High Concept vs New High Concept

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Re: High Concept vs New High Concept

    Pandemic cabin fever strikes again.
    Advice from writer, Kelly Sue DeConnick. "Try this: if you can replace your female character with a sexy lamp and the story still basically works, maybe you need another draft.-

    Comment


    • Re: High Concept vs New High Concept

      Originally posted by JoeNYC View Post
      Please, I suggest we stop singling people out for personal talk. These of screenwriting forums to talk about the craft and business. This is not a gossip forum.
      Yes. Please give it a nice long rest, any and all doing this. It's not needed nor is it helping the situation. Focus on topics not users.
      Will
      Done Deal Pro
      www.donedealpro.com

      Comment


      • Re: High Concept vs New High Concept

        Originally posted by lostfootage View Post
        I think most people are too in love with their own ideas to want to steal other people's ideas.
        I think you overestimate people.

        And the people that would be desperate enough to steal an idea likely don't have the skills to bring it to fruition anyway.
        Counting on people not being adept enough to pull off an idea just because they pinched someone else's 'home run' concept is Russian Roulette, IMO. Especially when those people are fellow screenwriters.
        Last edited by Done Deal Pro; 08-15-2020, 03:01 PM. Reason: Fixed quote code.
        M.A.G.A.

        Comment


        • Re: High Concept vs New High Concept

          Originally posted by finalact4 View Post
          I wouldn't think a friend would take another writer's idea for their own.

          I wouldn't put up an idea I'm seriously thinking about writing here, at least not until the outline or first draft are done, but I would and do share it with writers I trust including my writer's group.
          BTW "stealking ideas" always make me laugh because well I almost every idea has been done or is being thought of by 10 writers... and even if I posted exactly my idea in logline form -- that leaves the other 95% of work left to do and decisions to make

          We should try that. Let's all write the first 3 pages of same idea and see what happens. Could take my Inbox idea or someone else can pitch one...

          Just to prove how hard it is to "steal ideas."

          Comment


          • Re: High Concept vs New High Concept

            Originally posted by Bono View Post
            BTW "stealking ideas" always make me laugh
            Are you honestly telling us that if you had the original concept for A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Matrix, Jurassic Park and The Terminator that you'd happily share the details, including logline, here? When others can pitch their idea or even completed script, before you can or even and execute the concept better? Even if they couldn't write a better script than you, if they get in there first and sell it, then your take is going to be DOA.
            M.A.G.A.

            Comment


            • Re: High Concept vs New High Concept

              Originally posted by Bono View Post
              BTW "stealking ideas" always make me laugh because well I almost every idea has been done or is being thought of by 10 writers... and even if I posted exactly my idea in logline form -- that leaves the other 95% of work left to do and decisions to make

              We should try that. Let's all write the first 3 pages of same idea and see what happens. Could take my Inbox idea or someone else can pitch one...

              Just to prove how hard it is to "steal ideas."
              It's not about stealing an idea, it's about executing it better and faster.
              "Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy b/c you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say." -- Edward Snowden

              Comment


              • Re: High Concept vs New High Concept

                Originally posted by SundownInRetreat View Post
                Are you honestly telling us that if you had the original concept for A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Matrix, Jurassic Park and The Terminator that you'd happily share the details, including logline, here? When others can pitch their idea or even completed script, before you can or even and execute the concept better? Even if they couldn't write a better script than you, if they get in there first and sell it, then your take is going to be DOA.
                A woman named Sofia Stewart filed lawsuits claiming both the Matrix and Terminator were stolen from work she had submitted to the directors of those movies. She lost.
                Advice from writer, Kelly Sue DeConnick. "Try this: if you can replace your female character with a sexy lamp and the story still basically works, maybe you need another draft.-

                Comment


                • Re: High Concept vs New High Concept

                  Originally posted by SundownInRetreat View Post
                  Are you honestly telling us that if you had the original concept for A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Matrix, Jurassic Park and The Terminator that you'd happily share the details, including logline, here? When others can pitch their idea or even completed script, before you can or even and execute the concept better? Even if they couldn't write a better script than you, if they get in there first and sell it, then your take is going to be DOA.
                  OF COURSE NOT! What am I crazy?

                  I'm simply saying, writers often feell their ideas are one of a kind when they are not. That's all.

                  And it's not like if I had the idea for The Matrix -- could I ever write it like it came out. So it's hard to steal a great vision like that.

                  Jurrassic Park and The Terminator are ideas that I think woulld sell if the script was written in broken english they are so good.

                  Comment


                  • Re: High Concept vs New High Concept

                    I'm simply saying, writers often feell their ideas are one of a kind when they are not. That's all.
                    I know, its just that I feel too many people dismiss keeping ideas secret for fear of theft as screwball conspiracy theorists when there's probably very good reason not to be too open.


                    Originally posted by Bono View Post
                    OF COURSE NOT! What am I crazy?
                    Jurrassic Park and The Terminator are ideas that I think woulld sell if the script was written in broken english they are so good.
                    Exactly!
                    M.A.G.A.

