The Importance of Story Concept

In my latest session of Core II: Concept, a week-long online Screenwriting Master Class which begins today, straight out of the chute in our discussions we hit on some reasons why a script’s story concept is generally crucial to its success. Here is my forum post on the subject:

In an interview I conducted with former ICM partner and agent Emile Gladstone, we discussed the importance of story concept. Here is an excerpt:

Scott: How important do you think the story concept is to the overall strength and commercial viability of a spec script?

Emile: For a studio spec, paramount. You have to understand the process. For the most part, the actual decision maker that decides whether or not to buy it will not have the opportunity to read it. Certainly the CE will have read it. The VP will have read it. The producer perhaps will have read it.

Certainly the producer’s VP will have read it, but the actual person, the president of the studio that is responsible for development spend will not have read it. That VP is waiting all day, maybe two days, to get an audience with that president for maybe 10 minutes.

Then that VP is going to say, “Joe Blow wrote an action script.” “I know that name,” the president will say. “Do I know that name from something? Oh, yeah, he wrote that draft of…” or, “He’s a new writer and he sounds like that other guy,” or whatever. They make a little joke or whatever. “So, tell me what it is.” The VP has an opportunity to share a logline, and then mention possible directors or stars the studio has relationships with or wants relationships with that would be great for the material, and sell the president on why to they need to buy it.

The president rarely will have had the opportunity to read it. You’re going to live or die in that logline, and if you’re writing for the studio system and you can’t compartmentalize your story in one line before you write it, then don’t write it.

This literally corroborates what I wrote on the very first page of Lecture 1 and the importance of a logline. People who work in Hollywood’s acquisition and development arena often have the attention spans of gnats because they are so damn busy. Even when you can get them to pay attention, if it comes to a thumbs up / thumbs down decision about acquiring a script, it will often be based on whether they feel the story concept has a strong enough hook to connect with a wide enough audience (relative to the presumed budget of the story).

So my pontifications about the importance of story concept are not just the chattering of some deranged writer — although there may be some of that at work, too! — but as Emile’s comments suggest, this is reflective of the reality of how things operate in Hollywood.

We will dig more into that area in Lecture 2 tomorrow.

Emile, who has segued into producing and is currently in post-production on the movie Army of One, has an inside understanding of this subject. And while a script may succeed if its underlying conceit is just okay, the line of least resistance for a spec in Hollywood is to have a strong story concept.

It’s not too late to sign up for my Concept class which just began today. I believe it is the most comprehensive resource around dealing with how to generate, develop, and assess story ideas. As a bonus, the group of writers who have enrolled in this session are terrific. To find out more, go here.