Film Treatment

[Celine]

I know that film treatments are usually longer than a page but I need to write one double space page about the screenplay. It is part of a college application. How would I do this and how do I format it. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Randall_Oelerich]

That is not really a 'treatment' (one ds page is just a half page really, a large paragraph, brutally terse). So you are going to summarize your story in half a page, which when double spaced will be one double spaced page.

[mail4joeg]

A treatment is the whole movie in as much detail as you can work out. Dialogue not needed. I have one that is 10 pages for an animated Pixar type project, another about 6 pages.

[vcassel]

A treatment can be anywhere from 1 to 20(+) pages in length, all in active present tense as if you were telling the story to friends around a campfire. Include important dialogue or quotes if it helps sell the idea of the script. That's exactly what a treatment is--a selling tool.

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

A treatment can be anywhere from 1 to 20(+) pages in length, all in active present tense as if you were telling the story to friends around a campfire. Include important dialogue or quotes if it helps sell the idea of the script. That's exactly what a treatment is--a selling tool.

Yup. My last treatment was twelve pages long for a ninety minute movie. It also contained a few dialogue quotes as well.

[agcohn]

What you are looking to create is more of a Summary / Synopsis (broad strokes of the story) than a Treatment (detailed description of every beat / piece of action in the story).

I would try to keep it around 3 paragraphs, with paragraph 1 describe Act 1, paragraphs 2 describing Act 2, and paragraph 3 describing Act 3. Your first and last paragraphs are probably the most important, as Acts 1 and 3 of a story usually containing the important story bits that can be most easily be described briefly.

I would recommend Times font, size 12, justified and 1" margins.

[Randall_Oelerich]

OP only has 1/2 page single spaced for her 'treatment', that will be one page double spaced; so no room for four paragraphs unless she uses really small fonts!

But what you recommend is a good idea otherwise, it is exactly what I do for my one page summary when developing a story, one paragraph for each of the four acts (I, IIa, IIb, III).

...I would try to keep it around 3 paragraphs, with paragraph 1 describe Act 1, paragraphs 2 describing Act 2, and paragraph 3 describing Act 3. Your first and last paragraphs are probably the most important, as Acts 1 and 3 of a story usually containing the important story bits that can be most easily be described briefly.

I would recommend Times font, size 12, justified and 1" margins.

[Egg Born Son]

The OP doesn't mention how long the film is. A page double spaced should suffice for a 3-5 minute short. It isn't likely to be much longer than this for a college application. 3 short paragraphs should do it (I compress the I, IIa, IIb, III structure to I, II, III for short works).

[wcmartell]

Here's the treatment for MASK OF ZORRO... http://www.wordplayer.com/columns/wp...37x.ZORRO.html

Here's the one pager for one of my script... http://www.scriptsecrets.net/screenplays/standone.htm

- Bill