5 Tips to Turn Your Script Into a High Concept Idea
5 Tips to Turn Your Script Into a High Concept Idea
Every writer has a dozen or more new story ideas tucked away in a file on their computers. But a good idea isn’t enough to break into Hollywood. The most marketable films are high concept ideas. How do you take a basic idea and turn it into high concept screenplay? Studios know high concept films put people in the seats. They want a twist on an idea, something that will make it more commercial and compelling. High concept is just that—a film that appeals to a wide audience. A high concept pitch allows an executive to immediately visualize the entire movie.
Here are five ways to turn your basic movie idea into a high concept film:
1. The “What If” Premise
High concept movies always answer the question “what if?” For example, what if we put a shark in the waters of a beach town in the peak of the summer tourist season? But don’t just stop there. How can you raise the stakes? Keep asking “what if…?” Exploring your story concept with those two simple words will get you closer to a high concept movie. Don’t just do it with the overall concept, take the characters and the events and keep asking, “What if…?” until you have successfully twisted them into something original.
2. Opposites Attract
Take two characters who would normally never be together and put them together. Buddy cop movies and romantic comedies often use this as a premise. In the movie Speed, it’s Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. In Lethal Weapon, it’s Danny Glover and Mel Gibson.
3. Fascination
Work with a concept that fascinates you. Your interest will elevate the story. Think about hobbies or even your bucket list. Make a list of things you always wanted to explore and then dive in. If you’re fascinated by it, chances are other people will be too. Above all, write it in a way only you could write it. Let your passion for the project show.
4. Ticking Clock
To create high concept fiction, brainstorm ways to make your original premise more unique. What could happen in the world you set up that is totally unexpected? It could be adding a ticking clock element to the story—a deadline that must be met. Or you could literally create your own ticking clock by setting a timer for 15 minutes and write a bullet list of possible ideas. Most won’t be useable, but all you need are a few. Keep resetting the timer until you come up with a high concept document that you can use to elevate your original story idea.
5. Known Quantity
High concept films contain a twist on someone or something recognizable. The recognizable element gived it an element of believability even if it’s an unbelievable concept. Think of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter or Cowboys & Aliens. Remember, high concept movies are simply taking an original idea and putting a twist on it.
Put all these tips together and you get a high concept film, like Jaws: When a gigantic great white shark begins to menace the small island community of Amity, a police chief, a marine scientist and grizzled fisherman set out to stop it.
High Concept Movie Ideas [How To Identify And Improve Them]
The greatest movie ideas are high concept. That’s what they say. Then, they waffle a definition of what high concept means. The discussion ends soon thereafter.
What Is High Concept?
True high concept ideas make a ton of money at the box office. So you want to know how to come up with that high concept, right? Well let’s start with the definition of the thing.
A high concept idea is an idea that is high concept.
We didn’t get very far, clearly.
It sounds like the guy who tells you to just tell a good story.
Some will claim that a particular idea is high concept, while others dispute it. A look at the box office results of so-called high concept movies will only add to the confusion.
Being John Malkovich was really high concept, right?
A puppeteer discovers a portal that leads literally into the head of movie star John Malkovich.
Truly original! Don’t you want to see that? Well, it only did $22m worldwide.
A title like Mars Needs Moms may smell like high concept, but despite its $150m production budget, it is known as one of the biggest flops. Oh, and speaking of Mars… Remember John Carter?
People have written about high concept that it has mass audience appeal, and that you immediately see the potential.
Most filmmakers looking for production money will try to tell you that their movie has mass appeal. Every writer sees the potential in their script. Then, how do you set the benchmark? Go out on the street and ask everyone?
Another problem with high concept is that it dates easily. Bruce Almighty worked fine, but Evan Almighty bombed. In their time, Top Gun, Jaws and Die Hard were big high concept movies. Today, they’re still solid movies, but … high concept??
I think we should put the high concept discussion aside for a moment. It’s not getting us anywhere.
