Music Video Production
How to Write a Music Video Treatment (With a Template)
A music video treatment is a short written pitch (usually 1 to 3 pages) that turns your song into a visual plan a director can actually shoot. It answers 3 things fast: what the video looks like, what happens in it, and why that fits the track. Get it right and your first meeting with a crew stops being a vague chat about vibes and becomes a costed, bookable shoot. Get it wrong and you burn a day (and money) discovering you and the director imagined 2 completely different videos. This guide gives you the exact structure we use when artists bring us a song in Adelaide, a fill-in template you can copy, and a worked example so you can see it come together. You do not need film-school language. You need to be specific.
Key takeaway
A strong music video treatment is short, specific and visual: 1 to 3 pages that lock in a single concept, a clear look, a beat-by-beat of what happens on screen, and the practical constraints (budget band, locations, timeline). Write it in plain words, put your one big idea up front, and it becomes the brief your director quotes from.
What a music video treatment actually is (and what it is not)
A treatment is a sales document and a blueprint at once. It sells your idea to whoever needs to approve or fund it, and it briefs the crew who will build it. It is not a shot list (that is the director's job later), it is not a full script, and it is not a mood board on its own. A mood board shows the feeling; a treatment explains what happens and why.
Keep it to 1 to 3 pages. A director reads dozens of these, and a bloated 8-page essay signals you have not decided what the video is. The discipline of cutting it down forces you to commit to one concept instead of hedging across 5.
One rule above all others: be concrete. "Moody and cinematic" tells a director nothing, because every artist says it. "Single take following the singer walking backwards through a wet Adelaide laneway at night, neon reflected in the puddles, no cuts" tells them the look, the location, the technical approach and the budget all at once.
The 8 sections every music video treatment needs
Here is the structure we hand artists. Work through it in order and you will have covered everything a crew needs to quote accurately.
1. Song and artist basics. Track title, artist name, genre, BPM or feel, and the exact runtime. Runtime drives cost more than almost anything else.
2. The one-line concept. Your whole idea in a single sentence. If you cannot get it to one line, it is not one idea yet.
3. The look and tone. Colour palette, lighting, day or night, film or clean digital, aspect ratio. Reference 2 or 3 existing videos and say what specifically you want from each (the colour grade from one, the camera movement from another), not just "like this whole video".
4. The narrative or performance structure. What actually happens on screen, front to back. Most videos are performance-led (the artist performing), narrative-led (a story), or a blend. Say which, and roughly how the song's sections map to it.
5. Locations. Where it is shot. Be realistic about access. A rooftop at golden hour, a warehouse, a beach at Semaphore, a friend's living room: each carries a very different cost and permit reality.
6. Cast and wardrobe. Who is on camera beyond the artist, and what they wear.
7. Key visual moments. The 2 or 3 shots that have to land: the hook moment, the drop, the final image. Directors design the whole shoot around these.
8. The practical box. Budget band, shoot timeline, delivery deadline, and where it needs to run (Instagram Reels crop, YouTube, TV). This section is where most treatments are silent, and it is the one crews most want filled in.
The fill-in music video treatment template
Copy this, replace the prompts in brackets, and you have a director-ready document. Keep your answers tight.
TITLE: [Song] by [Artist] - Video Treatment
THE TRACK: [Genre], [runtime], [BPM or overall feel]. Release date: [date].
CONCEPT (one line): [Your entire idea in a single sentence.]
LOOK AND TONE: [Palette, e.g. warm amber and deep teal]. [Day or night]. [Grain and filmic, or clean and sharp]. Aspect ratio: [e.g. 2.39:1 widescreen]. References: [Video 1 - what you want from it]. [Video 2 - what you want from it].
STRUCTURE: [Performance, narrative, or blend]. Verse 1: [what we see]. Chorus: [what we see]. Verse 2: [what we see]. Bridge/drop: [what we see]. Outro: [final image].
LOCATIONS: [Location 1]. [Location 2]. Access notes: [owned, need permission, public space].
CAST AND WARDROBE: [Who is on screen]. [What they wear].
KEY MOMENTS: 1. [The must-have shot]. 2. [The second]. 3. [The final frame].
