What FASCINATES YOU? –finale… Last sword in the horse.

Wow… You people REALLY came out of the woodwork on these discussions about screenplay competitions! These blog things are very interesting but hey, at least you’re listening.

I’m still receiving email… 60 plus and counting.

Hence, the reason for this post… I cannot possibly reply back to everyone and quite frankly… Some of your emails I’ve received seem just shy of a death threat… LOL.

And that’s okay because just to let you know… I don’t take any of it seriously.

My posts about FASCINATION has apparently become the in some of your lives. Good or bad… For that, I am grateful.

Somebody had to put it out there and for those of you (as Poke so elequently pointed out) artistes who found it necessary to lambast me about … I was purposely vague about mentioning specific contests.

The majority of you out there KNOW which contests are worthy of submissions so you don’t need me to research it for you and to be honest, I don’t have the time nor the inclination.

But please indulge me in one LAST observation about …

For years, wanting to break into the business, scream and yell about how hard it is to get a break. First of all, let’s face it. Most written by those trying to break in are worthy of little more respect than a fire log.

However, just as started springing up like wild fire within the last several years (due no doubt to the onslaught of ), we now have screenplay competitions sprouting up in very much the same manner. In fact, except for those handful of competitions, I would go so far as to say that the majority of film festivals and screenplay competitions are the filmmaker’s and screenwriter’s equivalent to COMFORT FOOD.

Except for the very exceptional few, screenplay competitions simply are not the end all to breaking in the business. What is however, the end all to breaking into the business is a FUCKING OUTSTANDING SCREENPLAY.

So let’s say you write that fucking outstanding screenplay and submit it to the BUMFUCK EGYPT Screenplay Competition where the judges are the local artistes (remember them?) working at a nearby university… Cool, right?

Let’s take it a step further and say that your fucking outstanding screenplay even has a high concept! Holy shit! You’re sure to win Bum Fuck’s contest!

Several month later however, the results come out on Bum Fuck’s web site and you search your ass off… Then you take a break. Then you go back and search again because they surely must have made a mistake, right?

YOUR NAME CANNOT BE FOUND.

Instead however, you read the logline of the WINNING …

“The story of a young misguided debutante who takes over the family’s worm farm.”

Now you’re wondering, “What the fuck do I do now? Do I go learn as much as I can about worm farming and write a better screenplay or do I quit?”

Okay, okay… That’s too extreme.

But you do think to yourself, “What the fuck, over?”

And therein lies my point… As you chomp down on that comfort food and submit your fucking outstanding screenplay and lose to the worm farm epic, some part of you has to wonder if you’re in the right business.

All I’m saying is, don’t take the bait… Hey, that’s kinda funny. Bait. Worm farms.

Anyway, it is my contention that by and large, many of these film festivals and screenplay competitions THINK or worse yet, PRONOUNCE they are helping to change the scope of and in .

Don’t believe it for a second.

If anything, many of them are perpetuating the myth that your worm farm epic is the kind of that puts asses in theater seats.

And maybe… Just maybe… If you can find the in the worm farm epic, there could be some truth to that but let’s face it… The simple TRUTH of the matter is that the ticket buying demographic would rather see than a worm farm epic.

Comfort food does not equal hard work, extensive knowledge of the craft, or high concept.

Write what FASCINATES YOU. Find the in your story and write it into your screenplay. Make that screenplay a fucking outstanding screenplay. Shop it around and WE WILL TAKE NOTICE.

Insert sword in horse and twist.

Unk

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July 29, 2006 | Filed Under Uncategorized

5 Comments 

What FASCINATES YOU? –continued…

I just sat here writing a response to a comment Jonathan left for me. I sat here really thinking and writing — thinking and writing and by the time I was finished, I had a enough for an entire blog post…

So go read Jonathan’s comment down below and then come back and read my response if you are so inclined…

Jonathan,

I definitely think there is value in writing a NON-HIGH CONCEPT screenplay… Anytime you write anything, you’re gaining valuable experience.

As for focusing on one or the other… I think I made that clear for ME. I certainly wouldn’t advise you NOT to write NON-HIGH CONCEPT screenplays. I might RECOMMEND it but I would never advise it… LOL.

I simply wanted to point out that in my opinion, this is definitely the harder road of an already difficult route to selling a screenplay.

I know several screenwriters who have won and become finalists in several screenplay competitions. Every screenplay was NON-HIGH CONCEPT.

None of these screenwriters have ever sold a script. None of these screenwriters have an agent. None of these screenwriters have any industry contacts but ALL of these screenwriters continue to write NON-HIGH CONCEPT screenplays and submit them to contests.

Is that a bad thing?

Not at all. But everything is relative.

I hate to keep beating a dead horse here but just to let you know… It’s probably MORE DIFFICULT to sell a well written NON-HIGH CONCEPT screenplay to an Indie Producer than it is to sell a well written HIGH CONCEPT screenplay to a mainstream Producer.

