The Movie in Prose Form
A story treatment is a narrative document that reads like a short story. Its primary purpose is to communicate the full experience of watching the proposed film. Unlike an outline, which is a skeletal breakdown of plot points, a treatment is written in engaging, descriptive prose. It focuses on the flow of the story, the emotional journey of the characters, and the overall tone and mood of the piece. It describes all the major scenes and plot turns in the order they will appear on screen, but it contains little to no dialogue.
Treatments can vary greatly in length, from a brief 5-page summary to an incredibly detailed 60-page document that is nearly as long as a screenplay. They are a crucial step in the development process. A writer might create a treatment to flesh out an idea for themselves before committing to the screenplay format, or they might be hired by a studio to write a treatment based on a pre-existing idea. It is also a powerful sales tool, as it allows a producer to read and evaluate the entire story and its emotional impact in a fraction of the time it would take to read a full script.
The Role of the Treatment in Development
The treatment is a versatile document used at different stages of a film’s creation.
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As a Development Tool: For the writer, a treatment is a chance to solve story problems and explore character arcs without the rigid formatting constraints of a screenplay. It allows them to find the emotional core and pacing of the story before getting bogged down in writing specific lines of dialogue.
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As a Sales Tool: A treatment is often used to pitch a project to studios, financiers, or major actors. It is more detailed than a pitch outline and provides a comprehensive look at the entire narrative. A compelling treatment can get a project greenlit and a writer hired to turn it into a full screenplay.
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The ‘Scriptment’: Some filmmakers, most famously James Cameron, are known for writing extremely long and detailed treatments that include snippets of dialogue and extensive descriptions of action sequences. Cameron calls his version a ‘scriptment’, and the one he wrote for Avatar (2009) was legendary in the industry for its detail and vision long before the film was made.