Let’s take a more tangible approach.
The Holy Trinity
Successful concepts start from a clear, simple and original event, something we had never seen in movies before. Next follows a clear action to be taken by the character(s) in response to this event.
You may be able to sell such a concept with just this event and action to an audience, without focusing on the character too much. However, it is impossible to properly assess, let alone develop your idea without having a razor sharp idea of your central character.
After all, before you can distinguish between events (what happens to a character) and actions (what a character does), you need to establish who exactly the character is through whose eyes we look at the story (the POV).
I want you to read that sentence again, because it is at the core of what I’m trying to say.
Done? Okay, let’s look at the other two key components.
Event: In Groundhog Day, Phil gets stuck in a time loop, Back To The Future teleports Marty back to the time when his parents were his age, and Snakes On A Plane … you get it.
The educated will have noticed that the Event is in fact the story’s Inciting Incident, or Call To Adventure.
Action: In Finding Nemo, Marlin has to cross an ocean to save his son, and the heroes in Jurassic Park have to fight a T-Rex. These actions constitute most of the movie’s runtime, or all of what we call Act Two (and some of Act Three).
Character, Event, Action
You need both a major event and a clear action for your concept to work. Getting stuck in the same day (Groundhog Day) is a cool event, but the character needs a goal for the story to move forward. And because we don’t know how the spell can be broken, a new clear goal is introduced: to get the girl.
Back To The Future has both a highly original event (being transported to 1955), and two solid actions/goals for Marty: to get his parents together, and return to 1985. Snakes On A Plane IS the Event, or more specifically: the discovery of the snakes. The action/goal couldn’t be clearer: to survive and contain/kill them.
The story of Finding Nemo really starts when Nemo is taken by the divers (the event), and the movie’s action is in the title. Again, it can’t be any clearer. In Jurassic Park, once the T-Rex gets out (the event), we know the movie will only be over when our heroes make it off the island alive (the action/goal).
Let’s divert for a second before getting to our conclusion.
Snakes and stakes
You may have learned that there need to be high stakes. True. However, in the strongest concepts the stakes are implied. Snakes on a plane means all passengers could die, as there’s nowhere to run.
In Gravity, there’s no need to explain that Ryan (Bullock) will face a horrible fate if she keeps falling to earth. We don’t need to clarify that Thelma and Louise will spend life in jail if they’re caught, or that Don Cobb in Inception will be miserable if he never gets to see his kids again – or spend eternity in limbo.
Often you will have both positive and negative stakes. In other words, the main character will gain something from achieving the goal (Cobb will see his kids) or they will lose something if they don’t (his freedom: he’ll be stuck in limbo).
And don’t be mistaken: a positive stake is only positive if they didn’t have it at the start of the movie.
The Third Element
When you come up with an idea, it is rarely fully shaped, containing all three elements. So even before you launch into development of the story, let alone the script, you need to lock in character, event and action.
Some people prefer diving into a draft, and figuring it out as they go along, but this approach may take a lot longer than is necessary.
Let’s see if you get the point. Look at the following random ideas, and figure out what they are lacking.
- a girl wakes up with a third eye that allows her to see 5 seconds into the future
- a firefighter must contain all patients in a hospital, or a deadly virus will end the world
- new science shows that mankind has only 60 days to turn around global warming
Here is how these ideas rate in terms of the three required elements:
- There is a character and an event, but no action. What will the heroine DO with her gift? That’s the Action.
- We have a character and an action, but we don’t know how the situation originated. What is the Event?
- There’s a major event, and a (somewhat vague) action, but there is no Character.
Needless to say that the characters in example 1 and 2, are fairly nondescript. By brainstorming these characters in further detail, you may find the missing third element. Or vice versa: once you have found the missing third part, this may help you build a meatier character.
You Must Remember This
The bottom line is that none of the three ideas above qualify as valid movie concepts, let alone high concept. This is exactly why Being John Malkovich failed. The only strong part of that concept was the event. I have seen the movie twice, and I can’t even remember what the main action was, if any… I remember that the POV shifted a few times.