PRACTICAL: Budget band: [range]. Shoot days: [number]. Deadline: [date]. Delivery: [16:9 YouTube plus 9:16 vertical cut-down, etc.].
That is the whole thing. If you can fill every line honestly, you have a treatment a director can price the same day.
A worked example
Here is the template filled in for an invented indie-pop single, so you can see the level of detail that makes it useful.
THE TRACK: Indie-pop, 3 minutes 24, mid-tempo and wistful. Release: late spring.
CONCEPT: The singer drives around Adelaide alone all night and slowly fills the passenger seat with people from her past, each appearing for one line before vanishing.
LOOK AND TONE: Sodium-orange streetlights against cold blue night. Night throughout. Slightly grainy, shot on a filmic profile. 2.39:1 widescreen. References: the interior car lighting from one well-known night-drive video, the slow push-in framing from another.
STRUCTURE: Performance and narrative blend. Verse 1: her alone, driving, lip-syncing to the mirror. Chorus 1: first passenger appears mid-line, gone by the next. Verse 2: streets get emptier, more passengers cycle through. Bridge: the car stops at a lookout over the city lights, seat now empty again. Outro: she drives off at dawn, first light hitting the windscreen.
LOCATIONS: Adelaide CBD streets after midnight, and a hills lookout for the bridge. Access: public roads (low-traffic late-night windows), lookout is public.
CAST AND WARDROBE: Artist plus 4 non-speaking passengers in everyday clothes that hint at different eras of her life.
KEY MOMENTS: 1. First passenger materialising mid-chorus. 2. The empty-seat reveal at the lookout. 3. Dawn light on the final drive-off.
PRACTICAL: Budget band stated as a range. 1 night shoot plus a short pre-dawn pickup. Delivery: 16:9 master plus a 9:16 vertical cut for socials.
Notice there is not a single piece of jargon in there. Every line is a decision a crew can act on and cost.
How the treatment changes your first meeting with a crew
When you arrive with a treatment this specific, the conversation skips the guesswork. A director can tell you on the spot whether your night-drive idea fits your budget, which of your key moments will eat the most time, and where a smarter location saves you a permit headache. That is the point of writing it: it moves you from "I want something cinematic" to a bookable plan.
It also protects you. The treatment becomes the shared reference both sides agree to, so on shoot day nobody is improvising a different video. If a scene has to change for weather or access, you are both adjusting from the same document rather than starting an argument.
At JLM Studios we shoot music videos across Adelaide and within 100km of the CBD (and travel further when a project calls for it), and the artists who bring even a rough treatment always get a sharper quote and a smoother shoot. Founder Jason Mildwaters has been behind the camera on music videos for artists including Jessica Mauboy, Taylor Henderson, Nathaniel and Dino Jag, so if you have a song and half a concept, send the treatment through and we will tell you honestly what it takes to make it real.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a music video treatment be?
1 to 3 pages. Anything longer usually means the concept has not been narrowed to a single idea yet. Directors read a lot of these, so a tight, specific 2-pager lands far better than a sprawling essay. If you are struggling to cut it down, the fix is almost always to commit to one concept instead of hedging across several.
Do I need a mood board as well as a treatment?
They do different jobs, and together they are stronger. A mood board shows the feeling (colours, textures, reference frames) while the treatment explains what actually happens and why it fits the song. If you can only do one, do the treatment, because it carries the plan a crew quotes from. A mood board on its own leaves the director guessing at the story.
What if I cannot write the story part because my video is just performance?
That is completely normal and common. In your structure section, simply say the video is performance-led and describe how the look and the camera evolve across the song instead of a plot: where the energy lifts, when you cut to a different setup, what the final frame is. A performance video still needs decisions about location, lighting and key moments, and those are exactly what the treatment captures.
Can the director change my treatment after I hand it over?
Yes, and a good one will suggest improvements. Your treatment is the starting brief, not a locked contract for every shot. An experienced crew will flag where an idea is too expensive, where a location will not work, or where a better shot exists, then adjust with you. The treatment's real value is that any changes are discussed against a shared plan rather than invented on the day.