The Quest for High Concept

This summer has been about getting re-focused on screenwriting. I spent a lot of last year learning film-making and getting a better grasp of the industry while working on a novella instead of a script. Since the end of May, though, I’ve done a complete rewrite on a screenplay, and have now started a program the focuses on selling your screenplay: the ProSeries. This six-month course is all about screenwriting from a marketing point of view, with an eye toward getting a screenplay sold or optioned by the end of six months and often through the company that sponsors the class (bonus for them!).

So far, I’m impressed with the ProSeries. It’s intense - averaging one project per day – but over the course of six months, teaches 300 skills for creating sellable screenplays. It’s also cheap ($850 for the whole six months and then life-long membership in their contacts-loaded ProSeries alum.) This is far more helpful and direct for a student’s career than any MFA program.

I started three weeks ago and thus far, the focus has been concepts, concepts, concepts. While I’m not at liberty to divulge any of the copyrighted course material, I will tell you that we brought into the course a list of ten original ideas – which have now been put through the mill of various marketing formats and other concept elevating processes – to generate anywhere from 50-100 totally new concepts. One of these will hopefully achieve elusive ‘high concept’ status. (I’ve generated 77 concepts total, maybe having three that are close to high concept.)

‘High Concept’ is that thing which, once you really have it, you’re going to sell your screenplay. I find that most people don’t really know what it is, though. It’s not simply a good idea, or an idea that you love, or even a big-budget idea. A high concept consists of three things, regardless of budget:

1. It’s unique.
2. It has a wide audience appeal.
3. You can say just one line and see the entire movie.

A word on ‘unique’: this doesn’t just mean a unique spin on an old idea, or something that’s somewhat different from other movies… Unique means thoroughly, completely hasn’t been seen before, yet can still fit in with the 2^nd and 3^rd criteria above. And, yes – a lot of screenplays that are not truly high concept might still get sold… but not with the same gotta-have-it fanfare that a high concept will.

Most of my original ideas were borderline high concept, but needed a bit more development. After having reworked them, I narrowed my 77 down to a new, higher-brow group of ten. Then the real fun began.

Going through the script consulting/production company that the ProSeries is associated with, my ideas along with my fellow members’ ideas have now been ‘tested,’ meaning that we each got a batch of ideas and had to either call or meet up with trusted friends (people who liked movies but who are not professional writers or actors) to pitch them those ideas in one line and get their reactions.

Results were really, really interesting.

One of the things I found most fascinating was how different people’s tastes are. I knew my clear favorites… but they were not everyone else’s clear favorites. I also had people rank their #1 and 2 choices out of the 10… and if I base my final results off of what got the most ‘likes’ versus what had the most #1 and 2 rankings, I get different results.

My next step was analyzing feedback on my ideas to determine which are my top 2. Then, (this afternoon!) I’m having a call with my screenplay coach with the goal of finding something she agrees can be pitched to production companies as high concept. (Her background: she pitches regularly to 59 production companies out in L.A.) Once we pinpoint that elusive idea, I’ll spend the next couple months writing it.

I highly recommend that if you’re going to spend a few months working on a script to first see if you can’t improve the overall concept and then see if people respond well to the concept before devoting your time… More often than not, your first choice might not be what appeals to others, and if you’re just starting out, you need that first script to SELL! (Write your love projects later.)

TA'ing at the DFA

So in addition to the many random things I’ve been doing lately, I’ve become a teaching assistant at the Digital Film Academy. Not too much to say about this, except that it’s interesting to be on the other side of the desk. It’s actually a good set-up for me, since I get to basically re-take classes I had a few months ago while helping the teachers out. (Also in consideration: I might be buying one of the DFA’s official cameras. The little video camera I currently have is excellent for what it is, but it wouldn’t be up to par on a film set. We’ll see!)

I actually worked as an adjunct teacher at two universities prior to getting my publishing job, and I really do miss it sometimes. Teaching is enjoyable, and I luckily am comfortable talking to a class. (A plus for someone in a creative field, as they often wind up doing some teaching in their careers to help make ends meet.) It’s been fun to hear about what the students are planning for their short films, which they’re actually shooting now… it’ll be really interesting to see those short films at the next screening in a few months, and to find out who’s the next Director’s Choice Award winner from this new crop of filmmakers!

