The Film Directors Treatment.

Over the last few years it has become more and more common place to have a fully fleshed out directors treatment when pitching to direct movies. This will include lots of photographs and a breakdown of how you see the locations looking, framing, lenses, colors, set decoration etc. It’s a way for executives and financiers to really understand how you are going to bring the story to the screen. Some executives love it. Some push it off to the side and just want to talk story. But, for me, it is something that really helps get deep within the story and show executives that I have a unique voice.
So, my job today, once I’ve finished writing this blog is to put together my preliminary board for the Errol Flynn movie. Corey Large, the lead producer, has already given me the job as he loves FAKERS, but we need something extra to give the financiers to ensure they sign on the dotted line.

For me this is the start of a larger book that will go to all HoD’s (Heads of Department) once we begin pre-production. It’s something that all creative’s can come back to in order to get a grounding in how we are telling this story together.

I first got to see directors pitches when I was working at @Radical. One of the worlds leading commercial companies. Most directors, or someone at the company, would prepare a look book for the advertising agency to show why ‘x’ director should get the job. They looked AMAZING and went into a lot of detail - which of course when you are only dealing with 30-60 seconds is really important. It was here that I also got to see my first mood video. We put this together for Terry Gilliam for a Nike commercial. Terry didn’t really understand how the game of football worked so needed something to get him into the whole mood of the sport. Here is the finished spot:

In more recent years I’ve heard of more and more directors putting together mood videos for feature films. One such director recently hired an extremely talented and visual director friend of mine to help him work on it. This friend of mine worked alongside the big director and two professional editors to cut a trailer of the movie using pre-existing movie clips. Now, this is a very expensive thing to do. All those salaries AND the edit suites!!! I’m guessing that it must have run to at least $10,000. But when you are asking for a studio to trust you with $130,000,000 they need to feel really confident in what you are proposing.

The only thing with using footage and photographs from existing movies is that you can look at if you are trying to rip off older movies and some may question if you are bringing anything original to the table. It’s a tough one! Anyway I’m procrastinating enough. I should get on with my own directors treatment. Next week, providing the producers agree, I’ll post a link to what we sent out to our financiers.

Until then, feel free to ask questions and make comments below. And please, give me a dig using the ‘Dig’ icon at the top of the blog

Have a great week.