Concept and Execution

4occhi Got an email recently from a regular reader who sent me an excerpt from an interview with a producer… I won’t mention the producer’s name nor do I have a link to the interview but none of that really matters anyway because we’ve all read this same interview before.

Over and over and over and over again.

Yet many of us still just don’t fucking get it.

Concept and execution.

Let me see if I can try to get you to think a little differently… Head on over to Google and perform an image search for “ .”

See what comes up? Images of concepts based on something we’ve already seen before yet drastically different. We know what a basic automobile looks like yet the automobiles that come up in the results of the above search are drastically different than what we’re used to seeing on the road MOST OF THE TIME.

Get it?

Same goes for motorcycle concepts, cellphone concepts, bicycles, watches, and hell, just about anything you can think of over at in the Gadgets section.

So now for lack of a better understanding of what concept actually means, let’s head on over to Dictionary.com and see what they say… i.e., let’s find the right definition of concept for US:

concept con·cept (ko(n’se(pt’)

  1. An abstract idea or notion.
  2. an idea of something formed by mentally combining all its characteristics or particulars; a construct.
  3. an abstract or general idea inferred or derived from specific instances.

Now I am trying to keep this as simple as possible but let’s head on over to Wikipedia anyway:

Now just from a quick scan, here’s what stands out to me:

If that revs up your appetite at all, head on over to Schema (Kant) — also on Wikipedia.com.

I guess it all comes down to GIVE ME THE SAME BUT DIFFERENT. Let me give you an excerpt from the producer’s interview:

If I never read another screenplay where the female characters are strippers or prostitutes, or if I never read another screenplay about the Mafia, I’d be happy. If aliens looked at America cinema, they’d think that 90 percent of the women are strippers and 90 percent of the men are Russian Mafia workers.

The email I received about this interview asked me if I agreed or disagreed with what the above producer said… I should also add that the reader that sent me this email, said he found what is excerpted above as “very insulting to screenwriters around the world.”

I wholeheartedly agreed with the producer.

Why?

Because of a few reasons but the two big ones right off the top of my head are money and reputation as in do you want to continue to work in this business? In other words, right off the bat, a spec that places the main female in a stripper or prostitute role OR is about the Mafia — either traditional or Russian is going to get a pass — probably without even reading the Goddamn thing.

Why?

. Do we need to look it up?

execution ex·e·cu·tion [ek-si-kyoo-shuhn]

  1. the act or process of executing.
  2. a mode or style of performance; technical skill, as in music: The pianist’s execution of the sonata was consummate.
  3. the act of performing; of doing something successfully; using knowledge as distinguished from merely possessing it; “they criticised his performance as mayor”; “experience generally improves performance”
  4. The act of executing; a carrying into effect or to completion; performance; achievement; consummation; as, the execution of a plan, a work, etc.
  5. The act of the mode of performing a work of art, of performing on an instrument, of engraving, etc.; as, the execution of a statue, painting, or piece of music.
  6. That which is executed or accomplished; effect; effective work; — usually with do.

I think the key thing to remember here is the term, SUCCESSFULLY. And while I don’t profess to be the end-all judge of “SUCCESSFULLY,” I can tell you that I’ve read enough specs and watched enough movies to know that when it comes to writing specs, concept and execution is everything. As I told the sender of said email, 99% of the scripts I read are shit. On top of that, less than 10% of those 1% specs I read are well executed with extreme emphasis on WELL. I should just be saying EXECUTED instead of WELL EXECUTED because if you know what you’re doing and your work is up to snuff, then you simply EXECUTE.

Sadly, we no longer live in a world where craftsmen EXECUTE. Is that because we really don’t have that many craftsmen left?

Yeah, I think so.

My neighbor just a built a new house and he had to go through several contractors to end up with a well executed house… LOL. No, he didn’t start out with the idea of having to go through three contractors… It just ended up that way because not ANY of the contractors could execute everything WELL i.e., they couldn’t execute. They ended up doing piece work i.e., one contractor had guys that could frame the house really well but when it came to applying the stucco, they obviously had no fucking clue as to what they were doing… i.e., they winged it. The second contractor came in and took all the bad stucco down and reapplied it and did a great job but screwed up the drywall and the door openings. The third contractor fixed the door openings and the drywall. Only time will tell when this contractor fucks something up and my neighbor will have to find yet another contractor to FIX something the previous contractor fucked up and on and on and on until the house is completed.

