You’re staring at a blank page. Your pilot or feature film idea is incredible in your head—it’s got fire, it’s got heart, it’s basically an Oscar-winner—but when you try to explain it to someone else, it falls apart. This is exactly where most writers realize they need to learn how to write a screenplay treatment before they waste six months on a script that doesn't actually have a middle.
Honestly? Treatments are kind of a pain. They aren't the "fun" part of writing. But they are the bridge between a cool idea and a professional sale.
What a Treatment Actually Does for Your Career
Look, a treatment isn't just a long-winded summary. It’s a sales document and a roadmap. If you’re pitching to a producer at a place like Blumhouse or A24, they don’t always want to read 110 pages of dialogue right away. They want the "vibe." They want the "bones."
A treatment proves you can tell a story from beginning to end. It’s a prose document, usually anywhere from 2 to 10 pages, that narrates the entire plot of your movie in the present tense. It includes the major beats, the emotional arcs, and the ending. Yes, you have to include the ending. Don't play coy with a "to be continued" because no executive has time for that.
James Cameron is famous for his "scriptments"—a hybrid of a treatment and a script. His treatment for The Terminator was legendary because it captured the relentless pacing of the film before a single line of dialogue was polished. It wasn't just a list of events; it was a visceral experience. That's the bar.
Why You Can't Skip This Step
Think of it this way. Writing a script without a treatment is like building a house without a blueprint. Sure, you might end up with something cool, but there's a 90% chance the plumbing won't work and the roof will cave in by page 60.
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The Basic Anatomy of the Document
There’s no "official" industry standard for formatting a treatment like there is for a screenplay, which is both a blessing and a curse. You have freedom. But don't get weird with it. Keep it clean. Use a standard font like Courier or Times New Roman.
Start with a Title. Make it catchy. Under that, put your Name and Contact Information. Then, you need a Logline. This is the one-sentence "hook" that defines your movie. "A giant shark terrorizes a summer resort town, and a police chief must stop it despite his fear of the water." That’s Jaws. Simple. Effective.
Next comes the Character Profiles. Don't just list their eye color. Tell us what they want and what’s stopping them. If your protagonist is "John, 30s, a nice guy," I'm already bored. If John is "a disgraced detective who can’t stop lying to his therapist," now we’re getting somewhere.
The Narrative Summary: Where the Magic Happens
This is the meat of the thing. You’re going to write out the story in prose. Use paragraphs to separate the acts.
Act I introduces the world and the "Inciting Incident." Act II is the "Fun and Games" (as Blake Snyder called it) and the rising stakes. Act III is the climax and resolution. When you're figuring out how to write a screenplay treatment, focus on the turning points. Don't describe every single scene. If a scene doesn't move the plot or change the character, leave it out of the treatment.
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Avoid the "And Then" Trap
South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have a famous rule for storytelling: the "Therefore" or "But" rule. If the scenes in your treatment are connected by "and then," your story is going to be boring.
- Character A goes to the store and then they buy milk and then they go home. (Boring!)
- Character A goes to the store but they realize they forgot their wallet therefore they try to steal the milk but they get caught. (Drama!)
Apply this to your prose. Use active verbs. Instead of saying "The monster enters the room," try "The creature stalks through the doorway, its claws clicking against the hardwood." You want the reader to see the movie.
How Long Should This Thing Be?
Length is a contentious topic in Hollywood. A "step outline" might be 20 pages, while a "sales treatment" might be a tight 3 pages. If you’re writing this for yourself to help draft the script, go as long as you need. If you’re sending it to a manager or producer, aim for 5 to 7 pages. Anything longer than 10 pages starts to feel like a chore to read.
Real World Examples to Study
If you want to see how the pros do it, look up the treatment for Halloween (1978) or The Shining. You'll see how John Carpenter and Stanley Kubrick (or his writers) envisioned the tension.
The Mr. & Mrs. Smith treatment is another great example. It focuses heavily on the chemistry and the "high concept" of the premise. It sells the feeling of the movie, which is often more important than the specific plot points in those early stages.
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Common Mistakes Beginners Make
One of the biggest blunders is including too much dialogue. A treatment is prose. You can include one or two "killer" lines if they define a character, but don't turn it into a script-lite.
Another mistake? Flat endings. If your ending is "and they live happily ever after," you haven't given the reader a reason to invest. We need to know the cost of the journey. What did the hero lose to get what they wanted?
Tone and Voice
Your treatment should sound like your movie. If you’re writing a horror film, the prose should be dark, sparse, and chilling. If it’s a romantic comedy, keep it light, witty, and fast-paced. The "voice" of the treatment should be a preview of the "voice" of the screenplay.
Actionable Steps to Get Started Right Now
Don't overthink it. Just start.
- Write your logline. If you can’t summarize your movie in one sentence, you don't have a clear enough concept yet. Spend a day on this if you have to.
- Identify your four pillars. What is the Opening Image? The Break into Act II? The All is Lost moment? The Final Image? Write these four sentences down first.
- Draft the "Short Version." Write a one-page summary of the story. Don't worry about being fancy. Just get the plot from A to Z.
- Expand into the full treatment. Take that one-page summary and start fleshing out the characters and the "Therefore/But" connections between scenes.
- Read it out loud. If you get bored reading your own treatment, a producer will definitely get bored. Cut the fluff. Keep the heat.
Writing a screenplay treatment is basically an exercise in discipline. It forces you to look at your story's flaws before you've spent weeks writing dialogue that eventually has to be deleted. It's the hardest part of the process for many, but it's also what separates the hobbyists from the people who actually get movies made.
Once you have a solid 5-page document that makes people say "I need to see this movie," the actual screenplay will practically write itself. You'll have the confidence of knowing the story works. Now, go open a new document and write that logline.