So a funny thing happened recently.
A writer by the name of Ron Brawler ordered my logline service (it’s just $25 for the basic service and $40 for the deluxe – carsonreeves1@gmail.com) and this was the logline he sent me…
Title: Guitar Lessons
Logline: When an aging guitar god is reduced to giving guitar lessons to snarky teenagers and snippety baby-boomers, he feels his life is over. But maybe it’s only begun.
I liked the first half of the logline but anybody who knows me knows I detest the vague logline ending “…but maybe it’s only just begun.” So after requesting more information about his story, specifically what Ron meant by “but maybe it’s only begun,” I was able to help him come up with something more specific.
Title: Guitar Lessons
Logline: An aging guitar god, whose life has been reduced to giving snarky teenagers and snippety baby-boomers guitar lessons, is shocked when his old bandmate shows up proposing they audition for an American Idol-type reality show.
Here’s where the fun began. After we finished, Ron asked me, “Okay, so, wanna read the script now?”
He wasn’t trying to trap me or anything but, in a sense, that’s what he had done. Here he’d paid for my logline service to make the logline great. He’d gotten my guarantee that this was the best possible version of the logline. Shouldn’t I, then, want to read his script? I literally put my stamp of approval on it!
I was momentary flummoxed by the request. He’s right, I thought. I *should* want to read his script. The very nature of me not wanting to read his script would be confirmation that I didn’t do my job well enough.
The dilemma resolved itself a few moments later as I realized the answer: A logline and a concept are two different things. A concept is the movie idea you come up with. It’s dinosaurs on an island. It’s a young white woman who takes her black boyfriend home to meet her parents. It’s a girl’s soccer team whose plane crashes in the remote wilderness and they become cannibals. That’s concept.
The logline’s job, meanwhile, is to be the best possible representation of that concept. One way to think of it is, you’ve written an amazing song. Now you need the best singer to sing it. Because if William Hung sings your beautiful song, it’s not going to sound beautiful, is it?
In the case of this specific logline, I thought the concept was fun. But did I think it was amazing enough to carve two hours out of an extremely busy week to read it? No. It wasn’t at that level conceptually.
This brought me to another realization, which was that all this business is, is finding people who like the same things you do. This particular movie idea took place in the music industry. I’m not a big music industry guy. Hence, I wasn’t burning to read it.
Conversely, had this been some cool sci-fi time travel idea like Source Code, one of my favorite scripts ever, I would’ve been interested. I’m also looking for a great plane crash idea. If that pops up in my e-mail, you will have my attention.
I bring this up to remind everyone that it’s not just a numbers game in the concept department, but in regards to subject matter as well. You need to find people who like the same topics, the same ideas, the same subject matter, the same genres that you do.
I remember how frustrating it was trying to get my own scripts read back in the day. The hustle was real. I still remember one instance where this tech guy I knew was looking to make movies and he’d recently hired a head of production. He told me that if he was going to finance my road trip movie, I would need to win the production head over. So I set up a lunch with this guy and, after some small talk, started to pitch him. I distinctly remember his eyes glazing over as I went over my story. He wasn’t just disinterested in my idea. He actively hated it, as well as the fact that he was stuck with me for the next hour.
I used to get so down about these encounters. But now that I’m on the other side, I laugh at them. So the guy hated road trip movies. So what!? Does that mean everyone hates road trip movies? Of course not. However, too many writers, including myself at the time, think a rejection like that is the end of the world. Nothing could be further from the truth. All it means is that you and this other guy don’t see eye to eye. That’s it. Move on.
Now can you improve the percentages so that more people like your stuff? Of course. Write a concept that has broader appeal! The broader the appeal, the more it cuts through pre-established preferences. I don’t actively go to the theater to watch shark movies. But shark movies always do well. So if you send me a good shark concept, you can bet your bottom dollar I’ll check it out.
All of this speaks to the nature of concept generation. It’s something you want to be thinking about obsessively. If you want a script you won’t have to query the snot out of Hollywood with, come up with a broad appeal concept. The Sixth Sense, Yesterday, A Quiet Place, Free Guy. You’ll bump up the bite rate to 40, 50, even 60%.
If you want to write a script that’s more about what you, personally, are interested in – The Mule, First Man, Ladybird, Bridge of Spies, my road trip movie – be aware that you will have to query a lot more people and endure a lot more no’s.
Will a great logline on a personal story improve the number of read requests you get? Of course. A great logline will get you more reads than a lousy logline. But your logline has a ceiling. And that ceiling is your concept. The best a logline can do is clearly and succinctly capture your concept.
Now, let’s say Ron had sent me a Back to the Future type concept (my favorite movie ever) that I helped him create the perfect logline for. He then asked me the same question: “Okay, so you want to read my script now?”
I still would’ve hesitated. Why? Because 97 out of 100 amateur scripts I read aren’t good. This is not the writer’s fault. It’s all the writers before him’s fault. They’ve put this number in my head, whereby I know there’s only a 3% chance the script is going to be worth my time. So my first thought is always, “I have so many things I have to do today. Do I really have time to gamble on a script from an unknown writer?” I hate that the answer to that is ‘no’ but I’ll ask you guys, when’s the last time you carved out two hours to read a script from a writer you don’t know?
Which goes back to the best advice I can give any writer: go into battle with the best possible concept you can come up with. Only write scripts that have a really good idea that’s easy to pitch. It solves SOOOO many problems. It makes your life SOOOOO much easier. A great idea makes me forget the percentages.
And there’s a light at the end of this tunnel. Once you’re in the system and people know your name, they’ll read your scripts just because it’s you. Which means you can write personal stories again. But when you’re an unknown, the only way to become known is to go big. Which is why it’s best to write a concept that’s ‘talk about worthy.’ What’s ‘talk about worthy?’ It’s when the person you send your query to can’t wait to tell someone else about your idea. “Oh my God. You’ll never believe the idea this guy just sent me…”. That’s when you know you have a great idea.
To summarize, you first need to come up with a great idea (your concept). Once you’ve done that, write a logline that best conveys that idea. You then query producers, managers, executives, agents, and prodcos. The broader your concept’s appeal, the more requests to read the script you’ll get. More reads equals a better chance that someone of importance will find your script and want to do something with it.
Simple right?
So, what concepts do Scriptshadow readers have cooking up this week?
