I remember back in the day where all I needed to start a screenplay was an idea and a little inspiration. I wrote a lot of bad screenplays with that approach. The problem with those scripts was that there wasn’t a whole lot of substance to them. Either the idea was too light, the characters too bland, or the plot petered out. Over time, through my own experience and by reading a lot of screenwriter interviews, I learned that professionals approach movie ideas a lot differently than beginners.
Most beginners will get a new idea and, just because the idea excited them, start writing the screenplay. They don’t need anything besides that. Some of the advanced beginners (a screenwriter who’s written 2-3 screenplays) might go one step further and ask, “Is this a movie I would pay to see?” If the answer is yes, they write it. Believe it or not, there’s an advantage to this approach. If the only question you have to ask is that one, you cut through all the bulls*&$.
But there’s an advantage to the Hollywood approach as well. A lot of the criteria they ask for does end up helping the script. So if you completely ignore these things, you are potentially ignoring stuff that would make your script better. What are the questions pros asks themselves before starting a screenplay? Let’s take a look.
1) Is the idea fresh? – All this means is, is your idea current in some way? Are you giving us something new? Or, if you’re giving us something old, have you found a new spin on it? I’ll give you a couple of examples. The “Don’t Worry, Darling” spec that had a huge bidding war last month was exploring #MeToo issues as well as creating a new spin on that subject matter, with its “1950s altered reality” component. “The Hunt” spec is another good example. It follows a group of elite liberals who’ve created a game of hunting down conservatives. Ironically, the idea turned out to be a little too current, and therefore, too hot to handle. But that’s why it got made. Because it was a fresh take on an old idea. An example of an un-fresh idea would be the 2017 Reese Witherspoon movie, “Home Again.” Haven’t heard of it? Exactly. Look it up. It’s a movie about a woman coming back home. There isn’t a single fresh exciting element to that concept, which is why nobody saw it.
2) Is there at least one character that an actor would die to play? – Seasoned professionals know that a project doesn’t take off and start getting people excited unless it’s got a hot actor or a hot director attached. So you want to create at least one character that would be exciting for an actor to play. Maybe they get to chew up the scenery like Tony Stark. Maybe they’re extremely complex – they’re a high school teacher heroin addict, like Ryan Gosling in Half-Nelson. Maybe they live a double-life. Maybe they’ve got complicated medical issues. There’s a reason Chris Pratt signed onto the project, “Cowboy, Ninja, Viking,” where a somewhat mentally deranged guy slips in and out of those three characters. The project was later delayed, but that’s not the point. If you can come up with a character that one of the top 10 grossing actors in the world wants to play? Hollywood will eat out of the palm of your hand.
3) Is the idea/genre trending? – A long time ago, when I was thinking about trading stocks for a living, my dad talked some sense into me. He explained that the people who were successful doing this were people who spent every waking hour inside of it, and therefore had all the information way before I did. The same could be said for the professional screenwriter. They are on top of what’s trending, what trends are ending, and what trends are right around the corner. Ideally, you want to write something in a trend that’s just starting. You wanted to be writing the female-centric comedy one day after Bridesmaids came out. Or, if you’re really on top of it, you know of a unique movie coming out in four months, you’re convinced it’s going to be a hit, and you’re writing a script in the same spiritual genre. That way you’ve got your script ready right when that trend begins.
4) Does the concept have legs beyond the first act? – As creatives, you’re coming up with ideas all the time. Or, at least, I hope you are. But not every idea is a movie. Some ideas are just a hook (see yesterday’s review – The Phantom Hook). This is a spot where professionals have a HUGE advantage over beginners. They’ve written so many screenplays that they have a better sense of which concepts are going to peter out and which can last an entire 110 pages. Namely, you’re looking for ideas that have a clear goal after the first act, and also, enough character conflict that you have something to do with your characters in the second act. Remember that the second act is the “conflict act.” So if you don’t have any character relationships that are hampered by deep-seated conflict, your second act will be all plot, and we won’t feel a deeper connection to the story.
5) Am I passionate about this?/What am I trying to say with this story? – Passion is like gasoline. There’s a finite amount of it. So you want to start with as much passion as possible. Seasoned writers know that there will be second drafts, third drafts, if they’re lucky and a producer becomes interested, 10th drafts, 15th drafts. So if you’re not all-in on an idea, you will run out of gas at some point. Also, do you have something to say with this story? It might seem like an unimportant question initially. “It’s a cool idea, Carson. Who cares about all that deep English class nonsense.” One of the reasons writers give up on scripts 6, 7, 8 drafts in, is because they’re empty. It was a cool idea and nothing more. When Jon Favreau was at a low point in his career, having made the dismal Iron Man 2 and the dismaler Cowboys and Aliens, he came up with this idea, “Chef,” about a disgraced Michelin Chef who decides to start a food truck, and the reason it grossed 20 times its budget can be attributed to Favreau wanting to say something with the movie. He talked about it in his interviews. This movie was all about making mistakes in life, owning up to them, and getting back on the saddle. Because that’s a universal theme everyone can relate to, it helped that movie become something more than a lol food truck flick.
So look, am I saying that you have to do it like the pros do it? No. The pro way has its own downside in that these writers are so far inside the system, they sometimes struggle to see the forest through the trees. I’ll give you a real world analogy. There’s this NBA player, Joakim Noah. He was on the Chicago Bulls for awhile and even made the All-Star team. But Joakim Noah started breaking down in his last couple of years with the Bulls to the point where he was a fraction of his former self. The following summer, when Joakim became a free agent, the New York Knicks shockingly signed him to a 72 million dollar 4-year contract!
Here we have a general manager who’s being paid tons of money for his expertise and who has an entire staff dedicated to understanding the value of players around the league. And not only did they get it wrong, they got it REALLY WRONG. Joakim would average 5 points a game his first year with the Knicks and 2 points a game his second year before they booted him. Now here’s the remarkable part of this story. There wasn’t a single NBA fan surprised by this. In fact, they all said at the time of the signing that it was one of the worst signings they’d ever seen a team make. How is it that the casual fan knows more than the general manager? The answer is the same as the professional screenwriter evaluating an idea. Professionals have a propensity to over-think things. Whereas all the beginner cares about is whether he likes the idea.
So which way is right? That’s up to you. I like the way Jordan Peele puts it: “Write the best idea you have that hasn’t been a movie yet.” But I think it’s worth going through these five questions just to see where your idea stands. Because good ideas are rare. I know that as I’ve seen over 10,000 loglines. So the more punch you can start your script with, the better the chance you have of writing something great.
What boxes must be ticked for you to write a screenplay?
Yo, do you have a logline that isn’t working? Are those queries going out unanswered? Try out my logline service. It’s 25 bucks for a 1-10 rating, 150 word analysis, and a logline rewrite. I also have a deluxe service for 40 dollars that allows for unlimited e-mails back and forth where we tweak the logline until you’re satisfied. I consult on everything screenwriting related (first page, first ten pages, first act, outlines, and of course, full scripts). So if you’re interested in getting some quality feedback, e-mail me at carsonreeves1@gmail.com with the subject line: “CONSULTATION” and I’ll get back to you right away!
