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In the world of Hollywood blockbusters, the term “high concept” gets bandied about a lot when talking about ideas and pitches. The theory is that if you can boil a story down to one sentence, it will make a good film. Try it with any blockbuster. This is a mainstream movie idea, and of course there are exceptions, but you need to remember at all stages of making your film that it is not an exercise for your own personal benefit. If you want that, go and write a poem. Filmmaking is extremely expensive, investors will want a very good reason for them to let you spend their money, and they will want the finished film to attract enough paying punters for them to make back their money, plus a little more of course.
Although high concept is not necessarily the best way to do this, being able to explain your film clearly and succinctly, and to convince them that it will be a good film, is vital if you don’t want to finance the whole operation out of your own pocket. Human nature dictates that people want new, original experiences but without straying too far from what we know. Totally off the wall, trip-like films will usually not be met with much enthusiasm, as will yet another Pulp Fiction/Lock, Stock/Blair Witch rip-off.
Genre
There is a difference between convention and cliché. Boy meets Girl is not a cliché, it is essential if you’re writing a love story. The way in which they meet is open to cliché and originality. The genre your film falls into dictates the audiences’ expectation. Make them expect something, then give them a chaotic mix of others and you will risk totally confusing and alienating them. Genre mixing can be the key to avoiding formulaic situations and clichés, but like most things, done badly it can produce the opposite effect.
Story Structure
A story is usually made up of Acts, each act is divided up into scenes (change the time or place and you change the scene), and scenes are divided up into dramatic beats. Scenes and beats advance the story. The progress of the story must be advanced during the course of the scene. Scenes take the story from start to finish, beats take the scene from start to finish. If you’re not advancing the story or providing an adequate distraction (e.g. a joke, although distractions should be used sparingly), then the film will flounder and the audience will get bored. Be brutal, the audience will be.
Sitting in an empty room isn't going to inspire you - read a newspaper, watch the TV, go to the theatre. Ideas come from everywhere. Think about having a filmmakers journal, a pad you carry round with you to jot down any ideas you have.
What makes a good idea?
Well, what makes a good film? It needs to be visual and have a beginning, middle and end. The story and the characters have to go somewhere, and the audience has to care what happens. In the end it comes down to two things:
1) Do you love the idea? You're probably going to be working on it for months, and when things go wrong you need a reason to keep going.
2) Will the audience love it? Will they get bored or walk out?
The number of times people commit the same errors and produce the same old stories is remarkable. These three are the most common.
- twentysomething bohemian artist searching for meaning in their life while having witty conversations with their friends.
- wanna-be filmmakers making a film.
- another mockumentary.
Have you ever put the TV on in the middle of a programme you never watch and sat there rapt for 15 minutes before you think "hang on, I don't like this programme, what am I watching it for?" Successful drama, along with other elements has one thing which puts them apart from bad drama; a hold over the audience. Remember the time when you just "couldn't put the book down"? It's the same thing. You are desperate to know what happens next. Soaps work on a similar basis and are a good thing to watch if you want to learn about good drama. With so many things going on, the audience is always waiting to find out what will happen next. Suspense is a related feeling, except in these cases you know what will happen or what will probably happen, just not when. You see the bomb under the table, the diners don't know it's there. Will it go off? Will they still be there when it does? Will someone discover the bomb? If the audience doesn't care what will happen next then you've lost them, and you've failed as a storyteller.
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A Short History of Film
Pt. 1: Silent Cinema 1895-1927
Pt. 2: Studio System 1927-1945
Pt. 3: Post-War 1945-1959
Pt. 4: New Waves 1959-1975
Pt. 5: Blockbusters 1975-2002
