A treatment is the first step in making a film. It is where you write down all your ideas for your film.  You should have a working title of your film and that should be the title of the treatment. This title does not have to be permanent you can change it later on in the production process. When I write a treatment I do not have a strict format for writing it.  I write the basic ideas of the story and what is going to happen. A treatment should explain most of the Who, What, When, Where and Why’s of your story.  I write a few lines about the main characters. It is not a script rather it is a summary of the story. Length of the treatment will vary depending on the length of the film. For a film under a minute long I typically write about one to two paragraphs. For films two to five minutes long I will write about three to five paragraphs. Here is an example treatment for my film Apple R&D.

Apple R&D

At an Apple Research and Development meeting a guy is giving a presentation about a new product called the iPad. The iPad prototype is very futurist looking and cool. It looks to be something like a 13th generation. A business man explains that placing an Apple Logo on things make it more expensive. Steve Jobs want the iPad to come out with less features so Apple can come out with a new version every year. Movie ends with five second credits.