That being the case… You have to make a decision. If you like writing small non-high concept scripts and want to enter screenplays into contests and or market to Indie Producers, then definitely go down that road.

If you want to do BOTH… DO BOTH.

All I am trying to do here is dispel the idea that screenplay competitions (except for a handful) help screenwriters break into the business.

I posted this blog in an effort NOT to discourage contest submission but rather to clue those of you in as to how it really works out there.

You say in your comment that the process seems worthwhile. Great. No problem. As long as you realize that the numbers say that the most you’ll probably get out of the exercise is valuable
experience.

Hollywood only wants HIGH CONCEPT stuff. I have yet to meet anyone in the mainstream that isn’t looking for HIGH CONCEPT and as Dave points out in his comment, high concept need not be HIGH BUDGET hence, the reason my blog post says to FIND THE HIGH CONCEPT in your story and then write it into the screenplay.

If you can’t find the high concept or one does not exist and you still move forward, simply be prepared not to make a sale or even get too many mainstream producers to read it.

Nobody I know wants to know that you can write a non-high concept screenplay so they can have you go right back out and write them a high concept screenplay.

Why do that when we can simply read high concept screenplays all day long?

It’s all about numbers, time management, and good writing.

That BROADER net you talk about… Where is it?

Let me explain it in a different venue…

Let’s say you’re a mechanic and you’ve become very proficient working on Porches. Let’s also say that you can only work on one Porsche at a time.

Later, you get to thinking… “Hey, I can make some extra money working on Hyundais.” So you take classes and learn how to work on Hyundais.

Now you get back to the shop and you have a Hyundai and a Porsche to work on. Which do you choose? If you fix the Porsche, you can make $500. If you work on the Hyundai, you can make $250.

Which do you fix first?

Let’s further assume that it takes the same amount of time to fix the Hyundai as it does the Porsche but you can’t mark the parts up as much even though the labor is the same.

Which do you fix first?

Let’s say you fix the Hyundai and get your $250. Great. Now you fix the Porsche and because you know MORE about Porsches and have more experience working on them, you fix it in 6 hours in contrast to having fixed the Hyundai in 8 hours.

See where I’m going?

If you decide to keep working on both Hyundais and Porsches, you’ll get experience on both but you’ll probably work harder on the Hyundais until you are as proficient on them as you are on the Porsches and not only that, making less money doing it.

It takes working on 2 Hyundais to equal the benefit of working on 1 Porsche.

And, since you can realistically only work on ONE of these cars at a time… What car would you want to work on the most? You are in business are you not?

Now the last explanation of my post… LOL.

Let’s say you finally wake up one day and decide to stop working on the Hyundais and focus strictly on the Porsches.

You bust your ass for a few years and you’ve had enough success to hire three more mechanics and you kind of feel bad that you stopped working on those Hyundais so you decide to devote one of your Mechanics to work on those Hyundais while the other two keep working on the Porsches.

You can make this decision now because you’ve achieved some success.

I see this occupation of screenwriting to be NO DIFFERENT from the above scenario. Write several high concept screenplays that SELL and you can pretty much do whatever you want. Produce. Direct. Whatever.

Keep writing non-high concept screenplays and in my opinion, you’ll get really good at writing non-high concept screenplays.

Is that a bad thing? HELL NO! If your PASSION and FASCINATION is to write non-high concept screenplays then that’s probably what you should do I guess. While the prospect doesn’t thrill me, I would never tell someone NOT do follow their passion and fascinaton.

On the other hand, specialize in say… Action, Horror, and Thrillers (or whatever genres you are passionate about) and write high concept screenplays in those genres and you still gain just about as much valuable experience to be able to write a non-high concept screenplay as you would actually writing a non-high concept screenplay.

Unk

July 29, 2006 | Filed Under Uncategorized

6 Comments 

What FASCINATES YOU?

No offense but I keep getting emails from readers asking me about a certain concept they want to write about.

About 95% of the time I end up YAWNING…

Why?

Because the concept they try so hard to explain to me is not the kind of concept that’s going to put asses in theater seats.

It’s as simple as that.

Sure… I know there are a number of you out there writing the next great drama about a historical figure… Fine. Do it. I wish you luck as a matter of fact.

But somewhere in that historical drama better be a HIGH CONCEPT.

I’m sure most of us know what HIGH CONCEPT is but just in case you don’t know or are not quite sure…

A HIGH CONCEPT for a movie is an idea that can be explained in one sentence and EVERYBODY GETS IT.

In fact, I would go so far to say, that the person you explain your high concept to should be IMMEDIATELY filling in the blanks of the story before you finish your one sentence.

That’s high concept.

If your story is too specific toward a character or event that nobody knows about, then there better be something HUGE within that story that you can use in your high concept explanation.

On one of my MANY backburners, I have my own historical figure story… I researched the HELL out of that character for months because I think it’s an important story and needs to be told… However, I kept banging my head against the wall because I couldn’t find the high concept within the story.

Then one day at the library… Reading a very obscure book that’s not even about my historical figure, I find out that my historical figure was so renowned in his conquests that the people he conquered loved him so much that they cut off his legs so he could never leave them.

BAM! There was my high concept. Only problem… It happens at the end of the story and it’s not the kind of thing you want to include in your logline because then, there is no surprise… But not a problem, I have since figured that out and created my high concept logline that everyone will get about this idea. I wish I could share it but alas… The internet is just a little too informative if you know what I mean… LOL.

My point here being that the story and this character FASCINATED ME. Everything I read about this character made me want to read more. At times, I found myself wondering what it would have been like to be him.

So what FASCINATES you? What makes you sit up and take notice? Whatever that THING IS, might be the very thing you need to write a screenplay about. This is where passion comes in and often, passion is passed on through to the written page… Even if you’re a newbie trying to break in with your spec.

To take this further… You’ve got to find OR create the HIGH CONCEPT in your idea and eventually, your screenplay so that you’ll be able to explain it to me in one sentence. I also want to start filling in the blanks of your sentence before you’re finished telling me about it… I want to be able to conceive your concept on my own. In fact, whatever I come up with in my own mind doesn’t even have to be in your screenplay! That’s right… All your idea has to do is slap the shit out of my synapses and then my brain will do the rest…

Then of course, I will WANT to read your screenplay and that’s what it’s all about, right?

I keep talking to screenwriters writing a spec horror screenplay only to tell me that the reason they’re writing it is to hopefully make a sale because horror is hot.

That makes ME want to slap the shit out of their synapses… LOL.

DON’T DO THAT!

Don’t do that unless horror (or whatever you’re writing) is your PASSION!

I also run into writers who want to write in every genre… They don’t want to be pigeonholed into a type of genre so they experiment with the others…

Uh, okay. Go ahead. You’re making it easy for guys like me to specialize in thrillers and horror. I would personally rather be known as the GO TO GUY (don’t worry, I’m not but I’m working on it) for horror and thrillers rather than the guy that was able to write ten different so-so specs across ten different genres.

Don’t get me wrong… I’m not telling anyone NOT to write across genres… I think it’s our DUTY to learn about all the genres but ya know… It’s taken me YEARS to learn about thrillers and horror and I still don’t know everything… I’m learning new stuff every day. I cannot imagine trying to learn every aspect of all the genres right now.

WHY?

Because I LOVE horrors and thrillers. They are MY passion. I could die happy writing nothing but horrors and thrillers. Maybe that will change one day… I don’t know but for now, I have my hands full with these two genres.

Which brings my rant to screenplay contests…

First of all, I have nothing against these contests. Go for it if that’s something you want to pursue but let me ask one simple question…

Are you writing screenplays to enter screenwriting contests or are you writing screenplays to eventually sell and have produced?

For those of you that answered “to enter screenwriting contests” –cool. Keep writing and good luck with that!

For those of you that answered “to sell a fucking screenplay” –keep reading…

I think the biggest crime of these screenwriting contests are how they perpetuate the IDEA that screenwriters trying to break into the business do not have to come up with a high concept idea. One day about a year ago, I did a couple of hours worth of research to see what kind of screenplays were winning contests… By and large, most were small little character driven stories. A lot of them were local historical figures.

By and large, 99% of these screenplays haven’t been made into films.

By and large, 99% of these screenplays haven’t been sold.

There, I said it. To add fuel to the fire of this conundrum, many of these winning screenwriters are still churning out similar screenplays and wondering WHY nobody’s interested.

I will be the first to admit that these types of screenplays will definitely serve as writing examples but to be honest, I wouldn’t want to be known as the GO TO GUY for writing a passionate screenplay about a local historical figure without a high concept.

Now, I’m going to DUMP the last bit of gas on this fire…

This problem just perpetuates itself. By that, I mean that these are the very same screenwriting contests that almost seem to PENALIZE those screenwriters that do have and submit a high concept screenplay i.e., they don’t win, place, or show.

Of course I’m not naive enough to lump in every screenwriting contest out there but again, by and large, this seems to ring true.

Bottom line?

Now maybe I’m wrong so please feel free to slap the shit out of my synapses if I am…

But with the proliferation of screenwriting contests out there and of course the screenplays that win, are these competitions simply perpetuating non high concept screenplays that will never get made let alone sold?

Do other newbie screenwriters research these contests and winners and relegate themselves to writing similar fare?

I don’t know… I’ll let you figure it out for yourself…

What fascinates YOU? Find out what that is and then find or create the HIGH CONCEPT within that fascination.

Unk

July 27, 2006 | Filed Under Screenwriting

14 Comments 

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