Why A Film Treatment Is Important?

So, what is a film treatment? Why does a filmmaker need it if they already have a synopsis in place? I mean, is it really that important?

These were just a few questions that ran through my mind after I’d just secured the full copyright for my synopsis. And, quite honestly, I wanted to skip over having to write a treatment all together because writing my synopsis, which made me decrease a 22-page script down to one page was completely draining. On top of that, my film was kind of getting on my nerves because every day for the last several months I’d been sooo laser-focused on it.

I needed space.

I needed time away to miss my film so that when I returned back to it, my energy and focus would be much stronger with new perspectives and ideas. And with me only concentrating on my film, all my other responsibilities and projects were getting left behind with tasks going unfinished and of poor quality.

So, to find out if a treatment was really necessary, I decided to turn to one of my film bibles by Carole Lee Dean, called, “The Art Of Film Funding” and just decided to read through it to get some knowledge. And low and behold, one of the passages I happened to breeze through was an interview recap she had with a filmmaker named Xachery Irving, who created the film “American Chain Gang”.

In that recap, she asked Xachery how he went about bringing his film to life and how he obtained the funding as an independent filmmaker?

He stated, “The most important thing one needs to do during [their] planning stage is to become very organized. You need to have a good treatment, a solid pitch, and a clear presentation of what it is that you want to achieve with the film. I found that having a well-written proposal is as important as any aspect of production or post-production”.

(Oh gosh!! Why?!!! No! No! No!)

After a few days, I decided to get over myself and begin finding out how to write a treatment. According to the word on the street, treatments are a pain in the ass to write because there are no set rules on how to write one. They can range from 3-30+ pages. (Shit!)

Then, I came across the treatment for “The Terminator” written by James Cameron and saw how explicitly detailed it was. I mean, you actually felt like you were in the movie. So, I decided to do the same thing. In the end, my treatment came out to 8 pages and then I sent it off to my script supervisor for her to review.

A month goes by and I’m completely knocked flat on my behind in disappointment when I get an email back from my script supervisor saying that my treatment was too long. It should be 2-4 pages for someone to read quickly. It also needs to be in short story and prose form. (WTF! I spent hours writing that treatment!).

Luckily, she sent me a link to a website (found here) that led me to the treatment for “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”. (Much simpler than the Terminator)

After following the style of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, my treatment went from 8 pages to 3 pages with only minor notes and grammatical errors from my script supervisor for me to correct. (Whew! Thank God!)

Then, I asked her, what’s the simplest way to understand what a film treatment really is and what it’s needed for? And she stated,

“A treatment is like a pitch. It tells the end reader what your story is about which is why it’s best to make it a short document especially if you have investors/funders interested. And only if you’re like James Cameron in Hollywood should [anyone] be writing a treatment that’s 60 pages long. Treatments that are extremely long are due to the script haven’t been written yet which is how Hollywood usually goes about their films”.

What tasks items have you considered skipping over in your project(s) but realized in the end they were absolutely necessary for your projects’ success? Let me know in the comments.

Other Posts You May Be Interested In:

• How To Begin Raising Money For Your Film?
• How To Navigate Between A Film Copyright and Trademark?
• How To Create An Epic Movie Poster?

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