The Low-Down on High Concept

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

Concept = Hook

The foundation of any movie is the screenplay. The foundation of any screenplay is the concept. Therefore, 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. 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.”

— Terry Rossio (Aladdin, The Mask of Zorro, Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean: The 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 2–4 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 1–2 sentence version of the story concept. That 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 GoIntoTheStory.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. There the basic conceit of your story becomes a ‘hook’ upon which you hang everything else: Plotline, Themeline, characters, subplots, dialogue, all of them interconnected to the story concept. Consider the loglines of these movies:

Some Like It Hot (1959): Two musicians witness a mob hit, then flee disguised as women in an all female band.

The Graduate (1967): A recent college graduate has an affair with an older married woman then falls in love with her daughter.

Jaws (1975): A gigantic great white shark menaces a small island community.

Fatal Attraction (1985): A married man’s one night stand comes back to haunt him when his lover stalks him and his family.

Se7en (1995): A serial killer takes down his victims based on their violations of the seven deadly sins.

The Hangover (2009): Three guys retrace their drunken bachelor party steps to locate the lost groom-to-be.

Yesterday (2019): A struggling musician realizes he’s the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles after waking up in an alternate timeline where they never existed

Each of these movies has a strong story concept. That 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: (1) Each movie comes from a different decade stretching back 60 years, an example of how ubiquitous story concepts have been in Hollywood throughout its history. (2) 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?

The Lowdown on High Concept

Most people in Hollywood would probably define ‘high concept’ this way: A story that can be summed up in 1–2 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 The 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 1–2 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-9, 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:

“The inspiration for making the movie, for coming up with the story is that I was visiting my parents in the summer of 1980, 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, 18-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?’ That was where the light bulb went off.”

The 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 1–2 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. They have produced 21 feature films. Each has been a success critically and financially, all #1 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 (1995): 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 (1998): 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 2 (1999): 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. (2001): 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 (2003): Nemo, a boy clownfish, is taken from his coral reef home, forcing his timid father to go on a journey to find his son.

The Incredibles (2004): A family of superheroes, trying to live a quiet suburban life, are forced back into action to save the world.

Cars (2006): A hot-shot race-car named Lightning McQueen gets waylaid in Radiator Springs, where he finds the true meaning of friendship and family.

Ratatouille (2007): A culinary rat makes an unusual alliance with a restaurant’s new garbage boy resulting in feasts and mayhem.

Wall-E (2008): In the distant future, a small waste collecting robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind.

Up (2009): 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 3 (2010): The 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 2 (2011): Lightning McQueen and Mater get caught up in a case of international espionage.

Brave (2012): 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 (2013): 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 (2015): 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.

The Good Dinosaur (2015): In a world where dinosaurs and humans live side-by-side, an Apatosaurus named Arlo makes an unlikely human friend.

Finding Dory (2016): The 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 3 (2017): 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 (2017): 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 2 (2018): The 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 4 (2019): 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.
 
 The 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!