If you have ever stared at a blank page, attempting to organize those beautiful flashes of images in your brain into something producers, clients, and crew can rally behind, you will know that nailing a directors treatment template is not Sunday picnic. Imagine this: the email on the ideal job shows up. Send us your therapy, please. Fury. What even implies in terms of this? Calm down. You should have a director’s treatment template. Comparatively yesterday.

Beginning on a cover page Indeed, indeed. Consider it the friendly front door. Slap your project working title in large bold typeface. Add your name, phone number, and a nice still or mood picture. Before you say one word, that initial impression dances before you.

Vision Statement is next. Here is when your point of view helps you to charm socks. Make it striking. Scrape it if it sounds like a sleep and try once more. Clearly, emotionally, and tonally describe what you are looking for. Drop in analogies. “I wish for a summer dream with a lazy breeze and sticky colors.” Show them your feelings. None of buzzwords.

Your paintbrush is look and feel slides. References will help the team to be imaginative. Stills from movies, art, magazine spreads, hand-drawn doodles, anything pops. If you are referencing someone else’s work, give picture credits. Don’t inundate it with images; each image should accentuate your story like muscle on bone.

Talk with attitude about character and casting. These are some persons. If it helps, make real-life comparisons. “Consider a young Frances McDormand endowed with John Boyega’s tenacity.” Talk about their objectives and eccentricities. Some filmmakers leave it vague; others go detailed, calling particular performers names. Your voice.

Sample frames or storyboards really seal the deal. Show how situations might look if you can even draw (even poorly). If you cannot, cobble together reference frames. These are like breadcrumbs guiding everyone throughout the arc of the project.

Technical Approach: Here is where you want to avoid bogging readers down in jargon. “Handheld for intimacy in argument scenes,” says hit key moves. Drone for broad changes in direction. Magic hour’s soft light. If your passion is optics, add a line but avoid overdosing. Recall, a camera handbook is not appropriate at this point.

Tone and mood. Be not timid. Ground the mood with bits from songs, poems, movie quotes. Like the sad hope in the last lyric of a Springsteen song. Show you the texture; avoid only the beats.

Notes of Production. This can be brief: sites you get excited about, probable problems (“We’ll battle sunlight like cowboy wrangling wild horses”), color palette comments, or artistic flourishes you aim to highlight. Don’t hold back on your eccentricities; this lends honesty.

Short, snappy titles with pepper in mind. Use arrows, pull-quotes, or highlighted sentences to break up chunks of material. Not a term paper, a treatment should feel like turning over your creative brain.

Finish with a thank you and phone information. One can go a great distance with a little thanks. Perhaps for the bold a meme.

Remember, your template is not a straitjacket. It serves as a starting point. Your best co-pilot are templates; utilize them, bend them, break them when inspiration strikes. One aims to Make people wish they could see the world through your camera. That is absolutely the secret ingredient in the approach of a terrific director.a