Paraphrasing leads to errors, but for the life of me I can’t remember the name of the Hollywood producer who said—and I’m paraphrasing an idea here—it is better to have a killer concept executed poorly than a mediocre concept executed well. At the Studio level, a bad script can be rewritten 10 times over to make it stronger. But the concept… the concept is king.
The term “High Concept” might strike you as outdated, but the idea of the monster hook that can be delivered in a single pitch line has never been more relevant. Look at the movies the Studios deliver to us— Sequels and prequels, the Marvel Super Hero Universe, classic mythology repackaged and mashed up with CG effects (Snow White and the Huntsman, Clash of the Titans), branded entertainment (Transformers, GI Joe, Battleship).
Formulaic is a loser’s word, a word for the makers of “character-driven” fare who never, ever, ever will make it into the tent of the Studios. Freshmen in business school know about the KISS sales model (Keep It Simple, Stupid) or the concept of GTWTWD (Give Them What They Want, Dick!)
What made the most money this weekend? As of this writing, it’s Hansel And Gretal, Witch Hunters. Take the Brothers Grimm fairy tale and cram it with visual FX, cast Jeremy Renner to kick some ass, the story from Yahoo Movies reads: “Years after siblings Hansel and Gretel hatched their escape from a child-snatching witch who changed their lives forever . . . and gave them a taste for blood. Now they have come of age as fierce and formidable …” Blah blah blah…We’ve heard this scenario about a thousand times before (Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Killer? Really?!)
Know how you know if your script idea has the monster concept? You can pitch it—in a single line.
Imagine a meeting at Paramount or The Weinstein Company. You walk in, shake hands with the powers that be, and get down to cases. Three money guys staring at you, looking distracted, more bored than anything else. “Sol, what do you have for us today?”
You look back at them and utter these words:
“SNAKES ON A PLANE.”
The execs go asses over heels backwards in their ergonomic chairs! You continue: “We’ll get Samuel Jackson as the lead, get an airplane up to 33,000 feet, no escape, and let loose about a thousand snakes are released on defenseless passengers…”
They pick themselves off the floor, and go ape-shit! They’re pulling out the checkbook NOW! You’re not to talk to ANYONE else about this idea!
You foolishly mention: “But it’s just an idea. I don’t have the script written yet!” ‘Who the fuck cares?!” they’ll say. The concept is a gold mine.
The actual story of Snakes On A Plane is just filler. From IMDB: “While practicing motocross in Hawaii, Sean Jones witnesses the brutal murder of an important American prosecutor by the powerful mobster Eddie Kim. He is protected and persuaded by the FBI agent Neville Flynn to testify against Eddie in Los Angeles. They embark in the red-eye Flight 121 of Pacific Air, occupying the entire first-class. However, Eddie dispatches hundred of different species of snakes airborne with a time operated device in the luggage to release the snakes in the flight with the intent of crashing the plane. Neville and the passengers have to struggle with the snakes to survive.”
See what I mean? You could write 10 different scenarios to get those people up in the plane. 10 different professions for the Samuel Jackson character. It doesn’t matter! The key—in Studio-think—is the concept.
I’d love to tell you, Good Reader, how it feels to send a Studio Executive ass over heels backwards after hearing one of my ideas. Alas, I’ve never accomplished it. Starting out as a poet and playwright, my mind has never concocted much beyond the eminently NON-commercial, deeply felt “character-driven” fare. I try to imagine what it would be like, to be bowling and trying to spare a 7-10 split, to be shopping for asparagus, or listening to Electric Light Orchestra’s “Big Wheels”…and suddenly, it comes upon you! The monster concept…
I like William Martell’s thoughts on this subject:
“If you can’t get millions of people to stand in line on the opening weekend to see the IDEA, your brilliant screenplay is dead. The IDEA for your screenplay needs to be worth millions.
LET’S GET HIGH (CONCEPT)
“Most of you probably know what “High Concept” means, but for those of you who don’t: High Concept is STORY as star. The central idea of the script is exciting, fascinating, intriguing, and different. High Concept films can usually be summed up in a single sentence or a single image. A small, personal idea may not attract the mass audience that a film requires. We need stories with exciting ideas…
“A bomb on a city bus will go off if the bus travels under 55 mph… and rush hour has just begun! A boy makes a wish to become big and wakes up to find that he’s a full-grown adult… with the mind of a kid. A boy and girl from rival gangs fall in love in the middle of a gang war. If you can’t distill your story into thirty words or less with an exciting central idea, you have a hard sell.”
