High Concept

[Rainy Night]

What is “High Concept” and where do I get some?



I hear the term tossed around quite a bit and it seems that it’s easier to get read if your story is high concept, but what is it that defines this term?

[dpaterso]

"A high concept script should have 4 key elements: a great title, a fascinating subject, a very strong hook, and appeals to a broad audience. In addition to these four elements, if your story cannot be described in one short simple sentence, it is not high concept."

-Derek
Derek's Web Page - stories, screenplays, novels, insanity. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57/scripts.htm)

The Absolute Write Ultimate Screenwriting Challenge Contest
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1st voting period extended to midnight on Saturday, October 1st.

[Joe Calabrese]

If you can describe it in one short sentence... it's high concept.

Armageddon = killer meteor threatens Earth.

High concept is generally plot based as opposed to character.

[Cathy C]

A high concept can also be a blending of two disparate elements:

Someone might have considered a high concept for the television series Charmed, as:

"Bridget Jones' Diary meets Harry Potter"

[Rainy Night]

If you can describe it in one short sentence... it's high concept.

Armageddon = killer meteor threatens Earth.

High concept is generally plot based as opposed to character.
So would you say that a high cocept movie would be more entertaining and less thought provoking?

[dpaterso]

Why would you think more entertaining means less thought provoking? Consider "Sixth Sense" -- catchy title, fascinating subject (boy claims he sees dead people), strong hook (psychiatrist is compelled to investigate, grows to believe boy), broad audience appeal (mystery, spooky thriller, ghost story). And that's without the twist reveal.

-Derek
Derek's Web Page - stories, screenplays, novels, insanity. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57/scripts.htm)

The Absolute Write Ultimate Screenwriting Challenge Contest
Rules & Prizes (http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18151)
Read the Entries for Task 1 (http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18170)
1st voting period extended to midnight on Saturday, October 1st.

[Rainy Night]

Why would you think more entertaining means less thought provoking? Consider "Sixth Sense"

I was thinking of exactly that movie earlier. I would consider it high concept, but I don't think I could describe it in one sentence. I would consider HUCKABEES high concept also but I think I might be challenged to describe it in one sentence. Also both those movies have strong charachters.

What's an example of a recent movie that wasn't high concept?

[Joe Calabrese]

Huckabees is nowhere close to high concept.

Let's look at "Not high concept" films in theaters right now.

Proof
Daltry Calhoun
The Constant Gardener
Dear Wendy

[scripter1]

Juriassic Park - lets bring back the dino's.....then turn em loose.

Matrix - A computer a$$ kicking Jesus.

Bruce Almighty - What would you do if you had God's powers?

Eternal Sunshine - Erase painful memories, forgive the ones you love.



not high concept but still good films.

Life as a house - dying man saves his family by building a house.

Good Will Hunting - young genius learns to understand himself, finds true love.


bad concept/bad movie
Gigli


When I think of High Concept I tend to think more of science fiction. Things that are slightly to waaaayyy out of the relm of reality. YET they explore very universal truths. Worldwide, in any culture, the audience will get the concept.

Where do you get some?

I just happen to have an extra bottle I haven't opened yet.
Bidding starts at 100 dollars, US.

[preyer]

so, more often than not, if your one line description requires a comma it isn't high concept?

[dpaterso]

I liked Gigli. There, I've said it.

-Derek
Derek's Web Page - stories, screenplays, novels, insanity. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57/scripts.htm)

The Absolute Write Ultimate Screenwriting Challenge Contest
Rules & Prizes (http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18151)
Read the Entries for Task 1 (http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18170)
1st voting period extended to midnight on Saturday, October 1st.

[StephieM]

I've always considered "high concept" as an idea that has never been approached, something so outrageous and original it could never be approached again by any other writer. (Well it could, but it would never be as great.)

For instance-you can't write a script about some crazy scientist who brings back dinosaurs without having Jurasic Park come to mind. You can't write a script about a person who sees and talks to dead people without having The Sixth Sense come to mind.

If you can think of a similar film of which your script can be related to, you don't have a high concept. A high concept stands on it's own. It's the film everyone remembers when a specific subject comes to mind.

What movie do you think of when I say "the end of the world". More than likely everyone is going to think of the same movie. That's because that movie stood out, it was the best of it's kind, and it's the one everyone will remember. It had a "high concept".

