To write the best treatment for your screenplays / To pitch your Nollywood movie scripts to Nollywood producers / Full treatment for movie scripts

A treatment should be about 2 , 3 or more pages in length (depending on either short or feature film) and should tell the story and the details in the script in a summarized form from beginning to end. 

Just don't be afraid! It may not be easy for someone to copy the content in your script after they read your logline/synopsis/treatment. 

Art is so dynamic, and even if anyone developed a story from your logline/synopsis/treatment, it can never be the same with what you have originally. Every art is very unique, and no two arts can ever be the same even if they were from same source.

Without much ado, to present the best treatment for your screenplays, Just take these steps below:

1. State the type of work (movie script, documentary script, TV script or ...?

2. State the target audience (Nollywood, Hollywood, ...?

3. Present the Title and the Genre 

4. Summarize the screenplay

This involves presenting (1) an attractive Log-line and (2) a comprehensible Synopsis; and (3) an expansion of the synopsis into the three act structure. The three act structure has a model:
ACT 1; THE SET UP - the situation, the characters and conflict are introduced
ACT 2: THE CONFLICT - the conflict begins and expands until it reaches a crises
ACT 3: THE RESOLUTION - the crises is resolved

You write a Logline to present the hook in the story, to stimulate interest of the script reader/audience, and to give insight on the synopsis. Read more on Loglines here https://scriptsandpapers.blogspot.com.ng/2016/10/to-write-great-logline-for-your-scripts.html


For the synopsis, you write it to tell the producer what the content of the script is about. It's also to tell him what to expect when he reads the script.

A synopsis is simply a sketchy slight summary of the story in the screenplay.
Read how to write a good movie synopsis here https://scriptsandpapers.blogspot.com.ng/2015/07/a-little-way-to-write-great-synopsis.html

And for the expansion of the Synopsis, you have to observe the three act structure and give a detailed and comprehensible highlights of the events in each of the ACTS.
It should be written in the present tense, showing what the viewer will see on the screen from one scene to the next, describing the action but omitting the dialogue.

It is written in a way that allows the reader to enter far enough into the drama to understand the ways in which the story and characters will be treated, including a vivid sense of the characters' and story's attitudes as well as the movement of the emotional energy and its relationship to what the story is about. 

It's simply a prose narrative that presents the characters and events of a proposed script. And to make it easier for yourself, just observe the 3 ACTS structure. And depending on the length you want your treatment to reach, you can write up to: 

1-3 paragraphs in ACT 1; THE SET UP - the situation, the characters and conflict are introduced
2-6 paragraphs in ACT 2: THE CONFLICT - the conflict begins and expands until it reaches a crises
1-3 paragraphs in ACT 3: THE RESOLUTION - the crises is resolved

Most importantly, tell the story and don't explain it. Make it very active just like the way you wrote the script. The only difference is that it doesn't have the 'dialogues' like the main script.

NOTE: Even if your story is not based on the 3 ACTS structure model as applicable to most amateur scripts, Just make sure you adhere to the other rules about telling the story.
  

5. Review the script
Make a brief review of the script. Tell the producer what the script looks like. Write out the properties. Make a review, or a list of;
(i)the number of pages,
(ii)the possible number of scenes
(iii)the various timings
(iv)the setting
(v)the locations
(vi)the props required
(vii)the gadgets and tools required for the actions

6. Do a brief casting
(i)Write on the characters. Describe their physical and internal features and behaviors.
(ii)State the conditions for the actors that will play the roles
(iii)State the characters needed in most important scenes

7. Include your contact 
Your phone number, your email address and any other important contact

See an example of already written treatment for a screenplay here https://scriptsandpapers.blogspot.com.ng/2016/11/example-of-reviewed-movie-script-for.html



Written by: Winston Oge