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Treatment
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Film Treatment Template and Example
A film treatment tells your whole story in present tense prose, usually three to fifteen pages, before or instead of a full script. It opens with the title and logline, introduces the main characters, then walks through the story act by act, ending included. Build yours on this page, print it, or read the worked example below.
Written and reviewed by ScriptLix Editorial
What does a film treatment example look like?
A worked example for a made up feature, Low Tide, kept short so you can see the shape.
Low Tide
by Sam Arden
Treatment
Logline
A grieving tide pool biologist discovers that the creature washing up on her beach every night is trying to warn the town about the storm that killed her husband, and that it is coming back.
Characters
NELL BRANDT (40s). A marine biologist who counts crabs to avoid counting days. Precise, funny when cornered, has not left the island since the storm.
OWEN BRANDT (16). Her son. Wants off the island and out from under her grief, in that order.
MAYOR DIANE HOLT (60s). Runs the town and the ferry. Kind in public, practical in private, and hiding the real storm report.
Act one
On a small island off the Oregon coast, Nell Brandt walks the low tide line at dawn, logging what the sea leaves behind. A year ago a storm took her husband and half the harbor. She has not been off the island since.
One morning she finds a creature in a tide pool, pale, many armed, and dying. By night it is gone. The next morning there is another, and this one has arranged the shells around it into a pattern. Owen thinks she is losing it. Nell starts to record everything.
Act two
Nell decodes the patterns. They match the pressure charts from the night of last year’s storm. The creatures are not stranded; they are fleeing something offshore, and they are trying to show her what.
She takes it to Mayor Holt, who listens politely and files it away. Nell digs into the harbor records and finds Holt was warned about last year’s storm and kept the ferry running for the tourist weekend. Her husband died on that ferry.
At the midpoint the creatures stop coming. The sea goes flat and silent. Owen, finally believing her, helps her rig a camera on the reef, and they see the reason: the pattern is repeating, bigger. The storm is coming back, in three days, on the festival weekend.
Act three
Holt refuses to cancel the festival. Nell goes around her, using Owen’s friends and their phones to spread the creatures’ pattern and the old report. The town splits. The ferry runs anyway.
The storm hits early. Nell and Owen take the rescue skiff out to the stalled ferry, guided through the dark by the creatures’ glow. They bring everyone back, Holt included.
At dawn, low tide. Nell walks the line again. The tide pools are empty. She takes Owen to the ferry dock and buys two tickets to the mainland.
How to use it
- 1
Start with the title, your name and a one sentence logline.
- 2
Introduce each main character in a line or two: who they are and what they want.
- 3
Tell the story act by act in present tense, then print it or save it as PDF.
What is a film treatment?
A treatment is a prose version of your film. It reads like a short story told in present tense, with the big scenes, the turns and the ending, but little or no dialogue. Producers use treatments to judge a story before a script exists, and writers use them to find problems before they spend months on pages.
How long should a treatment be?
There is no fixed length. A short pitch treatment can be two or three pages. A detailed one written as a step before the script can run much longer. For a spec, aim for something a producer can read in one sitting, and let every paragraph move the story.
What is the difference between a treatment, a synopsis and an outline?
A synopsis is short, often a page, and summarises the story. A treatment is longer and reads with some of the film’s tone and texture. An outline is a working tool, usually a list of scenes or beats, written for the writer rather than a reader.
If someone asks for a treatment, they want to feel the movie. If they ask for a synopsis, they want to know what happens. Our free synopsis generator helps with the short one.
What makes a treatment work?
Specific images, a clear want for the lead, and an honest ending. Write the moments the trailer would use. Do not hide the ending to create mystery; the reader is judging whether it pays off.
More film treatment examples
Three short treatment openings for made up films in different genres. Each shows the title, the logline and the first paragraph of story, written in present tense the way a treatment reads.
Horror feature
The Night Audit
- Logline
- A motel night auditor discovers a room that has been paid for every night since 1987, on the night someone finally checks in.
- Opening
- RUTH OKAFOR (40s) counts receipts under a flickering desk lamp at the Pine Gap Motor Inn. She likes the night shift because nothing happens on it. Then the ledger shows room 9, paid in cash, every night for thirty seven years, and a key she has never seen is missing from the board.
Romantic drama
Second Shift
- Logline
- A night nurse and a hospital security guard who share one cigarette every dawn fall in love while both trying to quit.
- Opening
- At 6am the hospital car park is the only quiet place in the city. TESS (30s) arrives with one cigarette and no lighter. LEON (30s), on his break, has a lighter and no cigarettes. They agree to share, just this once, and to quit tomorrow. Neither of them does.
Western thriller
Dry Season
- Logline
- A widowed rancher refuses to sell her land to the railroad, and the men sent to persuade her learn why the east field is never dug.
- Opening
- The drought is in its third year. HANNAH VOSS (50s) walks her fence line at dawn, rifle on her shoulder, counting the cattle that are left. A surveyor’s flag has appeared overnight in the middle of the east field. She pulls it out, folds it neatly and takes it to the sheriff.
Questions writers ask
What is a screenplay treatment?
A screenplay treatment is a present tense prose summary of a film, usually a few pages long, that tells the whole story including the ending, with little or no dialogue. Writers use it to sell or plan a script before writing it.
Is a film script treatment the same as a screenplay treatment?
Yes. Film script treatment, film treatment and screenplay treatment all mean the same document: the story of the film in present tense prose, written before or alongside the script.
Where can I see film treatment examples?
This page has a full worked treatment for a made up feature, Low Tide, plus three short treatment openings in horror, romantic drama and western.
What should a film treatment include?
The title, a logline, the main characters, and the full story told in present tense prose, act by act, including the ending.
Is a treatment written in present tense?
Yes. Like a screenplay, a treatment describes what we see as it happens, in present tense.
Does a treatment have dialogue?
Usually very little. A key line can help if it defines a character or a turn, but most of a treatment is prose.
Do I need a treatment before writing a script?
No, but it helps many writers find story problems early, and some producers ask for one before they commission a script.