Commercial Director's Treatment

D

davidsetagaya

Member
Hi Everyone,

hope someone more knowledgeable than myself could help me out with this question:

What is this kind of 'treatment' and could someone post a sample of one?

I believe it's something that the director gives to an ad agency, right?

thanks,
david
 
if im correct this is how it works: i am using NIKE as an example.

Nike->ad agency->production company->chooses directors off of THEIR roster to submit treatments->director that wrote the treatment that Nike wants to use will get the job!

if the director is not signed to a production company, all that director can do is shoot SPEC spots. Spec spots are when directors shoot a spot for Nike or some other brand. These usually go on the directors reel to shop around to production companies, to try and get signed to their roster.

im actually in pre-prod. on a spec spot.

i want to become signed to a production company myself, for music videos/ commercial representation.
 
Hey,

Thanks for the reply.
Yeah, that clarifies it a bit. Could anyone out there post an example of a treatment that a director writes? What does it have in it?
Thanks a lot,
david
 
aaron_wade said:
if im correct this is how it works: i am using NIKE as an example.

Nike->ad agency->production company->chooses directors off of THEIR roster to submit treatments->director that wrote the treatment that Nike wants to use will get the job!
Click to expand...

This is not quite how it works. It can vary from market to market, city to city, but Here's what I do when it's time for me to produce a spot (I am an agency producer)....

I get my script and boards from my team of writer(s) and art director(s). I call my favorite reps. These "reps" represent production companies and their roster of directors. These production companies may have 1 director, they may have 50. I briefly describe the spot to the rep, maybe it's "comedic visual storytelling" or "fashion and beauty" and ask them to recommend a director from their roster and send me reels. The good reps know film and know their roster well and they cut the bullshit and send me what I really need. Afterall, there are 11,000 commercial directors available to me worldwide, I need someone right out of the gates to narrow this down.

Ok so once I have my reels I start screening them. Typically I get about 50-75 reels sent in from my reps. I usually narrow this down to 10-15 myself, of which I take to the agency's creative team (writer, art director, creative director). They narrow it down to five. This five is the agency recommend to our client. Client will further drop it to three. It is industry standard to "triple bid" a job to three different production companies and their three different directors. Most clients require this.

Once were ready to triple bid I send the spot's boards and script and any other creative material to the production company and director. Then, we have a conference call with the production company's executive producer and the director we are considering. In this call we describe the project, shoot the **** and just get an idea of the director's personality. We know he has talent based on the reel, but what's important is "How friendly is this guy? How easy is he to work with? Does he gel well with the agency creatives?". You get a pretty good estimation of the director's personality through this conference call.

Maybe a day or two later we get a packet from the production company. This is the treatment and the budget. The treatment will include casting ideas, wardrobe, film stocks, possibly locations, ideas for shots. By the real pros these treatments are really impressive. So once we have that we weigh the creative versus the the budget. Often we will have one more conference call with the executive producer and the director.

We often go to the lowest bidder, but not always! Once we award the job the deal is done and I meet my line producer.

Hope this helps.

As for posting treatments wish I could but it sure wouldn't make my client or the production companies very happy. They kind of like to keep these things under wraps.
 
k, thanks for that post! It's understandable that you can post the treatments online.

BUT, how about anyone else out there in cyberspace? With all the talent here, I'm sure someone has to have a sample treatment out there. I know I'd greatly appreciate it, and I'm sure others would, too. Or if someone could just email it to me, I can promise it will never be seen by anyone else!
 
Duh... Am I missing something here...???
Isn't "treatment" simply the way a specific director or production company
would handle an assignment...???
How can you display a "treatment" when it's intangible...
 
Steward said:
Duh... Am I missing something here...???
Isn't "treatment" simply the way a specific director or production company
would handle an assignment...???
How can you display a "treatment" when it's intangible...
Click to expand...
Treatment is a short outline of a story, or how would a director go about shooting it. Or it can be a 'technical treatment' - lighting, film, camera choice.

In any case, it's a written document, therefore tangible.
 
davidsetagaya

http://www.markromanek.com/video/19.html#

Here is Mark Romanek's treatment for Faint:

Linkin park - faint

the band performs the song in a dark, dramatically lit concert venue. two-thirds of the performance is filmed from behind the band.

we only see their backs -- backs of heads, hands, torso, asses, feet. all the emotion is conveyed through the body language. we may catch slight glimpses of oblique profiles. but, they are just that -- only glimpses. in the background of all these shots we see silhouettes of fans, creating waves of excited movement. we are teased for over two minutes with beautifully composed and dramatically back-lit images of the band – filmed from behind.

during the bridge, chester rushes the front of the stage and sings, screaming into the face of a girl in the front row (still filmed from behind), “hear me out now!”

then, he turns to walk back to the platform, and as mike sings-speaks the very quiet lines (at the end of the bridge) we finally see his face. “i can’t feel the way i did before…”

then, when the song kicks in for the climax, we cut to the band and finally see them perform from the front -- amazing shots of brad, chester, joe, mike, phoenix, and rob performing the song passionately.

we also reveal a dark, strikingly designed and stylized set behind them. (not one so interesting as to distract from the band themselves.)

the tension and suspense engendered by not revealing the band for so long will be riveting. when we finally do, the effect will be thrilling.

this simple concept will resonate with the themes of frustration and desire-for-acknowledgment that the song expresses so powerfully.

© mark romanek / anonymouscontent | 4.15.03

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Reading that, a joke comes to my mind:

Q: What is the difference between an actor and a producer?

A: When an actor reads a script, he goes: bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, my line, bullshit, my line, bullshit, bullshit, ... When a producer reads a script, he goes: bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, five grand, bullshit, twenty grand, bullshit, ...
 
Thanks for that John. Great website, too. I liked his treatment.

On a slightly different topic (please advise if I should move this to another location),

Has anyone ever heard of a company soliciting director's treatments, but not picking a director and giving his treatment to someone else, asking them to do a similar concept?

Does this happen much in the industry? Are there any protections against this?

thanks,
david
 
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