How do your characters handle conflict?

But before I go back to characters… LOL.

A big thanks to those of you posting links to articles at Screenwriting Scoop!

Almost 4,000 unique visitors so far and the tracker has some pretty impressive internet connections taking a look but I want to thank everyone for checking it out… I hope it doesn’t take ANYTHING away from your writing. By the way, if you can think of a category we might need, just let me know.

And to answer the 20 plus emails to those of you who keep wondering what my ulterior motive is for tossing up the site…

There isn’t any.

Geez. I don’t need money. I’m not selling anything. So suspicious! But that’s okay… I still thank you for the thought… LOL.

Kay. I’ve been up all night on this rewrite and I really don’t have time for a huge post but while I’ve been working, I keep wondering about the things my characters keep doing… Some surprise me… Some don’t. The ones that don’t are because these are the things I want my characters to do.

By the way… Let me get a little off track… Great stuff in the Scribosphere lately and a lot being blogged about on characters! Love seeing that!

Real quick before I head back to rewrite Hell…

I have a word processing document that I add to every so often when one of my characters handles conflict in a new way than any of my characters have handled it before…

Some of you might think it’s kinda stupid… If so, please feel free to stop reading. LOL.

On the other hand, I thought it might actually be of some help to those of you that just can’t get your characters out of BORING MODE.

The following list is by no means exhaustive… Please feel free to add your own to the comments section… I think we can all benefit from different perspectives.

One of the things that I’ve done with MY list is to develop it into OUTLINE style. This makes it real easy for me to add new bullets under specific headings or categories.

What I like about having a list at hand is that every once in a while, you get stuck, right? Okay, maybe not. I sure as hell do — and when I do, I like breaking out my list because it helps me brainstorm even more ideas…

So… Without further delay… Here’s the list:

Labels: action, characters, ideas, plot, Unk

Posted by scribosphere @ 2:37 PM

The comment that ran too long…

So yeah… I was working on my rewrite… In fact, I’m almost done and I’m pretty happy about it. Anyway, I was working for quite a few hours straight and decided to take a little break…

Yeah right. LOL.

I read a few more screenwriting articles and even modified the post below and added some links that I thought some of you aspiring television writers might want to check out…

After I’m done adding that information to the screenwriting article post, I notice in my WordPress Dashboard that there was a new link to my blog… So like any curious blogger, I click on the link and it took me here:

Dissecting the High Concept Logline

Which takes you to another screenwriting blog called: On The Scene

Cool.

First off, let me just say that we’ve all got opinions and I for one will go to my grave respecting anyone and everyone’s right to their opinion EVEN if I don’t necessarily agree with the opinion itself…

So I read the post and to be honest, I was confused. Not confused about what HIGH CONCEPT is because as far as I’m concerned, I know what it is. What you may not know however, is that those posts caused quite a bit of email that ran the gambit… Everything from “I totally agree with you, Unk” to “You’re a fucking asshole, Unk.”

Cool. I responded to them all when I should have been working on my rewrite… Good or bad, I responded. My responses to the hate email were not IN KIND by the way… LOL. I just kinda shine those on but I do reply with a nice, “I’ll keep that in mind…”

But I digress…

I read James’ post and thought he might have missed some points I had made with my post on the definition of high concept and I had intended to discuss loglines in the future but since this opportunity to do just that popped up, I thought, “Why not?”

So what I’ll do is go ahead and post the comment I attempted to make to James’ post on his blog… I’ll also go ahead and make a comment after all but instead of the actual comment, I will let him know that I turned the comment into the following post here on my blog… But I’m not gonna do that until I finish here…

One more thing…

I do not attempt to DISSECT A HIGH CONCEPT LOGLINE here… I just explain the way I do it. You may do it differently and if you do, may God bless you. LOL. In fact, this is not a post about the kind of logline they use to MARKET a film…

Nope.

They pay marketing geniuses to come up with those loglines… LOL. I’m just a fuckin’ screenwriter.

What I do is create what I call a COMPASS LOGLINE. I call it a compass logline because it’s the logline I create before I ever ever start writing. It always leads the way for me. It keeps me on track when I get off track and I tend to get off track ALL THE FUCKIN’ TIME.

However, that’s NOT to say that you can’t turn right around and take a compass logline and recite it to someone so they know what your screenplay is about… It can definitely serve that purpose…

Labels: market, plot, structure, Unk

Posted by scribosphere @ 10:02 AM

Give it a name…

First a quote:

Going to call him ‘William’? What kind of a name is that? Every Tom, Dick, and Harry is called William. Why not call him Bill? - Samuel Goldwyn

Naming characters is often a very personal thing with screenwriters… Some writers give it SO MUCH THOUGHT that you can immediately pick that up when you read the script. Others seem to open up a random page from the phone book and simply pick a name.

