Creating a film is a lengthy process, but it all starts with an idea and a script. However, getting studios, investors and talent to read your script can be a difficult task. Sometimes, the best way forward is with a film treatment template.
Using this template, you can create a professional synopsis of your project that will enable others to see the concept and the big idea behind your film. This template can help you get your project made, sometimes before you even write a screenplay.
Click Use Template to get started with this fully customizable template right now, or keep reading to learn more about film treatments.
Why You Need a Film Treatment Template
A logline is a one-line summary of a movie or TV show, and a script is the full story. Sometimes you need a format that is somewhere in between to sell your movie or TV show. You need a pitch that is short enough to quickly digest, but filled with enough details to tell a story and pique the imagination. That's where a film treatment comes in.
1. Tell a Short Story
Every story has a beginning, middle and end. And this is what you should focus on when writing treatments. A treatment tells the key details and helps readers understand the hook, the acts, the climax, and possibly, the resolution. Our template provides you the outline, you just fill in the details.
2. Get Readers Hooked Fast
By focusing on the key story elements, you can help people quickly visualize the hook and the concept behind the film or TV show. A treatment is the key first step in selling your film script. Our template enables you to quickly distribute the treatment as a read-only link and track who's viewed it.
Tips for Writing a Movie Treatment Template
Using a movie treatment template is an important first step to creating a professional pitch. It can take years to learn how to write a great film treatment, but we're going to help you learn quickly with these tips.
- Write in Present Tense: Immerse your readers in the story, regardless of the time period.
- Write in Prose: Film treatments are typically written in prose, or traditional grammar and formatting, like a book. Save the screenplay formatting for your script.
- Perfect your Logline: The logline is the most important part of your treatment, and will be critical to hook the reader and encourage them to learn more. This one sentence needs to tell a story, build tension, and hint at a payoff.
- Include Character Descriptions: The characters are the core of your story, highlight them and help the reader understand their character arc.
- Decide on the Ideal Length: Depending on your project, this can vary from a 1-2 page document to an entire film synopsis book filled with references and supporting materials. Director like James Cameron or David Fincher have been known to deliver 50+ page treatment books.
Our Film Treatment Example: What's Included
Within this template we've outlined a film treatment example format so that you know exactly what information to include in your treatment. Some of the elements in this template include:
- Title
- Logline
- Character Breakdown
- Three Act Breakdown
In addition, Assemble provides you with advanced tools to help you create, collaborate and share your treatment:
- Add a branded document cover for a professional look
- Create new versions and manage version history
- Share as a view only document and track who's seen it
Film Treatment Example
Film treatments come in all shapes and sizes, for a variety of different projects, not just feature films. Because our template is fully customizable, you can modify this treatment to suit your specific project's needs. Here's a few examples of different types of treatments you can create.
Feature Film Treatment
The base use case, a feature film treatment is a common treatment type for the film industry. However, consider building on the base level treatment and adding imagery, content to support the mood and tone. You can even add sizzle reels to really pull people into your world.
Screenplay Treatment
Sometimes you will want to pitch your idea to secure funding before spending months writing a script. In this case, a script treatment or a screenplay treatment may be a good idea to shop your idea around and see if there's interest. This treatment would focus primarily on the story and the characters within it, and may not need supporting visuals or moodboards.
Short Film Treatment
Short films can sometimes be a gateway into a feature film on the same topic. Because of this, it's important to sell the entire world in your short film treatment and how your short could be made into a feature. This can help you attract investors who may see a bigger opportunity beyond just the short film festival circuit.
TV Series Treatment
A TV series treatment often expands far beyond the initial pilot. It can describe how the characters and world could extend into a multi-series storyline. For this reason, oftentimes a "TV series bible" is created to show all of the characters, their character arcs, themes, and other information.
Documentary Treatment
Oftentimes, documentaries allow the story to unfold in real time during the filming. However, a documentary treatment can still be helpful to create the narrative and story basis that will guide your story. A documentary treatment can be more loose, allowing room for the story to unfold naturally. It should give specific details on the main topic, the perspective on the topic, and as much historical and background detail as necessary.
Treatment for Video Production
If you're producing a commercial or music video, a treatment for video production is still helpful to help align all of the stakeholders. Since the scripts are often short, these types of treatments are usually heavily focused on the visuals and tone.
Create your Film Treatment with Assemble
Use our fully customizable template to create your film treatment today and take one of the first steps towards getting your project greenlit.
1. Open the Template
Open this template by clicking Use Template. The template will be created within a new blank project in Assemble.
2. Edit the Template as Needed
Click anywhere within the text to begin adding to or editing the template.
3. Share the Document
Click Share and select Share Document to easily distribute the document to your entire team with one click. You can even track who has viewed the document.
3. Save the Updated Template for Future Projects
Next, click the menu in the top right and select Save as Template to save it into your your personal template library.
Producing a Film with Assemble
Assemble enables producers to create a centralized hub to manage their entire project from start to finish - including documents, calendars, task management and asset management.
By using this film treatment template, you'll get access to all of Assemble's powerful features. Assemble helps you keep production moving quickly and efficiently with our advanced collaboration tools built for producers.
Get started for free by clicking Use Template to begin exploring all of Assemble's features today.
