Back in the summer, member photographer Kathryn Gamble had the opportunity to bid for a large beverage company’s latest campaign. All she needed was an estimate and a treatment, but there was one catch: Kathryn needed these materials ASAP. With little time to spare, the Iowa-based photographer turned to Wonderful Machine to get everything together; I had the pleasure of constructing an organized, artfully-designed treatment that showed off her skills.
For those who aren’t familiar, a treatment is a quick but detailed presentation of how a photographer operates. It covers things like how the photog runs a shoot, works with crew members, and — nowadays — meets COVID safety standards. It’s also an opportunity to show examples of what the client can expect. Attaching a treatment to your project estimate gives you a concise yet substantive rundown and can set you apart from fellow bidders.
For this campaign, the client needed lifestyle photos of people socializing with drinks in hand. Kathryn has plenty of experience in this field and work to choose from, so it was just about pairing the right imagery with the right text. We started with a simple title page consisting of Kathryn’s logo, the name of the campaign, the anticipated shoot dates, and client logos. Like a cover letter, it’s important to make the treatment specific to your client.
To balance out the simplicity of the intro — and add some attention-grabbing pizazz — we put a beautiful, full-bleed lifestyle image on the next page. It was then time to dive into the info! We started with an introduction, which I put next to a simple vertical shot of a couple by a grill, as if they were saying “welcome, and grab a seat!” to the viewer.
Next, Kathryn explained how she sets the scene, which naturally works well with location-based photos. Her casting section described how she works with talent — this part went nicely alongside some lively photos of light-hearted moments.
The photographer wraps up by introducing her team and going over her COVID strategy. These pages were more information-heavy, so we decided to just have text on them. After throwing in a few more full-bleed, image-based pages on the back end, we had a well-structured, simple-yet-effective emailer template.
As I mentioned before, we had no time to waste. With the help of our producer Bryan Sheffield — and thanks to great overall communication — we put this treatment together in less than a day! Who can say record time?
To learn more about the process of putting together a treatment, read our Expert Advice article on the subject.
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