Treatments

Treatment Submissions

Call for Treatments: British Academy/De Montfort University/Jones Bamber Productions

We seek 600-word short film treatments. 

Please send your treatment/s by 30 June 2022 for the first round of productions

Selected writer/s will be invited to write their full screenplay for which they will be paid. We have funding to make one or two short films (from 6 to 20 minutes). 

Writers must self-identify as being disabled and/or with mental health problems. Please see FAQs below. Any further questions and treatments to contact@evolutionfilm.org.

FAQs
  • What is a treatment? A treatment is a plot point by plot point present tense of what is happening in a film, written in the present tense. (For example: Jignesh enters a Leicester City centre shop and lies down on the floor. The police arrive. Without getting up Jignesh explains this is not a political protest but part of a performance art project.). Please see pages 49 to 53 of The Psychology of Screenwriting (London: Bloomsbury, 2014) by Jason Lee for a good example.
  • What format shall I use? Please send a PDF or WORD document in Times New Roman 12.
  • Does the subject of the story matter? Anything you like, but please remember the remit of this project is to offer work to those disabled and/or with mental health problems both above and below the line.
  • Any specific number of characters? Remember to make your film realisable, as always less is more, 3 main characters is good.
  • Any location? We do not have a huge budget (re hiring locations, buildings, or to build sets and so on), so always keep this in mind.
  • Shall I send anything else? Again, less is more. As well as your treatment, please submit a short premise (under 55 words), logline, and three or four sentence bio-note.
  • How will these be selected? Experts on the steering committee for this grant will assess the treatments mainly in terms of 1. Story, 2. Realisability/Cost. 
  • What is the payment for the final screenplay/s? Currently £750 each for a film that can be shot over 3 days with 2 days rehearsals, but this may change depending on the types of treatments we receive.
This is part of a British Academy Innovation Fellowship between Professor Jason Lee, De Montfort University, and Terry Bamber, of Jones Bamber Productions.