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The Low-Down on High Concept

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SCOTT MYERS AUGUST 07, 2019

A high concept screenplay must have a clean, simple, and basic idea.

Concept = Hook

e foundation of any movie is the screenplay. e foundation of any

screenplay is the concept. erefore, it stands to reason which story concept
you develop and write as a script is a critical choice.

Here are some quotes from a pair of established screenwriters about the
importance of ideas and story concepts:
 “Most aspiring screenwriters simply don’t spend enough time choosing
their concept. It’s by far the most common mistake I see in spec scripts.
e writer has lost the race right from the gate. Months — sometimes
years — are lost trying to elevate a film idea that by its nature probably
had no hope of ever becoming a movie.”

— Terry Rossio (Aladdin, e Mask of Zorro, Shrek, Pirates of the

Caribbean: e Curse of the Black Pearl)

“Ideas cost NOTHING and require ZERO risk. And yet, oddly, the
LEAST amount of time’s usually spent in the idea stage before a small
fortune is dumped on a whimsy that’s still half-baked… Ideas cost nothing
yet have the potential to yield inexplicably long careers and happy lives.”

— Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Zak and Miri
Make a Porno)

Which leads to the screenwriting principle:

Concept = Hook.

A story concept is a hook in at least three ways:

In terms of the script acquisition process, whereby Hollywood literary

agents and managers, film producers and executives sort through the
thousands of submissions they receive each year, the story concept is often
what hooks the buyer’s attention. All submitted screenplays are read by
professional script readers who write up what is known as script coverage,
basically – pages summarizing the story with additional notes and
comments. At the top of the very first page of coverage is the script’s
logline, a – sentence version of the story concept. at is often the first
thing a rep, producer or exec will read — to see if the idea hooks their
interest. If so, that script can go to the top of their To Read pile. If not,
the script may end up directly in the delete file or recycling bin.
In terms of marketing, the concept is generally a central component in
how a studio sells a movie, using the story’s core idea to hook a
consumer’s interest. In an increasingly crowded marketplace where movies
not only compete against other movies, but TV, web, mobile, social
networks, and all the other emerging entertainment platforms, movie
studios spend tens of millions of advertising dollars to make their films
stand out. How to break through all the noise? Beyond gizmos and
gimmicks, the story concept is often the single most effective marketing
tool. In an exclusive GoIntoeStory.com interview here with a
marketing executive at one of the six major Hollywood studios, she said
this:

“I would absolutely rather work on a film with an incredible story concept

than one with an A-list star in it… films with great storylines speak for
themselves.”

But perhaps the most important way in which a story concept serves as a
hook is in the script development process. ere the basic conceit of your
story becomes a ‘hook’ upon which you hang everything else: Plotline,
emeline, characters, subplots, dialogue, all of them interconnected to
the story concept. Consider the loglines of these movies:
Some Like It Hot (): Two musicians witness a mob hit, then flee
disguised as women in an all female band.

e Graduate (): A recent college graduate has an affair with an older

married woman then falls in love with her daughter.

Jaws (): A gigantic great white shark menaces a small island community.

Fatal Attraction (): A married man’s one night stand comes back to
haunt him when his lover stalks him and his family.

Seen (): A serial killer takes down his victims based on their violations
of the seven deadly sins.

e Hangover (): ree guys retrace their drunken bachelor party steps
to locate the lost groom-to-be.

Yesterday (): A struggling musician realizes he’s the only person on Earth
who can remember e Beatles after waking up in an alternate timeline
where they never existed

Each of these movies has a strong story concept. at concept serves as a
hook on which every character and plot device hangs, ensuring the story
keeps its focus and enabling the filmmakers to milk the central conceit for
all its worth.

Two other things about this list: () Each movie comes from a different
decade stretching back  years, an example of how ubiquitous story
concepts have been in Hollywood throughout its history. () Each movie is
what is known as a high concept story. You have probably heard of the term
‘high concept’… but what does it really mean?

e Lowdown on High Concept

Most people in Hollywood would probably define ‘high concept’ this way: A
story that can be summed up in – lines. However just because you can
summarize a story in a few lines does not necessarily mean it’s a high
concept. For example the description, “A manipulative woman and a
roguish man carry on a turbulent love affair in the American South during
the Civil War and Reconstruction” does not make Gone With e Wind a
high concept movie. It isn’t. In fact the film is in some ways the antithesis of
high concept because it is a sprawling epoch featuring dozens of characters,
numerous semi-independent subplots, and a multitude of themes. It’s also
proof a movie does not have to be a high concept to be both great and
successful.

No, in defining ‘high concept,’ we need to be more specific: A story idea that
can be summed up in – lines. A high concept movie must have a clean,
simple, and basic idea.