So what’s the secret? How do you go about finding the M O N S T E R concept? Good Reader, if I had that key, that formula…would I be typetyping this to you? Maybe, but it would be from an island off Thailand, not here in frigid Chi-town.
All I can recommend is that you look for consistencies in those movies that have this magical formula. Good versus Evil usually puts asses in the seats. So does putting your characters in an Ordinary Man–Extraordinary Situation. Like an asteroid the size of Texas about to end all life on Earth, or a giant sea lizard type-thing attacking New York City, or cloned dinosaurs running riot in the year 2000, or a bus that will explode if it goes under fifty miles per hour.
Big themes need to work for the widest audience possible. You know, the usuals: Lost love, war, fear, life and death, family, and honor.
It’s a bright, guilty Michael Bay world. Poster Boy of High-Concept. Just look at the man’s IMDB directing profile for a definition of this style:
2011 Transformers: Dark of the Moon
2009 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
2007 Transformers
2005 The Island
2003 Bad Boys II
2001 Pearl Harbor
1998 Armageddon
1996 The Rock
Previous I told you, Know Thyself. Are these the sort of movies you write? If they are, L.A. might be your place. Let’s look at a few classic High Concept movies:
- DUEL
“While traveling through the desert for an appointment with a client, businessman David Mann from California passes a slow and old tanker truck. The psychotic truck driver feels offended and chases David along the empty highway trying to kill him.”(Imdb)
Spielberg’s great road rage movie from the 70’s. How could such a simple concept support a feature-length movie? Because Spielberg, even this early in his career, understood how to make an action movie. Incredible twists, reveals, and escalation.
- PHONE BOOTH
A man threatened by a sniper is trapped in a phone booth.
Larry Cohen originally pitched to Alfred Hitchcock back in the 1960s. Hitchcock loved the idea but couldn’t figure out how to keep the film’s lead character stuck in a phone booth, so the idea was put on hold. In the 90s, Cohen revisited his original treatment, and thought up the idea of the man being threatened by a sniper. Jim Carrey, Will Smith and Mel Gibson were attached at various stages during its development, but it took Colin Farrell to get the film into production.
- OPEN WATER
Two divers left behind by a tour group are forced to spend a night in shark-infested waters.
Placing the camera at water level puts you right in the water with the character as the sharks arrive. Screw PARANORMAL ACTIVITY or BLAIR WITCH, this movie terrified me. Real, unparalleled shark terror that in many way surpasses even JAWS.
- TED
A teddy bear comes alive—teaching a man to overcome responsibility issues, even if it means the end of their lifelong relationship.
Poor Mark Walhberg, has to step up and marry Mila Kunis (tough one!) while abandoning his lifelong furry pal, Ted. Seth MacFarlane, funniest biped alive, made last year’s top 10 grossing movies with this 500+ million dollar comedy. Let’s be honest…what’s worth 500 million isn’t the story of some dude trying to decide if he wants to marry Mila Kunis or not—it’s the monster hook of a teddy bear coming alive and spitting out cool, mashed-up expletives. Who the fuck thinks this stuff up?! Create the concept, crush the nasty pop-culture gags, and you’ll find yourself hosting the Oscars.
- CLICK
–“Michael Newman (Sandler) is a hard working family man, who must please his boss (Hasselhoff), in order to get promoted. Problem is he gets less time with his family, and wishes for a remote in which he can control his life. This soon comes true for Newman, when he meets Morty (Walken), a crazy sales clerk, who has the ultimate remote. A remote in which he can do anything, including muting, skipping and dubbing his life. He finds this to be the opportunity in which he can not only skip every argument, but also skip to his promotion. He sees this as a good idea, until the remote goes horribly wrong.”(IMBD)
Crappy movie, yep. Beyond crappy. But when’s the last time you were waiting on your Brooklyn-bound 5 train and you thought—A remote control that stops time! A thing has value in our Capitalistic system when it makes money for its producers. A simple idea, well executed, could be worth a fortune.
How will you know it?
You’ll know it by its scarcity. It’s something anyone could have thought of, but you were the first to actually have done so.
You know, like the Chia Pet.
