David Gray sticks the knife to treatments

The process of treatment creation in the commercial production scene seems to be viewed as a necessary evil; one that no one on either side appears to enjoy or care about, yet needs to be given the utmost attention.

For Suppy&Demand director David Gray's latest short, the whole thing is given a Surgical Treatment - a wittily written breakdown that details the bells and whistles needed to keep PDFs a-churning.

The concept of the film came from a conversation between Gray and a neurosurgeon at a dinner party. “He was asking me about the latest thing I was working on,” Gray recalled. “It’s funny, people outside of our business are very curious about it. I explained that I was working on a treatment for a project that I was pitching on and outlined the process. He was amazed by the energy and effort that goes into it, and how different it is from his world. 

"That was the impetus. I immediately thought, ‘What if he had to go through the process that we all go through as directors, producers, creatives, and clients on every project?’ So I started writing.”

Whilst not all treatment writing need be so laborious - *cough cough* check out shots Treatments, your all-in-one app that makes pulling media, writing copy and creating stunning layouts a dream - this cheeky rebuff to the bane of many a director's lives will find a very agreeable audience in the industry.