When your agent or manager says “think high concept” what does he or she really mean?
High concept this high concept that. It’s all I hear now a days, and I don’t think the person screaming it down our throats even knows what high concept means.
In my opinion, high concept is something an agent can sell in twenty words or less. They want to pick up the phone, call their buddy in the industry and pitch them a one sentence logline,
A few minutes later they negotiate a six or seven figure deal and go out for drinks to celebrate. After all, it’s not called show biz for nothing.
High concept fluctuates depending on what is trending in the box office. For example, after Paranormal Activity we saw a variety of found footage spin offs.
After the Hunger Games we got deep into young adult pieces such as The Maze Runner, Divergent and The 5th Wave.
You might be thinking to yourself, “but Shant I’m not repped by a hot shot agent or I don’t have access to Jerry Bruckheimer. How the hell am I going to get $100+ million to make a high concept film?!”
This is where you got to take it to contained high concept.
This is the sweet spot of filmmaking in the Indie World. Coming up with a project that can be shot in limited locations and focusing on character development will get you very far.
No need for expensive explosions and scenes with thousands of extras.
If you haven’t seen the film Buried try to see it at some point. It stars Ryan Reynolds and literally 95% 0f the movie takes place in a coffin.
Think how creative the production team was when developing this project. You always see one location pieces at a house or church, but a 90 minute movie taken place in a coffin?
The average length of a casket is 84 inches; width 28 inches, and height 23 inches.
Obviously it helps to have a star like Ryan Reynolds in a concept like this, but there’s no reason you can’t do something similar on a smaller scale.
One of the most depressing movies I’ve ever seen came out last year. If you’ve seen Room with Brie Larson you know what I’m talking about.
Most of the film takes place in a shed. Yup, you could have shot this Oscar winning movie in your backyard.
Next time somebody tells you to create something high concept don’t think you need to make the next Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings.
You can still give them what they want by developing interesting characters in unique and contained settings.
Genre Summit is less then a month away. World class writers and directors are going to go more in depth on how you can create high concept projects that sell.
If you want your free ticket click the link below.
See ya on the “inside.”
Shant Yegparian