WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?
Here's the reality of the film business: You can have the greatest dialogue, most fantastic scenes, and amazing characters of any film ever made... but the audience won't know that until AFTER they've paid their $9 and stood in line for two hours. How do you convince them to pay the $9 and stand in line in the first place? All you have is a poster and a trailer... both can't do much more than give you the basic idea behind the film. That means the basic idea of your script has to be something that will attract a global audience of 600-800 million people!
Everyone has an idea for a movie, but how many people have ideas that will make 600-800 million people pay to see? When I read story ideas on message boards, the biggest problem always seems to be that they are small ideas. Bland ideas. Unimaginative ideas. The scripts may be brilliantly written, but no one is ever going to ask to read the script because the idea isn't exciting enough.
You have a 30 second TV commercial that has to make me and everyone in the world skip SPIDER-MAN and stand in line to see your movie. So what makes your movie more interesting than SPIDER-MAN or any other Hollywood movie?
The trailer for LIFE OR SOMETHING LIKE IT opens up with Angelina Jolie as this stuck up TV news reporter who has to work with blue collar cameraman Ed Burns. They hate each other. Just when you start to think that this is a typical rom-com, she's interviewing this homeless psychic guy about the outcome of the football game and he says she'll die in one week. Bam! Now this stuck up woman has only one week to live. Suddenly, it's not just a typical rom-com, it's something we haven't seen before. That extra twist gives us a great conflict PLUS a deadline PLUS high stakes - she's gonna die in 7 days! That might not be enough conflict and stakes for a thriller - but this is a rom-com! The clock is ticking! Will she hook up with Ed Burns before she drops dead?
LET'S GET HIGH 
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. That's important because that single sentence may be all they have to explain your entire story when it plays on HBO, and that single image will tell the story in the print ads. It's Friday night and you are flipping through the newspaper... What catches your eye? The poster art. If the poster shows a cowboy facing off for a High Noon gunfight against a lizard-like alien, chances are you'll stop and read the ad to find out who is in the movie. Think of the poster art for MEN IN BLACK 2 or BOURNE IDENTITY (Matt Damon in the cross-hairs of a sniper's scope) or LIKE MIKE (a que of very tall basketball players with young Lil Bow Wow less than half as tall - in a pro uniform) or REIGN OF FIRE (Apache helicopters firing missiles at a fire breathing dragon attacking modern London) or EIGHT LEGGED FREAKS (people running from giant spiders). All of these images tell the story - and make us want to know more. What the hell is a fire breathing dragon doing in modern times? Those Apache attack helicopters don't seem powerful enough to stop the dragon... so how will mankind survive? Hey, I want to see that movie!
Since foreign audiences make up about 70% of a film's earnings, your script better have an idea clear enough to be understood regardless of language. If a film couldn't be summed up by a poster which could be understood by film goers from South Korea, Zimbabwe, and France; you had little chance of selling your film. The concept of your script needs to be exciting an interesting to people outside of the USA in order to sell. A great script about the Civil War may not hold much interest to people in Zimbabwe... unless you can find a universal story about civil wars that any country that has ever fought itself can understand. There's a great Ambrose Bierce short story called MOCKINGBIRD about two brothers on opposite sides of the Civil War who end up having to battle each other... that story is so universal that the story was made by a French director (Robert Enrico) and a version of the story pops up in John Ford's great silent film FOUR SONS... which takes place in Germany! A movie about the American Civil War probably won't sell overseas but a movie about people fighting against their friends or family in a civil war is universal enough to work in any country. Make sure your story's subject matter is GLOBAL... the film audience is.
If you can't see the poster, you've got a hard sell. Successful films need big ideas. Concepts so earth shattering and exciting that a producer will buy your script even though it has no stars attached - no familiar faces on that poster. The producer needs to sell your story idea to the studio BEFORE they hire the movie stars. That means your IDEA has to be worth the $78 million budget (average film cost - summer films can cost three times as much!).
Here are some examples of High Concept:
A shy man falls in love with a beautiful woman who turns out to be a mermaid. ("Splash")
A middle aged woman gets a chance to live her high school years all over again, correcting the mistakes of her youth. ("Peggy Sue Gets Married")
A boy and girl from rival gangs fall in love, but must keep their affair secret from their friends. ("Romeo And Juliet")
When New York becomes haunted, a bumbling team of parapsychologists comes to the rescue. ("Ghost Busters")
Cowboys discover a lost valley filled with dinosaurs, and bring some back for a wild west show. ("Valley Of The Gwangi")
A divorced father dresses in drag and applies for a nanny job in order to see his children. ("Mrs. Doubtfire")
An L.A. Cop is partnered with an alien detective to track down an intergalactic serial killer who chameleons into his victim's form. ("The Hidden")
A man from the post-apocalyptic future is sent back in time to save the earth, but gets thrown into a mental institution when he tells someone his mission. ("12 Monkeys")
A lawyer has to tell the truth for 24 hours. (Liar Liar)
A bridesmaid realizes she is in love with the groom and has to break up the impending marriage. (My Best Friend's Wedding)
A psychologist must enter the mind of a serial killer - literally (using a high tech gizmo) - to save his next victim. (The Cell)
An anti-social cop must stop a serial killer who is killing anti-social jerks... before the cop's name reaches the top of the killer's list. (The Dead Pool)
An FBI Profiler, retired after a heart transplant, reluctantly investigates the murder of the woman whose heart beats within his chest. (Blood Work)
These are all big ideas, weird ideas. The video box for "Valley Of The Gwangi" shows cowboys on horseback herding and roping a T-Rex. When you see the poster, you almost do a double take. Cowboys? Dinosaurs? In the same movie? You want to know more. You want to rent the film.
