Outside of your existing portfolio, , treatments are without a doubt THE most important thing on the path , to winning a job for a director! My name's Scott, a director and sometimes . cinematographer based out of London England, and I started this year thinking . "my treatments could be better", so I spent time talking to bigger and , better directors than myself asking them how they approach writing treatments. First up channel favourite, a good friend of mine, and incredibly talented commercial director Tom Brown tells us why treatments are so important. The thing is, this deck is the first thing that a agency and then a client sees that is sort of their insurance that you're going to safeguard their brand and if you're basically giving them back exactly what they wanted with nicer images that move and you've got a cohesive sense of what you're trying to achieve, . they're going to be able to say "you know what, this really feels right, this really feels like . us" and if you haven't done that or you haven't had time to do that then it's much easier for them , to kind of dismiss you and be like "you know what, I think maybe that other guy did it", because you're always in competition aren't you? Yeah. At worst it's you versus 10 directors, at best . it's you versus two other directors it's a fight you're really trying to get in there and leave as good an impression as possible and sometimes it doesn't work because they just want another . director because they're more famous or higher profile but I think to give yourself the . best chance yeah you have to kind of like go pretty hard on treatments treatments can differ , depending on the type of job that you're pitching pitching this is a much bigger topic than any one YouTube video so for now we're just going to focus on Commercial treatments because that's why I'm spending most of my time these days and that's where I can always do to improve there's . no set one way to approach them and you'll see in this video just how different directors with different styles approach jobs in different ways hello director and YouTube educator niaz has . created beautiful work for huge Brands like Samsung and Coca-Cola from an outrageously early age because of just how quickly and proficiently is grasped his approach to treatment writing , I try to think of it like as if I was speaking to a real person if he was going to tell me that out loud how would I respond to that in like the shortest form possible like in five minutes or so . and then I try and record that on with my voice memos on my phone and it takes me like a day . to put it out and make a Google doc and inside that Google doc I have all of my key points that I want to talk about I basically reiterate what they were telling me in the first paragraph and then I started going through my regular structure I start with the intro and then approach I talk a little bit about characters I break it down into casting like how when I approach my casting and that then , seamlessly transitions into all elements of visual inside my commercial the way I start writing a , treatment is I will open up a slides document because I find it easier to think of things in . terms of the pages they're going to be in the treatment and so I will always start with an intro . and do a very very short synopsis of the idea and say hey we like this idea this is what I'd like . to do with it and basically explain how the ad is going to go elevator pitch style then I'll move on and do what I could call a full script breakdown so I will take every beat of the action and . basically like describe it in as much detail as possible and each beat will get an entire page in , the treatment and I find when I do that it allows the client slash agency slash whoever's reading it to be able to kind of visualize it easier because I think sometimes you like you know when you're , just describing things to people they go yeah yeah oh it sounds really cool and then you get off . the call and they go I have no idea what he was talking about I also caught up with talented music video and Commercial director Ebenezer Blanche who I had the pleasure of working alongside , on a campaign earlier this year Ebbs likes to test the waters on the briefing call to help him , get ahead when the pitch comes in I'll read what they're trying to do and if this Sparks any ideas or articulate those ideas on the call and see if they like it when you don't at least I know okay they don't like that I've got to take it in a different direction so it's more of a part of . like just testing the water and seeing what kind of Direction you want to go into and obviously . being on a call with her in the first time it's your chance to do that you know so I think that kind of gives you a Competitive Edge I think one of the most important things like that you can . do to yourself before even starting to write your first sentences or words I think it's recording , the briefing call some people don't even get the chance to attend the briefing College they only get the brief the PDF the little PDF and they read that and that's it that's all the information , they get but I think like I always insist on having a call with the agency because like during that call you can get a lot of extra information like you can hear the subtext you can hear the things that are not spoken about that will help you a lot during the writing process . other than trying to get across your ideas and approach the main purpose of writing a treatment , from your point of view is to win the job you need to try and stand out from the competition do you yourself up in the treatment for me that's the intro page and I try and make it not really . obvious but but I tried to get my personality across the first patient and I try my best to describe why I can relate to this brief why it can relate to the idea being stated yeah I think it's important you know because I think that's what makes it you that's what makes it authentic , to me anyway I think that's what gives my Edge my advantage on winning the job you know of my finger , plays quite diverse life in different countries some quite Multicultural and always try to bring . that element to my work you know if the creative is a story about a a young dude who's coming back . from a party I try and write at least like three or four sentences about how I had the similar situation in my life and how I felt for instance being safe inside that Uber seeing the rating . seeing the the positive reviews and stuff like that and that's why I am the human I am the one . to direct this because I know what it feels like and what the audience has to see when they watch ,