Steph

[Optimus]

I've always considered "high concept" as an idea that has never been approached, something so outrageous and original it could never be approached again by any other writer. (Well it could, but it would never be as great.)

For instance-you can't write a script about some crazy scientist who brings back dinosaurs without having Jurasic Park come to mind. You can't write a script about a person who sees and talks to dead people without having The Sixth Sense come to mind.

If you can think of a similar film of which your script can be related to, you don't have a high concept. A high concept stands on it's own. It's the film everyone remembers when a specific subject comes to mind.

What movie do you think of when I say "the end of the world". More than likely everyone is going to think of the same movie. That's because that movie stood out, it was the best of it's kind, and it's the one everyone will remember. It had a "high concept".

Steph

Eh...not really.

A "high concept" is a story whose premise can be summed up in few words than a full logline. It's usually a bit extreme in expressing the drama and stakes.

But, high concept doesn't necessarily mean that it's unique.

A film that can be summed up by "It's X meets Y," would quite possibly still be high concept if the X and Y films hadn't previously existed.

Die Hard is high concept (terrorists take over an office building).

Steven Seagal's Under Siege is also high concept, yet benefits from Die Hard's previous success. (Under Siege's "high concept" would be, "It's Die Hard on a battleship."

That crappy movie "O" would be "Othello in high school."

High concept also doesn't mean "good." Following the first example, "Executive Decision" or "Passenger 57" could both be described as "Die Hard on a plane," and both were forgettable movies. As well, both Jurassic Park and Carnosaur have a simliar high concept (dinosaurs are brought back to life), yet Carnosaur was a horrible B-flick that I'd like to have wiped from my memory.

As Joe and Dpat have indicated, "high concept" simply means that the story's concept can be EASILY summed very quickly (fewer words than a logline).

"Liar, Liar" is a great example of this: A lawyer who cannot lie.

The high concept is NOT the logline and isn't intended to give the full story, merely the overall, hooky concept.

[Rainy Night]

Huckabees is nowhere close to high concept.

But, I could sum up Huckabees in one sentence; "a man tries to resolve the coincidences in his life." To me that would say high concept.

What I'm thinking is that I shouldn't worry about "high concept" and just try to find a good story that I think people will want to see and write that.

[Optimus]

But, I could sum up Huckabees in one sentence; "a man tries to resolve the coincidences in his life." To me that would say high concept.

Then, you don't understand what "high concept" means. There is no hook to that sentence. There is nothing interesting about it.

What I'm thinking is that I shouldn't worry about "high concept" and just try to find a good story that I think people will want to see and write that.

That's the attitude a writer should always take, anyway.

[Joe Calabrese]

One time I pitched a script as "Moby Dick but without the Whale, Ahab or the burning revenge" and I actually got a request! Only one for obvious reasons.

Go figure.

But your Huckabee sentence shows a problem without a hint of what needs to be done or goal.

[dpaterso]

But, I could sum up Huckabees in one sentence; "a man tries to resolve the coincidences in his life." To me that would say high concept.

To me it says yawn bore. Scroll up this thread and read message #2 again. It isn't just the short sentence. It's the big idea that's so great, you can say it in one short sentence and everyone "sees" it.

What I'm thinking is that I shouldn't worry about "high concept" and just try to find a good story that I think people will want to see and write that.

Well, duh. :)

-Derek
Derek's Web Page - stories, screenplays, novels, insanity. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57/scripts.htm)

The Absolute Write Ultimate Screenwriting Challenge Contest
Rules & Prizes (http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18151)
Read the Entries for Task 1 (http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18170)
1st voting period extended to midnight on Saturday, October 1st.

[Billy Furnett]

I've always thought of high concept as a simple, unique no brainer concept that can also be summed up in a single image.

For example the film poster for Jaws (A shark about to eat a swimmer) that single image encapsulates an entire story.

Is Man Vs. Nature new? No, but Man Vs. Shark at the time I guess was.
I'm not sure what the artwork for the film Twister looked like, but if the name somehow didn't clue someone in, a picture of a giant torrnado most likely would.

Here's a link to an article on the subject for what it's worth.


http://www.writersstore.com/article.php?articles_id=609/
-Billy-