I’ve done both and guess what?

They both work.

I don’t think there’s necessarily a right way or a wrong way to name your characters… Do what your gut tells you is probably the best advice I would give someone but before asking your gut what your character’s name is, you just might want to ponder the following…

YOU’VE GOT TO KNOW YOUR CHARACTER(S).

I think too often, many of us jump right into a character name without really knowing the character. I know I’ve been guilty of that in the past. Sometimes we just KNOW the character’s name before we know anything about the character.

I’ll eventually end this rant on characters with a final post that includes all the demographics and questions I ask of my characters as well as what I refer to “backstory bits.” For now however, let’s assume that you do SOMETHING to get to know your characters. It could be creating an extensive (or not) bio or it could be that you just think about your characters all the time and while there is no right or wrong, I for one can testify that my characters became a hell of a lot more authentic almost OVERNIGHT — simply by creating an extensive bio on them.

No matter what you do to name your characters, I think the one thing we can all agree on is that your characters gotta have a name even if the name is something forgettable.

Ah… Forgettable. Hmmm. Do we really want to give our characters forgettable names? We’re writing spec scripts aren’t we? I would think that creating a forgettable name is exactly what you DO NOT want to do to your characters and yes… Not even your minor characters.

I always prefer to read a character name like FAT COP instead COP #2. Give me an image!

I’ve managed to STUMBLE on names when doing extensive research on the utilities of my plot. I’ve seen screenwriters create bios on their characters that come right out of their imagination which is fine but I’ve seen many MORE AUTHENTIC characters come out of research for the utilities of the story plot.

More authentic because the bio of the character includes the research of the utilities… By utilities, I mean the world that your story plot consists of. There may be several different kinds of WORLDS that you’re blending together in your story… So instead of creating a character out of thin air and your imagination, consider creating your character out of the research you do on the worlds that will ultimately be in your script.

I know it may seem obvious and to many it is and that’s great… You already know what you’re doing. Outstanding! For others, it’s one of the mistakes I’ve seen quite a bit i.e., they more or less have the premise of their script and based on that crumb of a premise, they start creating characters.

Again, I would say there is no right or wrong way and certainly, one could come up with some outstanding characters this way but consider creating an “open bio” on your characters… Keep it open while you do research on the different worlds that will end up in your script. The more you research, the more you’ll find those interesting backstory bits as well as style of clothing, type of car, address, habits, etc. of real-life characters already inhabiting those worlds.

Something else to ponder and keep abreast of is people in the news… Especially with all our new and upcoming celebrity “socialites” that are always in the news these days, you might want to think twice before naming one of your main characters Lindsay or Paris. LOL. By the same token, watch out for names that might help DATE your script and please please please… If your script is a period piece, make sure that any name you use was actually a name that was in existence within that time period.

MAKE IT EASY TO PRONOUNCE

Wow. This seems so obvious yet I can’t tell you how many scripts I’ve read with character names where I’ve wondered if I was pronouncing the name correctly. Talk about something that will take you right out of a story while you’re reading… Often, it might even be better to phonically spell out your character’s name instead of the usual spelling. I remember a script I wrote a few years back where one of the main character’s last name was MOTACEK – pronounced MO-TAH-CHECK.

I had a couple of meetings and more than a few telephone calls where 90% of the powers that be that I spoke with pronounced the name as: MOT-A-SECK.

What did I do?

I immediately went through the script and respelled the character’s name: MOTACHEK and then even had another character call the guy MOTORCHECK just to make sure there was no confusion.

BE CONSISTENT EVEN IF YOU’RE INCONSISTENT

I’m not gonna get into ethnic names other than to say be consistent… Do the research of the world(s) you’re going to show us and give us realistic, consistent names but be sure you’re not infringing on the names of EXISTING PEOPLE or you’re sure to get yourself in trouble later on.

Read the following article to see what I mean:

What’s in a name?

Labels: action, characters, ideas, Unk

Posted by scribosphere @ 8:50 AM

New Free Screenwriting Software

Labels: general, scribosphere, Unk

Posted by scribosphere @ 5:46 PM

Shut up and do your ABCs…

In fact, while I’ve been up to other filmmaking errands, I have been giving the subject of characters a hell of a lot more thought.

