Screenplay vs Script vs Treatment: What’s the Difference?

A screenplay is the complete written version of a film in industry format. Script is a broader word that covers screenplays, teleplays and stage plays. A treatment is a prose summary of the story, written in present tense, used to develop or pitch an idea before or alongside the screenplay.

• Every screenplay is a script, but not every script is a screenplay.
• A treatment tells the story in prose, without dialogue formatting.
• Loglines, synopses and one-pagers are shorter selling tools.

What is a screenplay?

A screenplay is written for the screen in a standard format: scene headings, action, character names and dialogue. A feature screenplay usually runs 90 to 120 pages. The equivalent for television is often called a teleplay.

What is a script?

Script is the everyday word for any written performance text. People say script for films, TV episodes, plays, radio dramas and commercials. In film conversations, screenplay and script are used interchangeably.

What is a treatment?

A treatment tells the whole story in present-tense prose, scene by scene or sequence by sequence. Length varies widely, from a few pages to many more. Writers use treatments to work out a story, and producers use them to evaluate an idea before a script exists.

What about loglines, synopses and one-pagers?

A logline is one or two sentences. A synopsis summarizes the plot in a paragraph to a page. A one-pager adds tone, genre and comparable titles to help sell the project. All of these are shorter than a treatment.

Questions

Do I need a treatment to sell a screenplay?

Not usually. A finished spec script is judged on its pages. Treatments are more common when pitching an idea that is not yet written, or when a producer asks for one.

How long should a treatment be?

There is no standard length. Short treatments of a few pages are common for pitching. Longer ones are used during development.

Related course: The Perfect Pitch & Package