The Business of Screenwriting: Imagine the movie

One test of a story concept: Can you imagine it as a movie?

One of the best things about hosting this blog is it puts me in a position to talk about screenwriting with fellow writers plying their craft in Hollywood and elsewhere. Just last week, I invited John Swetnam to do a Q&A with the college students in my Master Screenwriting class. You may recall that John has sold two spec scripts this year: “Evidence” which has subsequently been produced and will likely hit theaters in 2012 and “Category Six”. [You may also read an interview I did with John here].

John is a really sharp guy and he said something in our recent conversation that proves just how savvy he is:

I come up with a lot of ideas, but then I put them through a really rigorous process. If you’re trying to write studio movies, it’s one of the best things you can do. You hold that idea up to the marketplace and see how it will fit. You have to be completely honest with yourself and ask, how do you see your script opening up as a movie this Friday on 3,000 screens? What does that look like? How is the studio going to sell that? Is it actually the kind of movie that could be up there on opening weekend taking on Twilight? You have to really think about that. And 90% of the time, that’s the problem. People write scripts based on ideas that are never going to get made. It all starts with the concept. It doesn’t have to be a high-concept, but it has to be something that you can imagine playing at your local theater. The poster, the trailer, the actors, I think about all those things first. I literally have the poster in my mind, I know exactly what the trailer is going to look like, I know how to pitch it in a couple of words. If I have one of those ideas, if I can imagine that movie, then it becomes pretty easy.

Imagine the movie. That’s really it, isn’t it, the big test for any story concept you create. But it can’t be some gauzy rainbow and bunny vision of your film. Like John says, you put your idea to the test by breaking it down into its marketable parts — actors, poster, trailer, elevator pitch, and the image of it appearing on a wide screen in a multiplex with Breaking Dawn Part 1 playing next door, The Muppets showing on the other side, and Hugo just about to start across the hall.

Can you imagine your movie hitting every single one of those marks?

Wait. Let me rephrase that with a key word John used: Can you honestly imagine your movie hitting every single mark?

Can you honestly imagine the characters you will write for this story being parts that name actors will want to play, your characters’ dialogue they will want to memorize and deliver?

Can you honestly imagine the poster — the title, the actors, the background, the color scheme, the tagline — and would that one-sheet fit alongside all the other ads in the Friday entertainment section of your newspaper?

Can you honestly imagine the trailer — the voice-over narration, set pieces, tone, feel, look — and could that slot in as preview number two of the five that are playing nationwide before movies this weekend?

Can you honestly imagine your logline, your short version of the pitch, you in an elevator with a studio executive, and the words you say eliciting a smile and a nod of the buyer’s head?

Finally, can you honestly imagine your movie playing on 3,000 screens and there’s an actual audience filling theaters across the country, people motivated enough by your story concept to get their ass off their Barcolounger, drive across town, plunk down some twenties for tickets, popcorn and sodas to watch your movie?

If you can honestly imagine your movie hitting all those marks… you may well have a story worth writing. If not, you’re almost assuredly better off coming up with another — and better — idea. Or another angle on your original story concept to make it more marketable story.

Now you will notice John said, “If you’re trying to write studio movies.” All of the above is true if you’re trying to generate a story concept that aligns itself with the marketing and sales sensibilities of a major movie studio.

If, however, your story is a small independent feature, maybe you have a bit more latitude in terms of the type of idea you may choose to write. But even here, it doesn’t hurt to imagine the movie. Will it play at Sundance?

Bottom line, you must write a story that has at its core a strong story concept. Terry Rossio (Aladdin, The Mask of Zorro, Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean) says this on the subject:

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. The 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.

And what’s a great way to determine if the story idea you have come up with is a strong one? Do what John Swetnam does: Imagine the movie.

The Business of Screenwriting is an ongoing series of Go Into The Story posts based upon my experiences as a complete Hollywood outsider who sold a spec script for a lot of money, parlayed that into a screenwriting career during which time I’ve made some good choices, some okay decisions, and some really stupid ones. Hopefully you’ll be the wiser for what you learn here.

For more The Business of Screenwriting articles, go here.