Let’s face it… Your CHARACTERS are YOUR STORY. I would even take this a little farther and say that your Protagonist IS YOUR STORY.

So just how in the hell do you create characters… Especially your Protagonist, so that actors want to play them? We already know that our characters, even if shooting from the hip, really should shoot from the hip in a way that presents an honest (consistent with character) line of dialogue and or an honest line of action.

Time to go deeper… Back to our ABCs…

A = ACT

Let’s look at the definition… I’ll leave OUT the definitions that do not apply…

ACT:

• anything done, being done, or to be done; deed; performance: a heroic act.

• the process of doing: caught in the act.

• activity in process; operation.

• to do something; exert energy or force; be employed or operative: He acted promptly in the emergency.

• to reach, make, or issue a decision on some matter: I am required to act before noon tomorrow.

• to operate or function in a particular way; perform specific duties or functions: to act as manager.

• to produce an effect; perform a function: The medicine failed to act.

• to behave or conduct oneself in a particular fashion: to act well under all conditions.

• to pretend; feign: Act interested even if you’re bored.

• to feign; counterfeit: to act outraged virtue.

• to behave as: He acted the fool.

• act on or upon.

• to act in accordance with; follow: He acted on my advice.

• to have an effect on; affect: The stirring music acted on the emotions of the audience.

• act out.

• Psychology. to give overt expression to (repressed emotions or impulses) without insightful understanding: The patients acted out early traumas by getting angry with the analyst.

• act up.

• to fail to function properly; malfunction: The vacuum cleaner is acting up again.

• to behave willfully: The children always act up in school the day before a holiday.

• act funny, to display eccentric or suspicious behavior.

• act one’s age, to behave in a manner appropriate to one’s maturity: We children enjoyed our uncle because he didn’t always act his age.

Yow!

Of course we’re talking mostly about your Protagonist but let’s face facts… Your character has to ACT. Too many spec screenplays have the protagonist being a very passive character and unless that act of being passive is consistent with the character, it becomes downright boring when your Protagonist doesn’t ACT.

Let’s talk about PASSIVE PROTAGONISTS for a minute… I’m not saying that your protagonist can’t be passive but if you’re going to make him or her passive, then you’ve got to create the quintessential passive protagonist and paint them on the page for us… That way, when they finally do ACT, their ACT, while still somewhat passive, is a major act for THEM. In other words, be consistent. How many times have I read a spec script with a rogue cop who’s fucking passive almost all the way through the script?

Are you fucking kidding me????? How in the hell did he get to be a rogue cop in the first place? LOL. By ACTING. Through ACTS. Definitely NOT by being passive.

Do you ever wonder what people YOU KNOW are doing at any given moment? I do. I wonder what so and so is doing at Christmas. I wonder what he or she might have thought about a certain movie or book. Why do I wonder that? Because I know these people and I LIKE them.

By the same token, I could give a shit what other people are doing right now. Why? Because they’re boring and because of that characteristic, I can reasonably predict what they are doing right now.

Nothing.

So think about it… I contend that for pretty much the same reasons we wonder what certain other people are doing right now or what certain other people’s opinion is about something are the same reasons we care about the characters on the screen.

Of course the eventual actor on the screen will only ADD to this phenomenon but damn… THAT’S ICING ON THE CAKE, BABY!

It starts out with you and how you create that character… More importantly, your Protagonist. Make us care about your characters. Make us wonder what they would think about something. Make us wonder what they might be doing right now. Do that and we will lean forward in our theater seats and peek over your characters’ shoulders and root for them all the way to the end of the movie.

Make them ACT.

B = BECOME

Definition…

become:

• to come, change, or grow to be (as specified): He became tired.

• to come into being.

• to be suitable or necessary to the dignity, situation, or responsibility of: conduct that becomes an officer.

• To grow or come to be: became more knowledgeable; will become clearer in the morning.

• undergo a change or development; “The water turned into ice”; “Her former friend became her worst enemy”; “He turned traitor”

Don’t just make your characters ACT… Make them BECOME i.e., the character arc. The internal change that they don’t necessarily want or desire but absolutely NEED to be able to move on with their lives. Each ACT from above should be yet another step closer to completing your Protagonist’s evolutionary process. Notice BECOME doesn’t necessarily mean good or bad. Yeah, some protagonists can undergo an evolutionary process that makes them worse than they were at the beginning of the story.