And so far, my neighbor is over $65K in the hole because of all the work these previous contractors keep fucking up. It’s been easier and faster for him to simply go find another contractor rather than bring suit or mechanic’s liens against any of these idiots.

Does this sound strangely similar and or familiar to many of the movies that eventually make it to the big screen?

You tell me. LOL.

I’m not gonna sit here and tell you NOT to write that spec script about strippers, prostitutes, and the mafia… Nope. Ain’t gonna do that. In fact, maybe YOU have to write about that to eventually or finally get to the great concepts that lie dormant deep within your cerebral cortex.

What I will tell you to do with that stripper/prostitute/mafia epic however, is to at least TRY to come up with something different. I just had another very long email today from someone attempting to justify their stripper/prostitute/mafia epic to me. They didn’t ask me to read it, thank God — they were just venting. But their venting rationalized the need and or necessity for just one more stripper/prostitute/mafia epic. LOL. Rantings like, “This is just as good as Goodfellas!” or the ever popular “I’ve seen at least a hundred movies like this but this one’s better!”

Oh really?

Something tells me IT AIN’T.

Maybe rather than going with something you’ve seen a hundred times, maybe you should keep searching for a concept that brings you as close to mental orgasm as possible. At least that’s a fuckin’ start. LOL. Yeah, rely on your senses. Does the concept make you sweat? Does it make your heart beat really fast? Does it take your breath away? Is something telling you this concept is so fucking great that you can’t even believe YOU came up with it? Does the hair on the back of your neck stand up? Goosebumps?

No?

Why not?

Does that idea kick your ass between your ears and make you walk around like you’ve got the best secret in the world that only YOU know about? Have you even tried to find an idea or concept that does anything like I’ve described to YOU? If not, maybe it’s time to give THOSE MUSCLES (whatever they are) a workout. Get them used to thinking differently. Find the trigger that makes you feel like you just found buried treasure.

Then once you find it, do it the justice it deserves. Take the extra time it really does take to EXECUTE it. Don’t execute without knowing WHY it kicked your ass between your ears and once you figure that out, chase each and every one of those motherfuckers down and stick them in your execution.

Perform your . We’re selling something, right? They say KNOWLEDGE is 90% of the sale and boy does that ever ring true with spec screenplays… How many times have I finished reading a spec where it was obvious the writer trying to sell me didn’t even have 50% covered. LOL. 50% does not a sale make unless you’ve already made a sale.

How many times have we entered conversations where the other person obviously doesn’t even know what the fuck they’re talking about? Do they persuade you? Do they manage to make you think like them? Probably not. Especially in this day and age of what seems to be the repeating of sound bites over and over… LOL. That’s fine for them but is it fine for YOU? It shouldn’t be if you want to be a screenwriter and we’ve got that unfortunate obligation to know all sides of the story… You do know ALL SIDES of the story, don’t you?

I hate reading screenplays that do not seem like the writer had that 90%. I feel like they’re cheating. I feel like they don’t want to do the work. I feel like they aren’t really that committed to what they’re doing and if they don’t seem that committed why should I commit?

If you’re going to go ahead and write a spec about something we’ve basically all seen before, you might as well stand the fuckin’ thing UPSIDE DOWN. Instead of giving us the direct to DVD version, go the extra mile and do something with it we’ve never seen before! Make YOUR VERSION the new version by which this genre will forever be measured! And, if you can’t pull that off — that’s okay — as long as that’s what you’ve been striving for.

I mean go ahead and pull that spec out right now. Got it? Good. Why is it DIFFERENT than the plethora of movies within the same genre? Is it differerent? Is it good different? Is it the same as everything we’ve seen before? Even if it’s well written, is it the same old tired thing we’ve seen a hundred times before?

If so, then what do you think YOU should do about it? Leave it? Go on to something new? Find a new concept that makes you hyperventilate?

I guarantee you this…

If you write a story that excites you in at least a couple of ways described above, you have a much better chance of getting someone else as excited. If you can manage that, you have a much better chance of breaking in and doing it again and again and again.

Unk

November 2, 2008 | Filed Under Screenwriting

71 Comments