Film treatment

A film treatment (or simply treatment) is a piece of prose, typically the step between scene cards (index cards) and the first draft of a screenplay for a motion picture, television program, or radio play.

Treatments read like a short story, but are told in the present tense and describe events as they happen.

[1] A treatment may also be created in the process of adapting a novel, play, or other pre-existing work into a screenplay.

The original draft treatment is created during the writing process and is generally long and detailed.

[2] It is the full story in its simplest form, moving from the concept, to the theme, to the character, to the detailed synopsis of about four to eight pages of master scenes.