Creating a Treatment

While Rabiger's book on Directing the Documentary is comprehensive in most areas, it has limited information on the creation of treatments for a documentary film. The book focuses on do's and don'ts for treatments, and alot of information in key bullet points, rather than discussing the subject in depth.

An introduction to documentary production discusses treatments in alot more detail - the book emphasises the need for detail in a treatment.

The treatment should be between 4-8 pages, and should contain an introductory synopsis and a detailed description of each section of the project. "There must be evidence of thorough research: names, locations, descriptions, actions and historic references which bring the content of the project to life."

The text also points out that all writing must be in the present tense, and that the opening sequence, transitions and conclusions should be "clearly and vividly articulated"

Another function for doing creating a highly detailed treatment is to "peg down your narrative structure", forcing the director to visualise the film in great detail before production takes place.