AN IDEA ISN'T A CONCEPT!

AN IDEA ISN'T A CONCEPT!
by Craig Kellem

This is fast world in which we live. And how anxious we all are to get directly
to our (hopefully) plentiful destinies. Perhaps I notice this with writers more
than with others out there, but maybe I'm just more focused on our brethren. But
I suspect this aspect of contemporary living is everywhere.

What I'm trying to say is that too many writers are rushing projects, seemingly
going for the final draft TO GET IT READ PRONTO BY THE POWERS THAT BE before they've spent enough time in the sandbox spawning the prerequisite "art." In
fact, there are more writers than you'd believe who start writing screenplays
before they even have a solid concept.

I'm serious.

You need a real CONCEPT before you can DEVELOP a movie project. It needs to be thought through, fussed over, examined, obsessed about, vetted, loved etc. And
please remember that AN IDEA ISN'T A CONCEPT! A concept isn't a one or two line notion. It's a fleshed out "creative invention" brimming with potential and
ready for the next step on the assembly line, namely development.

Sometimes, on the heels of an underdeveloped creative flash, and on the wings of
our longing to get there, writers commence with ill-conceived projects, and via
the adrenaline which ensues, don't realize their (often) fatal mistake until
it's too late.

Often writers can misunderstand what a solid concept actually is. For example, I
was talking to a writer recently who tried to justify his screenplay which was
" about nothing," with the TV shows Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Boy, was
he ever off! These shows are HUGE concepts involving tremendous strategies which
cleverly mine "the little things" in life, and frame them through a prism of a
certain kind of convincing reality. What ingenuity it takes these show-makers
to convince you it's all real, and what skill and preparation it takes to
explore these kind of niche creative areas that so few other practitioners have
ever been able to exploit in such a way. Bet Larry David and the gang took their
time developing them. Lots of hit and miss, back and forth etc etc..

Another example that comes to mind would be a recent contest winner, Jim Janosky
whose concept was about a guy intent on killing himself and who takes a ride
across the country as a prerequisite to the big jump into eternity. There are
many writers out there who might have built nicely onto this notion but maybe
not as much as is needed and this could end up on the pages. Janosky (who's
getting tremendous reaction to the script as well as some serious action-and
who's given me permission to tell you all this) had his work cut out after
hatching the initial idea. THE IDEA WAS NOT YET A CONCEPT-he really had only
just begun. What followed included MANY hits and misses in the INITIAL spawning
process, followed by the slow carving out of the beginnings of a terrific story
threads and subplots, one involving a relationship with "a one of a kind" mangy
dog, that he finds along the way and with whom he shares many dubious and
poignant parallels; a string of unique and juicy completions of old rivalries,
resentments, and lost love situations; visits to outrageous, story rich and
unique places, and finally a fateful hookup with an old guy, and some nice folks
from whom he derives new strength and sparkle (so much so that he finally
decides to hang around on Earth a little longer). All of these nuggetts (plus
lots more) had to be invented and carefully placed into the matrix, before the
CONCEPT was fully realized and then fully developed.

High Concept is also a candidate for real thought and scrutiny before a script
should be started. A old favorite of mine is the movie BIG. What a good idea it
was to explore what would happen to a kid who makes a wish to be grownup and
then gets it. But did the writer know what he had when he first came up with
this fanciful notion? Could it have been, after scrutiny, just another cute idea
that might make a good sketch on a SNL, or a "C" subplot in a sitcom. Many
might have declared victory after coming up with this idea and started writing
early, on the wings of all the obvious schtick that comes to mind and general
manifest destiny -like situations. This writer didn't. The concept was explored
and tested with the many possible ways to go, and tones to take, not to mention
other important considerations, such as what level of reality should be
maintained and how much humor should be injected, the whole nine yards. The
final choices worked well. Things such as putting the kid in a job as a toy
company maven, juxtapositioning the grown up kid with his little buddy (who even
while being aware of the situation, no longer fitted in) were excellent choices
which enhanced this idea and helped turn it into a real concept. At some point
after all this labor and sifting, a solid framework was decided upon and then,
and only then deep story development commenced.

The point that I'm trying to make is that one must fully dance with the idea,
allow it to breathe, grow and broaden into a fully developed concept followed by
the next step, involving lists of scenes, moments, bits, and pieces and then
begin to connect them into story threads, etc etc before even thinking about the
actual writing. And in doing these things, allow yourself to appreciate the
wonderfully uncomfortable feeling of not commencing with the screenplay until
the concept and all its adjuncts are FULLY realized.

Another symptom of this sometimes "rush to nowhere" are well-intended writers
who seek instant technical solutions to artistic problems. So many want to be
provided with the correct note on the correct page, so that the situation or
problem can be IMMEDIATELY resolved. The real problem is that we sometimes don't grasp what's really needed, which might be a fresh creative turn, or an ounce or two of new artistic inspiration, which only comes from REALIZING THAT YOU NEED IT, AND BEING WILLING TO SPEND THE TIME WALTZING WITH THE ARTISTIC MYSTERY PROVIDER WITHIN OURSELVES, THAT ALWAYS COMES TO OUR RESCUE IF PROPERLY NOTIFIED BY A PATIENT SUITOR. The point is that some things are simply not found even in the fattest encyclopedia!

Hopefully my point here is clear and can be illustrated by my recent
communication to a young writer --"your material continues to feel like the
proceeds of somehow patching things together, rather than something born out of
a burning creative vision dying to be expressed. You seem more like a guy who
can't wait to write a script rather than one who has a script to write. Please
consider this and take your time, you do good work and it deserves to be treated
more delicately"

And as for the perceived urgency of getting your script read I say this-getting
your script read is NOT the problem. It's getting your script RIGHT so that when
it gets read, something good happens!