VICTORIA WISDOM: Agent & Partner (Becsey-Wisdom-Kaledjian)

“Treatments should feel like pictures rushing together to form a story in which you can see the characters and hear them speak. A treatment should never read like a synopsis, like dull beats of a plot moving forward, trudging toward a predictable outcome. When you’re reading the pages, however simple, the thrill of the story must be captured. And how do you do that? You forget that you’re writing a treatment and tell the story like a classic around-the-campfire cliffhanger – as if every event happened before your very eyes and you can’t wait to share it.”

JOHN ROBERT MARLOW: Nicholls finalist

“Treatments. Blecchhh. I despise the very concept, for two reasons: (1) no treatment of reasonable length can possibly do justice to an outstanding script, and (2) treatments give away the plot twists before the reader has so much as glanced at page one. The cold, hard truth of the matter, however, is this: few people in Hollywood are going to read your treatment, regardless of quality. Fewer still will read your script. BUT: Some of those who would not otherwise read your script will read it if they like the treatment. Therefore, you should probably write a treatment.”

TERRENCE MYERS: Director of Development (Laurence Mark Productions)

“The best advice I’ve heard came from a colleague who instructed a writer to think of the treatment as a great trailer. Not only should it sell the basic story, characters, tone, and the world, but most important, it should contain unforgettable moments that make you not want to wait a minute longer to see the movie. Like cutting a great trailer, treatment writing has become an art form that requires a delicate balance. One must know how to reveal just enough information to whet the appetite without giving “the powers that be” too many opportunities to say no.”

STEVE WEISS: William Morris Agency

“In the working world of television the treatment is usually the second item that tells the buyer what the project is – the pitch” being the first. It’s the treatment that allows the buyer the opportunity to replay what was pitched in the words of the writer or producer who gave the pitch. When the pitch meeting is over and the writer or producer is wondering whether the buyer “got it,” the hope is that the treatment, which is usually left behind after the pitch is made, is able to support and possibly even further elucidate the essence of the pitch.”

MICHAEL WALSH: Co-writer of Cadet Kelly

“Don’t think of treatments the way you used to think of your term paper outlines: all misery and no reward. Instead, think of them as road maps, but better – not only do they tell you how to get where you want to go, they help you figure out where you’re going in the first place. Treatments also help you to answer the age-old question any writer must ask when beginning a project: Do I want to spend time with these characters? Because if you don’t, how do you expect an audience to spend ten bucks and two hours?”

MICHAEL HALPERIN: Writing the Killer Treatment

“The most commonly heard phrase in Hollywood is not ‘Let’s do lunch.’ In reality, the expression you’ll most often hear in production, studio, and agency offices is: ‘Okay, send me a treatment.’”

ADRIAN HODGES: Screenwriter

“Treatments can be a poisoned chalice. They are enormously difficult to write, a nightmare, and they can only give you a sense of the movie. The problem is: you can’t write a script before you write a treatment.”

DAVID TROTTIER: The Screenwriter’s Bible

“This treatment not only tells the story, but it sells the story. It is a market piece. You write it for producers, talent, and directors - you want them to love the story. You ant them to say, ‘What a great concept! Let me read the script!’”

CARLOS DE ABREU & HOWARD JAY SMITH: Opening the doors to Hollywood

“An outline is for you; a treatment is for them... the creation of a treatment is almost a required step in selling your script.”