Preparing A Director'S Treatment printable pdf download

Preparing A Director'S Treatment

Preparing a Director’s Treatment

A director’s treatment is NOT a shot list. The director is the central decision

maker in a production and his/her treatment covers what s/he plans to do. It goes

into detail of the look they're going for, how they hope the sound design to play

out, what kind of music they wish to use, what kind of actors they want to cast,

locations, pacing, production design, time period, costuming, etc, etc. Everything

that is part of the director's vision should be included in the treatment, including

the following.

Concept

What do you understand the central theme and conflict of this story to be?

The Look

How will the film look stylistically (lighting, cinematography, color palette, era,

period piece, etc). And how will you accomplish that. Feel free to include

photographs or links to similar films/videos

Sound design

Sparse? Thick? Music or no music? Recurring audio characters? Sound mood?

Casting / Performance

What kinds of actors, how will you work with them, to achieve what performance?

Script Revisions

If you could do rewrites, adding and/or removing elements from the script, what

would they be?

Write for Yourself

It's a good idea to write a treatment as a way of developing the idea in your head.

The more you think and prepare, then the more successful you will be. Write a

treatment for yourself and treat it as if you're writing it for someone else. You

won't regret it.

You may choose to include lots of photographs and a breakdown of how you see

the locations looking, framing, lenses, colors, set decoration etc. It’s a way for

executives and financiers to really understand how you are going to bring the

story to the screen.

Preparing A Director'S Treatment