the commercial from the briefing call you gauge how much this creative means to them and then you kind of even if you don't feel it you've got to find a way to insert yourself to make it sound like you do it absolutely yeah that's true I've said it before and I'm saying it again , imagery is so important when trying to bring your ideas to life on the page I spoke about a bunch of different image resources in a previous video here which you should definitely watch . next but if you're looking for a quick and easy resource for commercial work you should head to frame set and use the code Scott Peters at checkout the 10 off your subscription . I'll leave a link in the description below if you've previously built up a strong enough body of work and managed it yourself on the roster of one of the big dogs like Ebbs the director wrapped . by a large Global Production Company with a pool of resources who really want him to win that job . so in turn they win the work you can get a helping hand they help a lot of my treatments as , well I started with my ideas and my text and then I get like an image researcher that pulls images for me and I need to pick out that and I sometimes I also add my own images that I find really cool so yeah man obviously I've been asked the products of being assigned to a very big production company , it's been great man so I don't have to like do everything myself you don't have to be signed to one of the big dogs to get this sort of helping hand but you will need money there are companies . online that offer their services to both write and do the image research for you period researcher , you haven't won the job at this point so you're paying someone to help you with your treatment if . you're gambling obviously you take a calculated risk and you think do I have a good chance of , being able to get this job have I had a good first call with the creatives and the agency does . it feel like you know we're on a like we're on a kind of like good road so maybe having a chance , of getting it like you know if you have a first call you probably wouldn't hire an image research you'd probably do it yourself uh whereas if you think oh look I've had a really good first call I think I'm going to hire an image researcher and really try and nail this treatment so that we can get a job I think all of your expenditure needs to be calculated against the percentage chance of you , getting the job which sounds very clinical but it kind of has to be otherwise you know you're going . to run out of money really quickly because people hiring other people to write a treatment surely that's the whole point about being a director is I've definitely used treatment writers in the . past and but what I normally do is it generally for jobs where I don't have time to write the , treatments I really prefer doing everything by myself because I really like having that control authentically me started finish but uh sometimes I'm pressed for a time and like there's there's , no other way and production they offer help with this sometimes but sometimes they don't and so I reach out to my own ghostwriters once I have my briefing call recorded I send that immediately . so she or he can have a listen and get a sense of what the clients want so I'll do the same thing . I do normally and I'll go through every page and I'll put out the page and I'll just basically . bullet point what I once said on the pages I normally write a very short description of what . my Approach and my idea is and then we jump on a call and then I explain everything then he or she like bounces back the ideas and sometimes they have really really nice references really nice short films or films in mind that they can reference me back to then he or she starts . writing and I provide my structure my treatment structure that's what they follow and they make . me a Google doc and then I review I rewrite some of the parts the text is the part that I really . hate the most because I know that I have ideas but articulating them is is a real challenge for me the only thing I found in treatment writers is I have like a favorite guy who I go back . to all the time who I work with a lot but I find when I work with other people I tend to then . rewrite what they've written so it actually costs me more time in the end so I've started now to . kind of really sort of not do that anymore and I tend to just try and write them myself because it's quicker in the end then after that's done I send that text to the visual researcher slash . designer and typically it's the same person she or he starts looking for images there's usually a Google drive folder where they collect and label everything and so I have different folders for . different scenes and that's when I like I like this image I don't like this image like let's get rid of that but let's keep these like these are good and then they make a layout and that's . it postural standard static reference imagery something that I often find eye-catching when . looking at treatments is the less humble GIF opinion on this is divided though depending on , who you're dealing with here's both sides of the argument so you can think about it for yourself , we work in a visual medium and every idea is just an amalgamation of other ideas and if you can , literally go and take little clips of those ideas and put them together you can go basically it's going to look like this plus this plus this and I think gifs are usually the best way to do that , also repetition is very powerful so when you're trying to communicate an idea to somebody if you , can use gifts and they whilst you're talking even on the phone and they're looking at it and the , same idea is repeating repeating repeating then of course when you finish talking they're like yep I totally understand what's going to happen if I let this guy do this commercial I still don't , have a very strong opinion on gifts because I think images for the most part not always for the . most part can resonate much better with the reader because gifs kind of is distracting a lot of the , times you are looking at the text and then you are looking at the gifts that's in the background I find it jarring the only place I think where it might be a good option to use a gif is when . you have a really complicated camera movement maybe like a good resolution halfway is that if . you're going to include them it's just an image reference page rather than having it alongside . any of the information how do you publish them well that's the only thing I don't like yeah , Google Slides the Tom does it through InDesign as a viewer watching this trying to learn from this video it's quite frustrating because there's not one right answer to the exactly yeah and it's . the same with so many things well you could do this but you could also do that which one's ,

