A feature film treatment for a specific script is a short summary that may be four to seven pages long, and is generally dramatizes the script by using dialogues and descriptions to depict the beginning, middle and the climax of the script. It is quite different from the synopsis. While a synopsis summarizes the script and provides an outline of the story, the treatment is a short story in itself.

Script treatments are very powerful tools that attract the studios and potential investors even before the complete script is ready. This is indeed very useful for the scriptwriter as well, since the treatment would help him understand whether the flow of the story is indeed what he desired for. So, we can revise or cancel scripts before we put in our valuable time and energy is writing the actual script. However, for a spontaneous writer, treatment could be more of a bane, and that is why treatments are not absolutely essential component.

There are three different methods in which a treatment can be written. However, the main aim of writing a treatment is similar to that of a synopsis: to attract the reader and keep him glued all throughout.

a.Header-specific: This type of treatment would have the key scenes put down as headers (in capital letters), while a few lines could be chipped in below it, describing the scene precisely. This would allow the reader to breeze through your treatment, if required and is much more attractive if the content is good enough. An example would go like:

BROTHERS FINALLY MEET

The long lost brother of the hero breaks in the hero’s house without knowing what was waiting for him inside and his family that he had been searching for all his life.

This would also help us condense the treatment into a couple of pages, and also ensuring that the main scenes are described properly with proper dramatization, wherever necessary.

b.Prose-Style: This type of treatments tend to go longer, as the key scenes are explained with lot more details than in header-specific treatments. It is like writing the story without the details irrelevant to the scene. This type of descriptions would serve a script that needs the details to be fed to the reader. The script also contains the emotions and feels that the actual script might have. The above header-specific example could be translated to prose-style as:

There was some restlessness in the rustling of the winds as well, as the hero’s brother got ready to break into the hero’s house. Although his intention was simply burglary, he couldn’t help but feel that he was about to experience a different night altogether. And as he headed towards the table to collect the Swiss watch, his eyes fell on the framed photo beside the watch and lightning flashed! His long lost mother was in the picture with his brother!

c. Hybrid style: Well, as the name suggests, this type of treatment is a mixture of the above two methods, and is most popularly used, as it provides the flexibility and the freedom to exploit both procedures, while giving it an innovative yet attractive look.

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