Equally interesting is analyzing students’ personalities. True, we all get the chance to observe other people’s behavior every day, but for some reason, a classroom atmosphere makes it extra clear – who takes charge; who takes charge, but with an attitude; who doesn’t expect to have to work; who wants to work but is too shy to step forward and do it… I think a heightened awareness/recognition of these traits can help us to hone our own traits however we want. A great part of teaching (or even just being a teaching assistant) is that you step into that role of the one in charge, the one who knows what’s going on… a role we should all be putting ourselves in every day.

This was just a short post, but I'll be back soon with what I've been learning these past few weeks about creating high concepts for your screenplays!

Film Education - PERSONA

So, as part of my No MFA program, I’m doing something film schools everywhere do – pumping my student (aka, me) full of a lot of ‘great, game-changing’ movies. My Netflix queue is now a mile long, filled with movies I’ve been told I need to see for my ‘film education.’ Today’s flick: Ingmar Bergmann’s horror classic, Persona.

The fact that I just finished watching it an hour ago, have already read about four online analyses of it, and am now rushing to do this blog post (when I haven’t posted on other movies I’ve watched), should give you an idea of the effect it had on me.

It’s not that I completely loved the movie.

It’s that I was completely, thoroughly disturbed by it.

Also, it’s that I disagree with a lot of the interpretations I’ve read online. Granted, it’s very complex and touches on a lot of themes, and any number of interpretations could be valid. But everything I was reading seemed to agree on two things that I completely disagreed with, so I have to state my point of view.

Before getting into that, though, let me give you the basic premise of the film… a renowned actress, Elisabet, suddenly goes mute. Whether this is by choice or a true affliction is up for debate. For her treatment, a doctor recommends that Alma, her nurse, takes her to a beachside home where the two of them will stay alone together for a period of time. Throughout the film, the nurse basically winds up losing her marbles, eventually begging the patient to speak with her.

The first thing that most all viewers seem to feel which I completely disagree with is that Elisabet is cruel. One psychoanalysis online even went so far as to say she’s incapable of caring for anyone but herself and rejuvenated only through others’ suffering. She will not acknowledge Alma as a human being.

But I completely disagree. At the start of the film, we see Elisabet’s desperation. She cries both when she is alone and when she sees a monk burn himself in protest on the news. She’s also afraid. During one super-uncomfortable, looooong stretch, she stares directly into our eyes, pleading with us silently to help her. (I had to fast-forward it, it was so unnerving. I also had to fast-forward two other scenes that included disturbing imagery, one of which is only thirty seconds into the movie; it may be the first time I was ever so uncomfortable with a film that I had to fast forward.)

True, Elisabet seems to recover bit by bit at the beach… but the root of her problem, as stated by her doctor, is that she’s realized nothing she can do or say can capture the truth of life; it is all pretend. Therefore, she decides to do and say nothing. I didn’t think she was trying to be cruel to Alma. I just felt that not even Alma’s pleas seemed sincere or genuine - that nothing anyone could say seemed real to Elisabet. Most people online also feel that Elisabet's profession as an actress shows her narcissism - I just felt it reinforced this idea of everything being make-believe.

The second thing that everyone but me seems to agree on is that Alma’s big speech at the end is truly revealing Elisabet’s past and not Alma’s. (By extension, everyone seems to believe that these are two separate women.) I’m not convinced that either of these is true.

First, Alma had no way of knowing all the things she claims are Elisabet’s history. Elisabet hasn’t told her and, even though Elisabet’s husband shows up briefly (and sleeps with Alma, believing her to be his wife,) I don’t think he’s shared (or could possibly have known) all the details Alma goes into, either. Furthermore, I think it entirely possible that these two women are supposed to be the same woman, stuck in an internal war with guilt and the struggle to understand life.

At any rate, it is brilliant film-making, and, according to what I read, this film includes the first-ever instance of the awesome face-merge shot in cinema:

TADA! This is two women in one.

It was beneficial to watch and I have a feeling it will have me thinking for quite a while… but, if you rent it, be warned: by the time I got through it, my first thought was: “Thank God, I survived it.” I was completely relieved it was done.