We can even go more granular by talking about the idea of a story-conceit,

which we would define as the “central premise of the story.” With the movie
K-, it was the premise of a human cop teamed up with a dog cop. With
Inception, it’s the premise that people can enter into other people’s dream
states. With Groundhog Day, it’s the premise that someone has to relive a day
over and over again.
Frankly, much of what we do when brainstorming possible story concepts is
trafficking in the world of story-conceits. A good example is the movie Back
to the Future. One of its screenwriters Bob Gale describes how he came up
with the story-conceit:

“e inspiration for making the movie, for coming up with the story is
that I was visiting my parents in the summer of , from St. Louis
Missouri, and I found my father’s high-school yearbook in the basement.
I’m thumbing through it and I find out that my father was the president of
his graduating class, which I was completely unaware of. So there’s a
picture of my dad, -years-old, and I’m thinking about the president of
my graduating class, who was someone I would have had nothing to do
with. He was one of these “Ra-Ra” political guys, he was probably Al Gore
or something. Captain of the debate team, all this stuff. So the question
came up in my head, ‘gee, if I had gone to school with my dad would I
have been friends with him?’ at was where the light bulb went off.”

e conceit: What if I had gone to school with my dad? In working with

that idea, Gale and co-screenwriter Robert Zemeckis hit on the notion of
time travel to create a circumstance in which they could put the conceit into
a narrative, and that is how Back to the Future came into being.

So a high concept is one with a story idea that can be summed up in –
lines. Often writers start that creative process by coming up with a story-
conceit.

Pixar and Story Concepts

I am pretty much obsessed with Pixar. ey have produced  feature films.
Each has been a success critically and financially, all  hits (except one).
How do they do it? You can go here to see a big reason, how they are
fanatical in their commitment to start with a great script. One need look no
further than the list of their movies to see that the foundation of a great
screenplay is a great story concept. Here are loglines for each of their films:

Toy Story (): A cowboy toy Woody is profoundly threatened and jealous
when a fancy spaceman toy [Buzz Lightyear] supplants him as top toy in a
boy’s room.

A Bug’s Life (): A misfit ant, looking for “warriors” to save his colony
from greedy grasshoppers, recruits a group of bugs that turn out to be an
inept circus troupe.

Toy Story  (): When Woody is stolen by a toy collector, Buzz and his
friends vow to rescue him, but Woody finds the idea of immortality in a
museum tempting.

Monsters, Inc. (): Monsters generate their city’s power by scaring

children, but when a little girl enters Monstropolis, top scarer Sulley finds
his world disrupted.

Finding Nemo (): Nemo, a boy clownfish, is taken from his coral reef
home, forcing his timid father to go on a journey to find his son.

e Incredibles (): A family of superheroes, trying to live a quiet

suburban life, are forced back into action to save the world.
Cars (): A hot-shot race-car named Lightning McQueen gets waylaid in
Radiator Springs, where he finds the true meaning of friendship and family.

Ratatouille (): A culinary rat makes an unusual alliance with a

restaurant’s new garbage boy resulting in feasts and mayhem.

Wall-E (): In the distant future, a small waste collecting robot

inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate
of mankind.

Up (): Carl Fredericksen flies his balloon house to South America to

honor a pledge to his deceased wife and finds a new family along the way.

Toy Story  (): e toys are mistakenly delivered to a day-care center

instead of the attic, forcing them to escape and race back home before Andy
leaves for college.

Cars  (): Lightning McQueen and Mater get caught up in a case of

international espionage.

Brave (): Granted one wish, Princess Merida must rely on her bravery
and her archery skills to undo a beastly curse that falls upon her mother.

Monsters University (): A look at the relationship between Mike and

Sulley during their days at Monsters University — when they weren’t
necessarily the best of friends.

Inside Out (): After young Riley is uprooted from her Midwest life, her
emotions — Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness — conflict on how best
to navigate a new city, house, and school.

e Good Dinosaur (): In a world where dinosaurs and humans live side-
by-side, an Apatosaurus named Arlo makes an unlikely human friend.

Finding Dory (): e one thing Dory can remember is that she
somehow became separated from her parents as a child, thus, with help from
her friends Nemo and Marlin, she embarks on an epic adventure to find
them.

Cars  (): Blindsided by a new generation of blazing-fast racers, the

legendary Lightning McQueen is suddenly pushed out of the sport he loves,
then sets out to prove he’s still the best race car in the world.

Coco (): Aspiring musician Miguel, confronted with his family’s

ancestral ban on music, enters the Land of the Dead to find his great-great-
grandfather, a legendary singer.

Incredibles  (): e Incredibles hero family takes on a new mission,

which involves a change in family roles: Bob Parr (Mr Incredible) must
manage the house while his wife Helen (Elastigirl) goes out to save the
world.

Toy Story  (): When a new toy called “Forky” joins Woody and the
gang, a road trip alongside old and new friends reveals how big the world
can be for a toy.

Perhaps it’s because animated movies take much longer to produce than live-
action films, but you can be certain the creative group at Pixar never green
lights a movie to the script stage until they are confident the story concept is
a worthy one. Which brings us back to Terry Rossio, the co-screenwriter
(with Ted Elliot) of movies like the Pirates of the Caribbean series. Here are
more of his thoughts about the importance of story concepts:

“As a screenwriter, your choice of film premise is your calling card. Not
your witty dialog, not your clever descriptions. Not your knowledge of
structure and subplot and subtext.

e very first decision you make as a writer — ‘what is my film about?’ —

will define your creative instincts in the eyes of the industry. Like actors
and directors, you will always be known by the projects you pick (or in
this case, by the projects you initiate).

You must — you MUST — choose well.”

Takeaway: Every screenplay starts with a story concept. Since the story
concept impacts so many aspects of scripting, developing, and marketing a
movie, that choice is a critical one. Choose your story concepts well!

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