .