Comments on: The First Rule Of Screenwriting: Strong Concept

By: Do you understand 'concept' in story development?The Story Department

Do you understand 'concept' in story development?The Story Department — Fri, 25 Sep 2015 10:00:10 +0000

[…] Check out which movies work and which don’t, often you’ll find that those with poor concepts fall by the wayside. […]

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 20:20:24 +0000

In reply to Karel Segers.

I loved THE BABADOOK, too, but all I could think of was “Why didn’t this get a theatrical release in the USA before Halloween instead of something like Ouija?” I probably couldn’t get a good answer even if I asked a Ouija board…

Looking forward to seeing WHIPLASH. GONE GIRL was ok… a bit too, I don’t know, tabloid-ishy in a trashy way. Not Fincher’s best work (and neither was Girl With the Dragon Tattoo which apparently didn’t garner enough interest to Hollywoodize the sequels.)

By: Karel Segers

Karel Segers — Mon, 03 Nov 2014 11:21:11 +0000

In reply to Clive Hopkins.

Clive – I totally agree. Watched ANOTHER EARTH recently, and wondered “Why are we not making this type of film???”

Watched THE BABADOOK tonight – Apple TV, love it – and all I could think of was “How much did this cost???”

By: Clive Hopkins

Clive Hopkins — Mon, 03 Nov 2014 01:40:25 +0000

There are two kinds of audiences for movies. Most people are happy with big-budget, star-laden Hollywood fare. But there’s another audience for smaller, edgier, sometimes foreign language fare that we might call ‘indi’ or ‘art house’. But both these terms are misleading, so I’ll call them ‘specialist’.

So what kind of films get made in Australia? Apart from George Miller and Baz Luhrman, no one’s making films for that big audience. But I would argue that neither are we making films for the specialist audience. The specialist films that people actually pay to see are edgier (THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ALICE CREED), more challenging (MONSTERS), more original (BOYHOOD) and especially cheaper (ANOTHER EARTH, $100,000 budget).

Think of films as motor vehicles. Most people buy cars, while a minority prefers the edgier, two-wheel motor bike experience. Australians, though, keep making three-wheeler cars, and scratch their heads every time they make one and discover no one’s buying.

The argument about different distribution models is a red herring. Unless your movie bears some resemblance to movies that people actually want to pay to see, then it doesn’t matter how you distribute it. I don’t want to buy a three-wheeler car, but neither do I want to lease one, rent one for the weekend, or borrow one from my mate. Oh, and if your movie cost $12m to make (THE ROVER, TRACKS), then in 2014 it MUST do significant business in cinemas in order to drive the sales in other media. No amount of alternative distribution is going to change that.