Not every idea with these 3 components is necessarily high concept, but you’ll find that every high concept does have them. So this allows you to eliminate – or improve what you have.
Different writers have different approaches, but I recommend that before you consider a concept for development, your first job would be to make sure your idea contains all three elements: character, event and action.
Once you pass this test, let the discussion begin about how great your idea really is.
-Karel Segers
Movie Ideas: How to come up with compelling concepts
It’s the Writer’s imagination from which great movie ideas come, right?
Eh, not always. Sure, Writers do seem to have epiphanies in the shower, during a dream or while doing anything else that makes for inconvenient timing. But truthfully, those movie ideas often stem from something that the Writer has already seen, heard or experienced for themselves.
And especially when a Writer is feeling uninspired—or worse—suffering from Writer’s block, it’s important to remember that the avenues to finding movie ideas are plentiful.
So, for Writers who want to always be prepared for that dreaded block, or who just want to reach beyond their normal bag of tricks, the following breaks down some movie idea resources at their fingertips.
Personal Experiences
One of the most common—and perhaps overused—adages in the filmmaking business is write what you know. But there’s good reason for it: It works1.
When in a room with an Executive, Agent or Producer, the question is often asked, “Why are you the only person who can tell this story?” Well, when the movie idea comes from that Writer’s own life, that’s a pretty convincing answer. Says filmmaker Jason Charnick. “Most of my ideas do indeed come from personal experience. I always feel I need to be connected to the work in a way that’s personal to me.” But what kind of personal experiences? Read ahead!
Adolescence
Movies are generally about conflict. And even in the most supportive and healthiest of upbringings, childhood experiences and memories often make for great movie ideas. Why? Because no one comes out of adolescence unscathed.
Consider all the many coming-of-age films from over a century’s worth of cinema: Rebel Without a Cause, American Graffiti, Dead Poets Society, Rushmore and Moonlight, just to name a few. No two adolescents are the same, which means that as a Writer, this time in life can be a rich one for movie ideas.
Life-Changing Moments
Graduating college. Getting married. Having a baby. Suffering loss. Any and all these life-changing events happen to many people, which can make them relatable to audiences on a large scale—and that is exactly why they make for compelling movie ideas.
Much of what cinema is about is finding common ground through someone else’s story, which explains how seminal films such as The Graduate, Ordinary People and My Big Fat Greek Wedding have continued to influence both filmmakers and fans even decades after they were released.
While these films depict their characters’ particular experiences, the universality of those experiences resonates with those of us watching them play out on the big screen.
Romances
Love and relationships encompass far more than just getting married. Some relationships don’t work out. Some do but still don’t result in marriage. People get betrayed. Others do the betraying. Few instances of personal experience can be more powerful than that of love and romance.
So for the Writer who feels at a loss for interesting movie ideas, they may need to look no further than their own romantic past for inspiration. Some of the most iconic films are romances, including: Casablanca, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Love Story, When Harry Met Sally and The Notebook.
Whether a love that has endured, evolved or faded away, this personal experience is typically a great stepping stone for Screenwriters and their stories.
Vacations
Travel allows us to experience different people, places and cultures. It often makes for special memories as well. Think about it; it’s the photographs from trips and vacations that typically end up on work desks, living room walls and computer wallpaper screens.
So when a Writer is struggling to come up with that next great movie idea, it might be time to think back to a past holiday for inspiration. Roman Holiday, Vacation, Dirty Dancing and Eat Pray Love are just a few of the many films that use a locale unknown to the protagonists as a backdrop for the action that unfolds.
Workplaces
Depending on the job, many people spend at least a third of their lives—give or take—at their workplace or working towards their professional ambitions. That’s a lot of hours. It naturally follows that the location where that person has spent so much time would be a resource when it comes to finding interesting movie ideas.
