What Is a High Concept Film? Definition, Examples, and Why It Matters in Screenwriting In the world of screenwriting, few terms are thrown around as often or as confidently as “high concept.” But what exactly does it mean? What separates a high concept film from a standard one? And why do these kinds of movies … Read more
What Is a Low Concept Movie? Why They Appeal—and Why They Win Awards The film industry is often–and somewhat incorrectly–associated with what is known as High Concept: spectacle, high stakes, and loglines that can be pitched in a single sentence. [1] there exists a quieter, subtler cinematic tradition: low concept movies. While they may not … Read more
The Hero’s Journey in Independent Film: Three Examples When thinking of the Hero’s Journey, the mind jumps to blockbuster-style films like Star Wars, The Matrix, or The Lord of the Rings. These sprawling narratives track a protagonist as they leave the comfort of the familiar, venture into unknown territory, undergo trials, and return transformed. But … Read more
Understanding the Hero’s Journey in Screenwriting: A Guide Through Three Iconic Films The Hero’s Journey is one of the most enduring storytelling structures in screenwriting. First popularized by mythologist Joseph Campbell in his seminal work The Hero with a Thousand Faces and later adapted for writers by Christopher Vogler in The Writer’s Journey, the hero’s … Read more
Why Does Concept Matter So Much? Simple: no one cares about how brilliant you think your idea is. They literally [1] only care about how much money it’s likely to make for them. Yeah, sorry. Someone probably forgot to tell you that in film school. That’s most likely because the film school was more interested … Read more
How to make your idea idiot-proof! What are we going to get from this movie that intrigues the listener? When they want to know more, they will listen attentively to your pitch. There are two distinct sides to pitching. If you don’t have a good presence and you can’t get behind your own idea, then … Read more
Not All BS is Bullshit Just some of it, like the BS2 Beat Sheet Sometimes it’s easy to forget the value of the classics when they’re misinterpreted and reappropriated by the great unwashed.1 I’ve been charitable enough to re-read Save the Cat recently, and I am pleased to say that there is some useful stuff … Read more
Getting High With Concept Or… the Tyranny of Michael Bay Let’s get a bit deeper with when and where we encounter High Concept. Maybe we’ll even finally find a couple that don’t suck. Sorry, Michael Bay. You may notice that a disproportionate number of High Concept films have science fiction or fantasy elements. It’s possible … Read more
The Presuppositions of Screenwriting When you presuppose, you make an ass out of “u” and “me” It’s funny the things that we assume, or presuppose, just to get any work done. One of the major things that we assume–a “presupposition,” if you will—is that people will be affected or influenced by our writing. After all, … Read more
Two Approaches Analyzed… As they say*, don’t ask for permission; ask for forgiveness. Sometimes the biggest block to writing is thinking that you can’t imagine you’d be able to write anything useful. People who are sensitive enough to write well are often prone to this, but there’s a way around it. The flipside of this … Read more
