# Director’s Treatment Template > A director’s treatment is the visual pitch for a commercial, music video or film: concept, tone, look, casting, wardrobe and locations. In Soleil Clusters you develop it on a live board with your team, write it as a document with images inline, and export a PDF to send. It is a document, not a designed slide deck. _Source: https://clusters.soleilpictures.com/tools/directors-treatment · Updated 2026-10-02_ Develop the look with your team on a live board, write the treatment as a document with the images inline, and send it as a PDF. ## What a treatment has to do A treatment wins or loses the job before anything is shot. For a commercial it answers a brief the agency already holds; for a music video it sells a world to an artist; for a short or a feature it shows financiers and heads of department the film you can see. Whatever the format, the reader should finish knowing what it will look and feel like — which is why the strongest treatments are mostly images, held together by a few confident paragraphs. ## Build it on a board, with the people who will make it The slow part of a treatment is not the layout; it is agreeing the look. Clusters is an infinite canvas your producer, DP and designer can work in at the same time: select a folder’s references and drag them in together, sort them into clusters for tone, casting, wardrobe and locations, comment on the exact frame, and put a vote card on each option when it comes down to two. Nobody waits for a version to be emailed round. - Live co-editing with cursors and presence - Comments pinned to the frame they are about - Vote cards for when it comes down to two ## Write it as a document, images inline When the look is settled, write the treatment as a Clusters document beside the board. Documents take headings, tables and images inline, and run to as many pages as you need; give each section its own page and the export breaks the PDF there. Export to PDF from the browser’s print dialog, or to HTML or Markdown. The images are embedded in the export, so the file stands on its own. - Headings, tables and inline images - Multi-page documents, a page per section - PDF, HTML and Markdown export ## Share it before it is a PDF Most treatments go through rounds. Send the board itself as a view-only link — no account needed, set to expire after 7 or 30 days — so a producer or an agency can see where it is heading before the document is final. Invite them instead and they can comment on the frames, free. ## What Clusters is not It is not a deck designer. There are no slide templates, no presentation mode, and no branded or password-protected links, and the PDF is a well-set document rather than a magazine spread. If the treatment has to be art-directed page by page, finish the layout in InDesign or Keynote — plenty of directors do the thinking in Clusters and the final pass there. ## The treatment template, section by section 1. **Concept** — One paragraph: what the piece is and why it works. Write it first, at the top of the document. 2. **Tone and references** — The frames, films and photographs that set the feel — gathered on the board, where the team argues them into agreement. 3. **Look and light** — Palette, lensing, light and texture. Sample swatches off any reference image with the eyedropper and keep them beside the frames they came from. 4. **Casting** — Faces and types, with a note on each. Tag each reference as a character so the tag gathers every image of them. 5. **Wardrobe and art direction** — Silhouettes, fabrics, sets and props, each in its own nested cluster so each department can work in theirs. 6. **Locations** — Scout photos and found references, a cluster per setting. 7. **Edit, music and pace** — How it moves: reference clips as video cards, tracks as audio cards, and the rhythm you are after. 8. **Export and send** — Lay the chosen images into the document, a page per section, and export a PDF from the browser’s print dialog. ## What it costs Start free. Pay when you outgrow it. **Free — $0 forever** - **50 cards** to build with - No separate limit on clusters — each one counts as one of your cards - Free collaboration — invite editors to any cluster **Creator — $25/mo, or $20/mo billed annually** - Unlimited cards - Any file type - No size limits, on a 100GB drive One Creator plan covers the whole workspace — everyone you invite builds at your limits, and there are no per-seat charges. Compare the plans side by side: https://clusters.soleilpictures.com/pricing ## Frequently asked questions ### What should a director’s treatment include? Concept; tone and references; look and lighting; casting; wardrobe and art direction; locations; and edit, music and pace — usually in that order, mostly images, with a short paragraph per section. The outline above works as a template. ### How long should a treatment be? As long as it takes to make the look unmistakable, and no longer — the reader is deciding quickly. Most of the length should be images, with the writing kept to what the pictures cannot say. ### Can I export a treatment as a PDF? Yes. Write it as a Clusters document with the images inline and export to PDF from the browser’s print dialog; the images are embedded, so the file stands alone. HTML and Markdown exports are there too. ### Can my producer and DP work on it with me? Yes. Invite them as editors — free on every plan — and you work in the same board at once. A view-only link shows it to anyone else without an account. ### Is there a music video treatment template? The same structure works: concept, world and look, performance and casting, wardrobe, locations, and edit and music. Music video treatments lean harder on reference clips, and Clusters boards hold video and audio cards beside the stills. ### Is it free? Free for 50 cards — each cluster counts as one — with free editors. Image-heavy treatments can outgrow that; Creator removes the cap for the whole workspace. See “What it costs” on this page.