the right one you're not gonna know I've always struggled with the concept of spending . time working hard on a treatment that you may very well not actually win the job of I'd be , annoyed and frustrated looking at it as just wasted unpaid time rather than an opportunity to . develop and improve my treatment writing or even Bank ideas for development on future projects in the past I've spent a couple of hours I've also spent a couple of days a couple of days ones . tend to have either high stakes so I'm just more engaged in the concept but how long do you think you need to spend on a pitch winning treatment the good treatment containing two weeks go away . get some inspiration come back continue writing so and so I like to procrastinate a lot as well , I'd like to leave things last minute usually what I say to my agent is I need at least five . days to put together a treatment because for me it has to be that at least this level of detail and if it is in this level of detail I feel like I won't be comfortable with it and so how will . the client slash agency be comfortable hiring me to do the job sometimes in our line of work you get a job which maybe isn't the most inspiring thing so I have to sort of figure out my angle on this particular thing whether it be gum or washing machine detergent which makes me feel like it's cool and worth doing and sometimes that takes me like a couple of days so to me I think if I , feel like I can find an angle on the job that's going to make me be able to write about it in . a way that feels like I'm genuinely excited and genuinely interested to do it then I'll pitch on . it and I will yeah probably spend extra time just getting it to where I want it for me personally I . would always try and go the extra mile if you can spare the time and it's not costing you too much to do okay a briefs come in today 11 o'clock on a Monday are you working on it until you need to at 11 o'clock at night or are you working until five o'clock six o'clock all right I'm happy family time now and I'm gonna carry on working tomorrow I put a lot of effort to like protect my evenings for mornings I have like the gym stuff like that then I have the work day and typically like . by five PM or 30 p.m something like that I am done like I know that any more work from this . point onwards is going to be like detrimental and it's gonna take away from the tomorrow's . bulk of work I try to keep the balance there very time consuming task that can be tricky to . master for a lot of people is the design layout of a treatment over the past year I've created a collection of different styles of beautiful drag and drop templates for fellow directors . to easily customize for their own treatments these time saving templates are now available , to purchase in my online store so I'll leave a link in the description for anyone looking to . Fast Track to great looking treatments now that you've seen some of the work throughout this video of these awesome directors what would you think that their win ratio is surely guys would work , like this must be winning all the time I think my win rate is maybe 25 30 which I think it's pretty good like I lose a lot but I also I also get John's two or three out of five every seventh , or eighth treatment I win they see how many jobs have you had like three jobs so far considering , that in May I took a pause I won four okay I mean that's pretty good that's basically a double month . because Daniel doesn't count yeah but it was also my most busiest year with the treatment writings like I wrote the most this year like I haven't written nearly as much last year but you won more last year if you take the ratio I'd walk last year on average it was like every third or every fourth . treatment something like that in the last year yeah regardless of whether you want it or not how many days of or weeks of your time rather have you spent Dairy treatments roughly by the look of my . list it's about 95 hours five to five hours sorry no 95 days 95 days yeah because it's five days on , every treatment so last year a third of your life was spent on treatments absolutely yeah and you're saying out of those a third of them you won yeah yeah maybe not maybe 20 25 so straight away this is a rather than totally talking about but was not relevant but like when people hit day rates yes like 10 grand a day is a load of money yeah it's crazy the 95 days that he worked for free like . yeah oh no not at all and then add on all the days that I do post for free and meetings for free , and going to castings and like sitting me in a you know in a casting Room free and getting covered and figuring out how I'm gonna you know it's uh yeah our remuneration is is ridiculous when we . win when we lose our remuneration is nothing I'm not trying to be discouraging by sharing . this information with you I just think it's important that people know that it's not always , high paying portfolio worthy jobs all the time in fact most of the time much like the craft of acting there's a lot of risk and rejection that comes to being a director like many of the . other roles in the industry too I've tried my best in this video to share with you all the things that I've learned in order to write a great treatment but what is that one thing that . you need to write a pitch winning treatment you just never know it's uh it can it can come down to so many different factors but I think for me I just have to feel comfortable with it and . as long as I feel comfortable that I've put in everything I possibly can and been as accurate , and engaging uh as I can be uh in prints then you know I'm happy to lose a job because I'm like , well I couldn't have done any better than I than I've done it I was like you know like that was absolutely the best I could have possibly done in terms of explaining a pitch um and yeah then I . can walk away from the happy whereas I think if I do less and I lose the job I can never get it out of my head that I might have uh won it if I'd have just done an extra page here or there , there's no real one true sense of how this whole thing works this treatment log no just one way to do it everyone's doing things slightly differently but the more you know about how others approach , things then at least you can start to navigate it and find out what works best for you please , give this video a like if you found any of this helpful leave a comment to let me know if there's , any other topics that you'd like me to discuss with industry professionals watch this playlist for some great rarely discussed industry topics and make sure to subscribe for more some couple tips and interesting insider industry knowledge.,

Unlocking the Secrets: Where to Start Creating a Winning Treatment