Treatments
Treatments are the blueprint for your screenplay. Many people in the industry want to read a treatment before they request a look at your script. Therefore, it is important that you outline your story as clear, organized, and true to tone and feel as possible. Treatments are common practice in the industry. Like every other form of writing, they follow a unique set of rules and guidelines.
A treatment usually runs anywhere from one to twenty-five pages. It lays out plot, characters, arcs, acts, scenes and all other relevant elements of dramatic structure.
If you’ve already written a treatment, but want an outside opinion, you may choose from several options:
First-Look Analysis
500 words minimum analyzing your treatment according to the elements of dramatic structure, pointing out strengths and areas in need of improvement.
Fee: $5 per page, with a 3 page minimum
Basic Package
1,000 words minimum analyzing your treatment according to the elements of dramatic structure, pointing out strengths and areas in need of improvement.
Basic editorial, formatting, and copyediting suggestions, as well as budgetary and marketability considerations.
Fee: $7 per page, with a 3 page minimum
In-Depth Analysis
Provides a comprehensive look at all aspects of your treatment: elements of dramatic structure, organization, word choice, transitions, overall fluency, grammar, clichés, factual inaccuracies, and more.
Editorial suggestions are substantive, elevating your treatment to a high level of coherence and marketability.
If applicable, viewing or reading suggestions of movies, scripts and other dramatic work, or sections thereof, will be provided and explained as to their relevance to your work.
Longer treatments receive accordingly longer analyses.
In addition to the written analysis, the copy of your treatment will be returned to you with handwritten notes in the margin.
Fee: $10 per page, with a three page minimum
If you want to add a line-by-line proofread, there will be an additional charge of $2.50 per page.
Line-by-Line Proofread
If you're comfortable with your structure, but need a second pair of eyes to catch editorial details and mistakes, a line-by-line proofread might be best for you.
A line-by-line proofread offers a substantive editorial look at your treatment, focussing on grammar, word choice, punctuation, suggestions with regards to organization, coherence, confusing statements, gaps, more effective ways of presentation, as well as general comments on content and overall use of structure.
There will be no written analysis. Suggestions will be written by hand in the margins of your treatment.
Please include 2 copies of your treatment. Both will be returned to you by mail.
Fee: $8 per page, with a three page minimum
Ongoing Analysis
We all overlook mistakes, but industry people don’t credit our potential. They judge what’s on the page, and if the quality of your treatment isn’t up to industry standards, it will more likely than not end up in someone’s trash bin.
If you’re looking for an outside voice to guide you through your process of writing and reshaping your treatment until it's at its best, Ongoing Analysis is the right option for you.
1. Start off with the Basic Package:
1,000 words minimum analyzing your treatment according to the elements of dramatic structure, pointing out strengths and areas in need of improvement.
Basic editorial, formatting, and copyediting suggestions, as well as budgetary and marketability considerations.
Fee: $7 per page, with a 3 page minimum
2. Then hand in a rewrite. You may choose from one of two options:
Basic Option: You mail in each fully revised treatment and receive a one-time analysis, pointing out strengths and areas that might still be in need of improvement.
Fee: $5 per page
Ongoing Option: You mail or email me revised sections of your treatment, or sections that you are planning to revise. We will engage in an ongoing email exchange during which I will guide you through the process of reshaping your work.
Fee: $8 per page
For general questions, you might want to consider the Phone Consultation option.
Phone Consultation
Talk about your material, ideas, and questions at any given point – while you’re in the middle of writing, before you’ve even begun, or after you’ve finished.
Consultations will be charged in ten-minute increments.
Please email wordshop@mac.com to schedule an appointment.
Fee: $10 per ten-minute increment*
*If we talk less than a full ten minutes, you will still be charged for a ten-minute increment.
Content of consultations is strictly limited to questions regarding elements of story. No inquiries about industry contacts, please.
Treatments from Scratch
Writing a treatment from scratch for somebody else is a very complex process during which we need to get clear on all aspects of the story you want to tell.
Since this process is so elaborate, fees are accordingly high. In order to justify my fees, I’m posting the current official guidelines for minimum rates issued by the Writers Guild of America:
http://www.wga.org/minimums/index.html
Go to Theatrical Compensation and see F and G for treatment rates.
My rates will be at least 15% lower than the WGA rates, depending on the complexity of your project.
For a free estimate, please send me a logline and synopsis of your project, an outline of the stage of development it’s currently in, as well as your bio and, preferably, an email address I can contact you at. A phone number is ok too.
Once everything is clarified, I will give you a quote.
Please mail your request to:
A Writer'sWordShop
WordShop, Inc.
PO Box 15939
San Francisco , CA 94115
For general questions you may contact us at: A Writers WordShop