That's High Concept.
A couple of years back I was a judge in a screenwriting contest. Many of the entries were small, personal stories. Well written, but nothing I would pay $9 to see at my local theater. One was a drama about a pregnant woman who had to chose between two men. For 120 pages, she agonized over her decision. Each of the men had good qualities and bad qualities. Finally, after much talk, she made her choice.
This story was too realistic to be a script. Too much a slice of life. Too boring. If we were to look at family dramas on screen, we'd find films like Tennessee Williams' "Suddenly, Last Summer", where the drama uncovers buried secrets of incest, homosexuality, and cannibalism. Hey, that's a story!
Take a look at YOUR script. Is the IDEA behind it exciting and different? If you tell the idea to your friends, do they want to know more? Do they want to read your script?
The idea behind your script will create the film's identity, so it must be memorable. It must have pizzazz. Your story can't just be cops track a serial killer, there are a million movies like that. Your script has to be something UNIQUE. Something DIFFERENT. Something just a little bit weird. What is it that makes these cops like no other cops you have ever seen in a movie? Now take it further - what makes them like no other cops you have ever imagined? Now let's look at the serial killer and ask the same questions. Finally, what makes this like no other serial killer movie you have ever seen?
Your idea HAS to be different than the rest. It has to be unique. Have its own identity. Not just cops chasing a serial killer, but MORE. Both the killer and the cops must be different, and the venue must be unusual.
WEIRD KICKS I've written two scripts for Martial Arts Star Don "The Dragon" Wilson. Don is the World Kickboxing Champ, so the script always has to showcase his talented feet... In a high concept story.
In my HBO movie VIRTUAL COMBAT, Don is the cop sent to track down the villain from a virtual reality fighting game used to train police, who has been cloned into reality... Only Don has never won against him in the game.
In NIGHT HUNTER Don is the last of the vampire hunters, trying to kill a family of vampires before the total eclipse allows them to multiply and take over Los Angeles.
Neither idea sounds like a typical kick boxing movie.
Your idea has to be different. Growing up with James Bond and Nichols & May, I came up with a great script idea: "That's my son, the spy." Even James Bond has a mom, right? Well, this idea became garbage as soon as they made STOP OR MY MOM WILL SHOOT. The ideas are too similar.
There can't be ANY film out there with a similar idea. If your script is cops & robbers, there better be something unusual about the characters, the venue, and the plot which makes it exciting and unique. Use your imagination! Come up with something wild, instead of something mild! Your script must have a strong central idea which is the focus of the story, and different than any other film which has been made. That is High Concept.
YOUR BIG IDEA CHECKLIST:
1) Can your story be told in a single sentence, which instantly brings an entire film to mind?
2) Is your story idea different than anything else out there?
3) Can you sum your story up in a single image? What does the poster look like?
4) Is your story exciting enough to be the star? If it requires the services of strong actors, you're in trouble... the stars aren't hired until AFTER they buy your script!
5) Can you come up with a half dozen new and exciting small ideas which support your central concept?
6) Is your idea timely? Does it concern something that a modern audience will be interested in?
7) Does your idea have universal appeal? Will it sell as well in Japan as in France?
8) Does the idea lend itself to the fast pace of modern films? (After last year's MUMMY RETURNS big studio films are picking up the pace.)
9) Can the idea go the distance? Many ideas sound okay, until you try working out the "what comes next" and eventually hit a brick wall. I call these concepts "Underhanded Pitches" and I'll talk more about them in a future article.
10) When you tell people your idea, do they give you a look and ask "Where the heck did THAT come from?"?
11) Does the conflict in your idea have high stakes? Is the fate of the world at stake? The higher the stakes, the more exciting the idea.
12) Is there a deadline or a ticking clock? If the conflict needs to be resolved by a specific time - if there's a sense of urgency - your story idea becomes more exciting.
13) Are there big emotions involved? People go to the movies for an emotional experience - if your story is just about cloned dinosaurs it won't be as interesting as if it's about a mother who loses her two children on an island inhabited by cloned dinosaurs. Remember to put PEOPLE in the middle of the problem! People buy he tickets.Your script is going to start with an idea. A strong idea. An idea everyone else wishes they'd come up with. If the concept behind your script isn't different and exciting, then the rest of your script is doomed to fail. Who wants to read a well crafted, but dull and ordinary, screenplay? Studios are both on the look out for high concept screenplays. So, be prepared when that development exec looks at your script and asks you: "What's the big idea?"
CREATING A GREAT ENDING? Many screenwriting books and seminars talk about the importance of your first ten pages, but your LAST ten pages are equally important. They are the last thing the reader will actually read, and will form the greatest impression upon the reader. A great film with a lousy ending is a lousy film. No matter how amazing that opening scene, if we leave the theater, the scene in the forefront of our mind is the last one. So it had better be good. But how do you create a great ending? The GRAN D FINALES Blue Book contains dozens of techniques including: Explosive Endings For Every Genre, Where Act 3 Begins... And When, The Teeter-Totter Effect, Famous Last Words, How To Fix A Short Act 3, Fifteen Cool Ways To End Your Script, Avoiding "Pat" Endings, Twist Ends, Shocker Ends, Romantic Ends, and Loose Ends.
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