I've Got a Great Idea for a Movie...The Idea Hits Paper

Written By Michael J. Patwin Jr.

Developing Your Idea into a Tool For Film making

Believe it or not, professional screenwriters get paid to develop ideas with production companies and studios. They sit around fancy conference tables, talk on cell phones with development executives (who wish they could be screenwriters), and listen to stupid ideas that make good scripts bad... or so the screenwriter thinks. Then the writers go back to their Hollywood lofts and Santa Monica condos, 'tip their hats' (make a few quick dialogue changes) for the executive, and everybody goes home happy.

First-time writers, however, develop ideas in the burning hot, non-air-conditioned atmosphere of their Studio City or Burbank apartments and don’t see a dime unless a finishedspec script sells. And the only way they know their idea is good is when they pitch it to their friends and their friends get a big smile and can’t wait to hear how it ends.

Pitches, Treatments, and Screenplays are all written forms of a movie. Pitches (oral) and Treatments (written) help establish the story on its journey to script form.

An Idea’s Journey

The Hollywood studio journey from idea into script can be as multi- faceted as an actress’ personality. The first step is usually separating good-ideas from high-concept ideas (because, of course, no one ever has a bad idea for a film in this town). Use trusted friends, mentors, representatives, and especially the average John and Jane Doe to test the temperature of the idea. Is it “high concept”?

“High concept” ideas are stories you can sell in one breath. After one sentence, your audience responds, “Wow – that’s a great idea!” You can instantly see the one-sheet, instantly envision the trailer’s logline. These stories virtually sell themselves because the concept/plot is A) extremely unique and/or B) based on a best-selling book or life-story or anything else already tapped into the contemporary culture of the time. In literary terms, high concept ideas are Aristotelian stories – stories starting with a strong plot and characters emerging from that plot. Everyone in studio development loves high-concept ideas because they’re the easiest to understand, the easiest to tell, and the easiest to sell.

The studio journey of a high-concept depends on who first comes up with the idea. If it’s a writer -- then the writer goes to a producer/production company and pitches the idea. The production company passes the idea around amongst themselves, then either buys it and/or develops it, then goes to the studio(s). Development is the process of shaping an idea ultimately into a final draft screenplay.

If the studio buys the idea, the writer (depending on his/her contract) then writes one, two, three or more drafts of the script. After that (since the studio now owns the idea), the studio can either rehire the same writer to continue tweaking the story or, more likely, hire another writer to rewrite the script. And then another writer. And then another. Ultimately, the story either “gets a greenlight for production, or it sits in development for years, eventually making its way into turnaround (meaning it's chucked into a figurative “garage sale” with thousands of other scripts and ideas. A place where another entity can buy the story back from the studio at the cost the studio’s already incurred for development).

If a producer/studio first comes-up with the high-concept, a writer’s list is created of possible candidates to best do the work. This is a job know as “for-hire” because once hired, you (the screenwriter) don’t own one word of anything you write in the story. Several writers might be hired for one script (even at the same time) – “Written by” credit must then be determined by a WGA committee (the guild decides who gets what credit based upon the final script and which writer(s) contributed most).

If your idea isn’t high concept, can it still sell? Virtually never as a pitch… probably not as a treatment… only DEFINITELY if the idea’s executed terrifically in a spec. Think of some of your favorite award winning films – they’re not high concept, they’re stories with phenomenal characters that create plot through proactive, tough choices. These stories, 9 times out of 10, started the Hollywood process in script form, not simply as an idea, pitch, or treatment. The greatness of these stories comes in the polished execution, not in the raw idea.

Next Week: The Art of Pitching