Note that I said, “evolutionary process.” Make each ACT allow your Protagonist to BECOME just a little more and a little more and a little more until, at the end, we can SENSE the transformation. Your plot should SERVE your character’s transformation not the other way around. Remember, your audience doesn’t know SHIT about character arcs… LOL. But they can SENSE transformation.

C = CHARISMA

Definition…

charisma:

• a spiritual power or personal quality that gives an individual influence or authority over large numbers of people.

• A rare personal quality attributed to leaders who arouse fervent popular devotion and enthusiasm.

• Personal magnetism or charm: a television news program famed for the charisma of its anchors.

• a personal attractiveness or interestingness that enables you to influence others.

• Extraordinary power and appeal of personality; natural ability to inspire a large following.

How many times have we seen Protagonists that we don’t care about?

Plenty. Let’s put a STOP to it now!

It doesn’t matter if they’re good or bad… They must have charisma.

Let’s take a look at what they say about charisma at Wikipedia:

The word charisma (from the Greek word χάρισμα (kharisma), “gift” or “divine favor,” from kharizesthai, “to favor,” from kharis, “favor”) refers to a rare trait found in certain human personalities usually including extreme charm and a “magnetic” quality of personality and/or appearance along with innate and powerfully sophisticated personal communicability and persuasiveness; in short, charisma is often used to describe a seemingly uncanny ability to charm or influence people. It refers especially to a quality in certain people who easily draw the attention and admiration (or even hatred if the charisma is negative) of others due to a “magnetic” quality of personality and/or appearance. Though the term as it stands is extremely difficult to define, other similar terms/phrases related to charisma include: grace, exuberance, equanimity, mystique, positive energy, joie de vivre, extreme charm, personal magnetism, personal appeal, “electricity,” and allure, among many others. Another term constantly used is the “X-factor.” Usually many of these qualities must be present within a single individual for the person to be considered highly charismatic by the public and their peers.

Despite the strong emotions they so often induce in others, charismatic individuals generally project unusual calmness, confidence, assertiveness, dominance, authenticity, and focus, and almost always possess superb communication and/or oratorical skills. To the early Greeks, charisma was said to be “a divine favor/gift” or “gift of grace,” implying that this “divine quality” was an inborn trait; today however, many believe it can be taught and/or learned, despite the persistent inability to accurately define or even fully understand the concept.

In other words, what I’m trying to say is that your characters… Especially your Protagonist… Has got to have enough charisma to influence me, your reader and your audience to sit forward in my seat and root for him or her until the end of the story.

So quit thinking of charisma in the usual manner… It works both ways in screenwriting. Even your antagonist can use some charisma… Give your antagonist enough charisma and he or she will become one of our guilty pleasures… Take a look at Hans in the original DIE HARD. Wasn’t he almost like a guilty pleasure?

Why?

Charisma.

Here’s another interesting read about CHARISMA.

No, probably not in a screenwriting book… Yet. LOL. But so so imperative to create characters we want to root for or admire.

The ABCs. Learn ‘em.

//Unknown Screenwriter

Labels: action, characters, dialogue, Unk

Posted by scribosphere @ 5:56 AM

Honesty is the best policy…

Labels: action, characters, plot, structure, Unk

Posted by scribosphere @ 5:10 PM

It’s in the stars…

So you’ve busted your ass and wrote a top-notch spec worthy of production… Everyone you give it to agrees…

You’re on your way…

But nothing happens.

Why?

Because there are no actors that want to play any of your characters.

There, I said it.

Let me take you back a couple of years ago to a New Mexico Film Commission seminar held in Albuquerque… I happened to be in Santa Fe at the time and caught a blurb on the NMFilm.com web site. The director of the upcoming film, FIRST SNOW was going to be on stage talking about making the film in New Mexico, working with the New Mexico Film Commission, working with New Mexico film crews, etc.

Hmmm. What the fuck? “Sounds like it could be interesting,” I thought.

It was.

First of all, I had never even heard of FIRST SNOW. I had never heard of the director (also one of the screenwriters). I didn’t even know who was in the damn thing but since I knew I was going to be working with the New Mexico Film Commission, I thought this could be interesting.

Did I say that already?

It was.

First of all, they had plenty of fresh hot coffee. Outstanding. I’m in. They even had huge chocolate chip cookies but I hadn’t eaten dinner yet so I declined.

I ALWAYS like to sit in the very back of the class… Been doing it all my life so why stop now? Besides, the fresh hot coffee was sitting right next to me.

Think RAPID REFILLS.

Ah… The show begins… A very nice lady who then worked at the film commission who no longer works for the film commission handed out New Mexico Film Directories to everyone… Very cool.