Writers, in particular, can mine their career past and present for script fodder, as they often have to take on various and sometimes odd gigs to keep the bills paid and food in the fridge until their creative payday comes in. Hence, all the many films about work and its highs and lows. Consider His Girl Friday, 9 to 5, Broadcast News, Office Space, The Devil Wears Prada. . .all movies that center on life at the office.
Outside Influences
It’s clear at this point that a Writer’s own life can be a terrific resource when it comes to movie ideas. But that doesn’t mean it’s the only resource. The world is a pretty big place and has no lack of opportunities for Writers looking for creative inspiration2. In some instances, all it takes is looking outside the window to find that next great narrative.
Actor and filmmaker Skylar Schock has this to say about her movie idea inspiration: “I tend to be inspired by a mix of both personal experiences and outside influences.
Often times it becomes a hybrid of putting a character like myself in a story inspired by something I read about or am drawn to. I also pay attention to what content I can’t stop consuming. For example, when I read about a person that moves me or I listen to a podcast I just don’t want to end, I will try and figure out how that ‘thing’ might play out in a film or script.”
And it’s that outside content in all its many forms that can trigger a Writer’s next big movie idea.
Global Locales
We already talked about how going to a new destination can stir the imagination, but the imagination is hardly bounded by it. All a Writer has to do is get curious about any city or country in the world to get inspired. Paris, Rome, Cairo, Tokyo: just pick a place.
Films often find their magic not in the travel to a destination, but in what that destination’s culture or history offers. Films like Before Sunrise, 7 Years in Tibet, Chocolat, Amélie and Lost in Translation are as much about the charm of the location as they are about the characters in it.
Life Stories
Some Writers want to write a life story. . . just not their own. Fair enough. Being a Writer doesn’t mean having to use the most personal and intimate moments of their lives for their scripts. But there are plenty of other stories out there. To be exact, seven and a half billion of them.
While true that many great films are biopics about well-known public figures, they are just a fraction of all the many more stories to share. As a Writer, the work is getting curious. What about that elderly neighbor? Or an old schoolmate? Or even the bagger at the grocery store?
There’s no shortage of options, but one important disclaimer: Should another person’s life story be used for a script, explicit written permission must be given3. So go ahead and write that great movie idea—just get the okay from the subject of it first!
Public Domain
There are no more original ideas, right? Perhaps. But that doesn’t mean a great script can’t be written from a familiar story. Existing intellectual property has shown no signs of slowing down when it comes to what the studios in Hollywood want.
But for the average Writer, there’s just no way to afford the fees that come with getting the rights to such content. . .unless it’s public domain! As with personal life stories, knowing what is legally permissible is of the utmost importance4.
That aside, Writers have at their disposal thousands of ideas that they can change, update or faithfully adapt that are all in the public domain. Not convinced? Consider Disney. This filmmaking giant has largely made its fortune on public domain stories, including Snow White, Cinderella, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and of course, Frozen!
World Events
Not a day goes by in the world without something notable happening, whether inspirational or heartbreaking—and maybe a bit of both. Now considering just how long the world has been around, that’s a lot of stories to be told!
Sure, some have already had their time in the sun, such as films about ancient Rome or World War II. But all a Writer needs to do is pick up a history book or newspaper to find some great movie ideas. If the past is more compelling, maybe that next idea will be about the Middle Ages or the Roaring Twenties (1920s!).
If what is happening at this very moment is more intriguing, that’s an option, too. Between films such as Lawrence of Arabia, Schindler’s List, Braveheart, Titanic, Saving Private Ryan and more, it’s clear that Writers have an endless source of movie ideas from world events to last a lifetime.
When it comes down to it, though, movie ideas are only as good as the Writer putting them down on paper. So it’s important that beyond technical expertise and the discipline to do the work, the Writer must be passionate about the idea.
Whether that inspiration comes from the Writer’s life or outside of it, they can never truly run out of movie ideas. They need only to look with fresh eyes at their own experiences or those of the world around them for that next screenwriting stroke of genius.
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