When high-concept films ... bomb.

[sc111]

So HW execs want high concept. Yet we've seen quite a few high-concept films limp out of the theatre.

What do you think has gone wrong when a high concept, commercial film fails to do well with audiences?

My guess -- the execs are out of touch with audiences.

[TATAM78]

Re: When high-concept films ... bomb.

Well, if it's poorly executed for one....

FLIGHTPLAN!

[Ravenlocks]

Re: When high-concept films ... bomb.

My guess is also poor execution/overreliance on special effects instead of story.

[TATAM78]

Re: When high-concept films ... bomb.

True, but I hated Flightplan with a passion and it is now my mission to slander it every chance I get.

Luckily it was the high concept that put bums on seats. I think it could have been far more successful through word of mouth, if the concept was executed without using cheap manipulation tricks to fill the gaps of credibility, that riddled this movie.

P.S Did I mention that i hated FLIGHTPLAN? Garbage...

[sasqits]

Re: When high-concept films ... bomb.

Over reliance on the concept and not enough time spent on the "little" things, like dialogue, characters, plot holes, performance, pretty much everything else.

High concept is easy to sell. Easy to sell does not mean the film will be any good. But the business is more about selling than making good films.

So once the concept is there, they throw in a star that will draw, a script that has a beginning, middle and end and will last an hour and fifty minutes, someone who knows how to work a camera, someone who can edit, etc. It's more like paint by numbers than it is art.

Unfortunately, most people support the high concept films so they can complain about them - people like to complain - and art like Capote, while successful, does not put up big enough numbers to make the business shift away from high concept and toward art.

High concept and art can co-exist, but it's the concept that sells, so it is the focus of the business, while the art is ushered to the cheap seats.

[TATAM78]

Re: When high-concept films ... bomb.

I don't really know anything about the inner workings of a big studio but I'm thinking movies like Flightplan and especially thriller genres that go out on assignment have a tight schedule to meet.

With a thriller this can be very difficult to do because they have such complicated through-lines. The smallest of changes can wreak havoc in your script.

My current script is a thriller and it has taken me 14 months to get right. Saying that I don't write full time but sometimes you just need time for the idea to really evolve and grow into its full potential. The other day I was in a tax seminar...blah blah blah and I was finally able to work out my showdown scene, something I have been struggline with for the last few months.

So what I'm trying to say here is that maybe these scripts are victims of a tight studio schedule and writers don't get enough time to really nut out the execution of the concept they are presented with. You then get movies made that totally miss the mark.

Like I said, I could be very wrong with this assumption, but it makes sense that this could happen quite regularly.

[roscoegino]

Re: When high-concept films ... bomb.

Why high concept films bomb?

Part of life. No way can an exec take the risk out of spending umpteen millions of dollars on something s/he won't see until next year.

You can blame the guys who have been trying to copy Spielberg's 31 year old formula for the lopsided high concept-to-critically acclaimed film ratio. It's the same raw deal with artists, a-hem, profiteers who "pay homage" to Hitchcock, Lucas and the like. They extract the eye opening elements at the expense of clever storytelling (which would actually require brains).

Still, there are dumb films that score and good films that flop. All things being equal, the final tally will always come down to marketing, timing and (I hate this word, but...) luck.

[whistlelock]

Re: When high-concept films ... bomb.

so, if it bombed, was it really high concept?



You know, trees falling with no one to hear them kind of question.

[Deus Ex Machine]

Re: When high-concept films ... bomb.

High concept films fail for the same reason non high concept films fail.

Were the studio execs out of touch with the audience when they made Life is a House? It followed American Beauty. Audience's obviously had an appetite for family melodramas. So why did it fail? Was the fact that it had a non-high concept to blame for its failure at the box office?

Blaming high concepts or SPFX or even execution is like playing pin the tail on the donkey. Sometimes you might be right but usually you are wrong. The truth is that most films fail because they just don't find the right audience at the right time. It's really that simple and that random. You can never predict a hit or a flop, which is what makes this business so frustrating and so exciting.

[whistlelock]

Re: When high-concept films ... bomb.

I agree with you, often you can find a movie on dvd that people barely remember and flopped that was a great piece of film.

but, I posed that question because so often you see High Concept written as if it were a religious noun.

I think that high concept is like art. You'll know it when you see it, and there's no certainty that no one but you will like it.

[sc111]

Re: When high-concept films ... bomb.

I asked because over the past year I've been given several comedy/rom-com scripts as examples of high concepts that sell.

I could even argue that many of them really don't qualify as high concept.
Yet three of them have been released over the past few months & haven't done well.

I do tend to agree with those who say execution is sometimes the reason these films don't do well. Because the concepts were intriguing but the scripts seemed to skim the surface of the concept's potential.

On a related note, there are more remakes and films based on old TV shows in the pipeline. I wonder if this is a trend that's peaking or in a decline.

[Deus Ex Machine]

Re: When high-concept films ... bomb.

High concepts are what sells in terms of scripts and films.

I don't think there is any correlation between high concepts and poor box office.

In fact, I'd say that high concepts tend to do better in the box office than non-high concepts. Look at the biggest money makers and you will find a list of mostly high concept films.

High concept stories may not always be runaway hits but they do tend to get people into the theaters more than non-high concepts do, which is why HW wants high concepts, especially from new unproven writers.

[Deus Ex Machine]

Re: When high-concept films ... bomb.

Boski,

Well said.

There is definitely two kinds of movies.

A) Those that are not likely to be huge money makers even if the execution is stellar, making them a big risk to make.

B) Those that have the potential to be huge money makers even if the execution is not stellar, making them less of a risk to make.

High concepts definitely fall into the B category.

[English Dave]

Re: When high-concept films ... bomb.

High concept only fails because of poor execution. But the orphan known as poor execution has a multitude of fathers. [what?]

The writer who wasn't competent.

The exec who couldn't see the wood for the trees.

The director who didn't get it and screwed it up.

A good idea is just that. It takes a lot more to make a good movie. But the chances of making a succesful movie without a good idea are the same as making a good movie without a good script.

Slim.

[prescribe22]

Re: When high-concept films ... bomb.

High concept only fails because of poor execution. But the orphan known as poor execution has a multitude of fathers. [what?]

The writer who wasn't competent.

The exec who couldn't see the wood for the trees.

The director who didn't get it and screwed it up.

A good idea is just that. It takes a lot more to make a good movie. But the chances of making a succesful movie without a good idea are the same as making a good movie without a good script.

Slim.

Agreed.

A high concept idea has never been the root cause of a bad movie.

Saying otherwise is like claiming a steak tasted terrible because you started with a great cut of meat.