They had some local actor acting as the host, asking the director and half of the screenwriting team about the filmmaking adventures of First Snow… I watched. I listened. It was okay but I was a little disappointed because it seemed to be more focused as entertainment than information but what the hell… The coffee was FREE and HOT.

So there I am… Sitting in the back, listening to the show… Two rows ahead of me is some guy with fairly long hair… Not a big guy… Kinda small. No big deal. I’m sitting there and then this guy leans back in his chair with his hands behind his head – interlocking fingers.

What caught my eye here was this guy’s fingernails…

They were green. Not a flaming, grassy, or leafy green… A dark, gothic, almost black green. His nails were short – not bitten. Neatly cut but almost black. Gothic Green? Is that a color?

Those fucking fingernails wouldn’t let me concentrate on the Q & A that was going on… Something about those fucking nails stabbed at my conscious…

Then I remembered.

Ahhh. Several months earlier, I had seen Guy Pearce in an interview on television and he seemed perfectly normal until he waved his hand and I immediately noticed what looked like black fingernail polish.

Not to say that a guy wearing very dark fingernail polish is NOT normal… I guess a better choice of words would be to say, OUT OF THE ORDINARY.

Because I like Guy Pearce… I love his work – think he’s an outstanding actor.

But back to the fingernails…

Could it be? I was sitting two rows behind this guy… I kept trying to get a glimpse of his profile but wasn’t successful… All I could tell was that this guy was wearing glasses.

Shit… I didn’t hear anything for the next half hour… I just kept watching this guy… I kept wondering if anyone was watching ME watch this guy but I don’t think anyone caught on.

More coffee. More scrutinizing. Nothing.

The show ends. People stand. Some of the audience obviously knew each other and immediately gathered into several small groups…

I stand… I stealthily move into the aisle so once and for all I can see this guy.

Is it?

Is it?

Labels: general, industry, Unk

Posted by scribosphere @ 7:41 AM

Just the facts, Ma’am…

So before we put high concept away for another day, let’s take a look at what I’ve come to know as the FACTS:

• 99 out of a hundred producers are looking for high concept screenplays.

• 99 out of a hundred producers make only high concept movies.

• 99 out of a hundred producers only involve themselves with high concept screenplays.

• Most top actors will read high concept screenplays over non high concept screenplays.

• Studios and Producers make more high concept films than they do non high concept films.

• It’s EASIER to get financing for high concept screenplays.

• It’s EASIER to get distribution for high concept screenplays being made into high concept films.

• Everyone is looking for the next great high concept screenplay.

• Producers will take more time to listen to a high concept idea than they will a non high concept idea.

• Agents will take more time to listen to a high concept idea they they will a non high concept idea.

• It’s EASIER to get someone in the business to read a high concept screenplay than it is to get them to read a non high concept screenplay.

• NEW screenwriters trying to BREAK IN with a high concept screenplay have a higher success ratio than NEW screenwriters without a high concept screenplay.

• High concept screenplays sell for a HELL OF A LOT MORE MONEY than non high concept screenplays.

• A high concept screenplay will get YOUR FOOT IN THE DOOR a HELL OF A LOT FASTER than a non high concept screenplay especially when it comes time to MARKET your unsolicited high concept screenplay.

• There are a hell of a lot more high concept spec screenplays sold than non high concept screenplays.

• Having sold a high concept screenplay makes it easier to get EVERYONE to take a look at your other screenplays even if some or all of them are non high concept screenplays.

• Selling high concept screenplays lead to MORE OPPORTUNITIES IN HOLLYWOOD, i.e., Producing, directing, Acting, etc.

Labels: ideas, industry, market, plot, structure, Unk

Posted by scribosphere @ 9:30 AM

Another rewrite weekend…

More rewriting… LOL. Thanks to those for the emails asking if I’m still alive.

Still alive and kicking…

Taking a quick break to browse the Scribosphere and found some interesting stuff…

Dave over at Writing On Spec has a great post on the ABCs of Character Development. Definitely worth reading and copying down. This post also goes hand in hand with a post over at $1000 Spielberg — good stuff.

Speaking of Scribosphere.org, there was a great online CHAT event yesterday about HIGH CONCEPT. Lots of good discussion there — check out the chat function when you get a chance… You NEVER KNOW who’s going to be in there talking about screenwriting.

And of course a few interesting screenwriting articles…

Hollywood maverick succeeded on his own terms

Why Akiva Goldsman is not the Highest Paid Screenwriter in the World

Screenwriter Goldsman Given $4 Million To Not Fuck Up ‘Da Vinci’ Sequel Too Badly

Academy’s fellowship is screenwriter’s ticket to Hollywood

Guest Article: In-film product placement: What does it mean to screenwriters?

The Pixar Way — Part I: “What We Didn’t Know” or “My Journey of Pain”

Eric Roth’s Screenplays Get Made, Except the Ones That Don’t

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

//Unk

Labels: chat, general, ideas, scribosphere, Unk

Posted by scribosphere @ 4:18 AM

Are you worried?

As a matter of fact, I wasn’t worried ENOUGH.

Huh?

Well, I’ve been locked in an apartment in Phoenix for the last two weeks working on my rewrite and I thought I would be finished by now.

But I’m not.

Why?

Because I’m just not worried enough. I kind of finished the rewrite and then tried to sit on it for a day but the screenwriter inside just wouldn’t let me because both he and I knew I wasn’t worried enough.

What am I talking about?

Scenes.

I realized while going over the rewrite that certain scenes that read well and even have some pretty cool stuff in them just don’t EVOKE WORRY in me…

So that got me to thinking…

If some of these scenes don’t worry me, then they might not worry the audience either. It was like one of those little light bulb balloons in the comics when a character has an idea. BAM!

WORRY.

Let’s take a look at that word…

wor-ry [wur-ee, wuhr-ee] verb, -ried, -ry-ing, noun, plural -ries.

–verb (used without object)

1. to torment oneself with or suffer from disturbing thoughts; fret.

2. to move with effort: an old car worrying uphill.

–verb (used with object)

3. to torment with cares, anxieties, etc.; trouble; plague.

4. to seize, esp. by the throat, with the teeth and shake or mangle, as one animal does another.

5. to harass by repeated biting, snapping, etc.

-noun

6. a worried condition or feeling; uneasiness or anxiety.

7. a cause of uneasiness or anxiety; trouble.

8. act of worrying.

9. Fox Hunting. the action of the hounds in tearing to pieces the carcass of a fox.

-Verb phrase

10. worry along or through, Informal. to progress or succeed by constant effort, despite difficulty: to worry through an intolerable situation.

That’s right… Take a look at the above definition. I sure as hell did and when I did, I realized that I still had scenes in my rewrite that didn’t do the following…

• They didn’t torment me.

• They didn’t make me suffer.

• They didn’t make me fret.

• They didn’t cause me anxiety.

• They didn’t trouble me.

• They didn’t seize me by the throat.

• They didn’t shake me like an animal would when attacking another.

• They didn’t harass me.

• They didn’t give me a feeling of uneasiness.

• They didn’t make me WORRY.

Like a lot of screenwriters, I do put my scenes through the usual tests…

• Does a character have a goal in the scene?

• Is there rising conflict?

• Does one character WIN over another?

Labels: action, characters, ideas, plot, Unk

Posted by scribosphere @ 2:23 PM

Squeeze the life out of high concept…

Yeah, you read it right. I’m not done. Not by a LONGSHOT.

Before I continue the high concept rant, let’s go over high concept again… Now remember, I’m speaking and defining from a screenwriter’s viewpoint.

For a screenplay to be HIGH CONCEPT, it should, at a minimum, contain the following elements:

• The story idea is unique.

• The story idea appeals to a wide audience.

• The story idea can be said in ONE SENTENCE and you can INSTANTLY visualize the entire movie in your mind’s eye and that alone would entice you enough to go see the movie.

Again, this doesn’t mean you’ve got to be a sellout or write to some kind of formula but remember one thing…

MAKING A FILM IS A COLLABORATION!

You heard that, right? A screenplay IS NOT A BOOK. Too many of the screenwriting masses out there seem to forget WHY they’re writing a screenplay in the first place i.e., TO GET A FILM PRODUCED.

In other words…

If you’re writing a screenplay to have other people read it, maybe you should be writing a book.

If however, you’re writing a screenplay that you eventually want to see be made into a film, read on.

Okay… Since the above definition of HIGH CONCEPT didn’t meet with hardly any disapproval from commenting readers, let’s assume that the definition basically holds true.

So now that we understand the definition of high concept, maybe we need to understand more about high concept itself.

Let’s go back to high concept’s genesis and rest assured that THIS is where it starts to get a little dicey but bear with me here… Who invented HIGH CONCEPT?

Labels: ideas, industry, plot, Unk

Posted by scribosphere @ 2:28 AM