                    Comment


                    • Re: High Concept vs New High Concept

                      I agree about Jurassic Park. Speilberg said in an interview that he bumped into Michael Crichton on the lot or in the halls as he was there to sign off of the movie rights for another of his novels. Spielberg asked him what he is working on. Crichton said it was top secret and didn't want to say. Spielberg begged him for a hint. Crichton said it had to do with Dinosaurs and DNA. Spielberg said he immediately saw the story.

                      Comment


                      • Re: High Concept vs New High Concept

                        Originally posted by Cyfress View Post
                        I agree about Jurassic Park. Speilberg said in an interview that he bumped into Michael Crichton on the lot or in the halls as he was there to sign off of the movie rights for another of his novels. Spielberg asked him what he is working on. Crichton said it was top secret and didnt want to say. Spielberg begged him for a hint. Crichton said it had to do with Dinosaurs and DNA. Spielberg said he immediately saw the story.
                        Yes, Jurassic Park was a very good idea. So when the hell are we going to get the sequel - Cretaceous Park - and the prequel - Triassic Park?

                        Anyhow, I'm just going to wait until they're all released and then buy the box set - Mesozoic Park.

                        Hey, how about dinosaurs AND baseball - Jurassic Ballpark?
                        Know this: I'm a lazy amateur, so trust not a word what I write.
                        "The ugly can be beautiful. The pretty, never." ~ Oscar Wilde

                        Comment


                        • Re: High Concept vs New High Concept

                          One of the most convincing arguments for stolen work I've heard came from Tess Gerritsen, who filed a lawsuit against Warner Brothers for allegedly ripping off her book Gravity. I'm not looking to argue if she was really ripped off, or not. Who knows. I read her take on it and she certainly has an argument. She's not a crazy person, she published a novel with the same title and New Line optioned it. From there, it's better I don't try to recount what happened. Read here if you're curious:

                          https://www.tessgerritsen.com/gravit...lls-hollywood/

                          I think her take on it is compelling. But I haven't heard the other side of the story. Maybe I've been too naive about bouncing ideas off of strangers.

                          I've had the experience of latching onto an idea that's floating low in the diaspora. I wrote a TV pilot called OPEN about a bored married couple who decided to start exploring open relationships. The man's first extra-marital experience was with a yoga instructor, which starts the love triangle, etc. blah blah blah...

                          But I hit walls with it, in part because I had a writing partner who I discovered was a closet psychopath. (I ended up walking away and gave him all rights to the project as solo work if he wanted to continue working on it by himself, or with someone else, which felt like the right way to remove myself from the situation.)

                          Then I find out six months later that Ryan Murphy set up a TV pilot at HBO called OPEN, a project that would be examining sexuality, etc. And it also had a 'yoga professional' in there.

                          My friend read about it and called me up, "They stole your idea!"
                          "No, Tom. They didn't."
                          "But they have a yoga person in the pilot also!"
                          "Any TV show about polyamorous relationships will have a yoga teacher in it. They didn't steal it. The idea is low in the collective unconscious. I bet there are twenty TV pilots in LA right now with the title OPEN about the same subject matter."
                          "Oh. Huh."

                          The Ryan Murphy project never got off the ground, maybe for the same problems the psychopath and I hit -- there was no compelling place to go with the basic idea after a season. Though I've always been curious to see what Ryan Murphy's show would have looked like. Very curious.

                          https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/li...rd-ryan-717094

                          Bono: it'd be fun to take a basic idea with some parameters and have us each write a five-page take on it, see what comes out of that.

                          Comment


                          • Re: High Concept vs New High Concept

                            Originally posted by SundownInRetreat View Post
                            Are you honestly telling us that if you had the original concept for A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Matrix, Jurassic Park and The Terminator that you'd happily share the details, including logline, here? When others can pitch their idea or even completed script, before you can or even and execute the concept better? Even if they couldn't write a better script than you, if they get in there first and sell it, then your take is going to be DOA.
                            The pros here aren't stealing anything and I've read the amateur pages.

                            Comment


                            • Re: High Concept vs New High Concept

                              Originally posted by Satriales View Post
                              The pros here aren’t stealing anything and I’ve read the amateur pages.
                              1. You don't know that
                              2. There's more than pros to worry about
                              3. Great ideas, in all fields of human endeavour. are stolen all the time and by pros
                              4. Pros rip-off other pros* so they're definitely not going to be afraid of ripping off amateurs
                              5. Amateurs not being able to write as good as pros doesn't mean they can't come up with great ideas






                              *Just one example: The Island and Clonus
                              M.A.G.A.

                              Comment


                              • Re: High Concept vs New High Concept

                                Originally posted by lostfootage View Post
                                I think her take on it is compelling. But I haven't heard the other side of the story. Maybe I've been too naive about bouncing ideas off of strangers.
                                The other side of the story was her case got tossed out of court (as 99% of these types of alleged infringement cases do):

                                https://www.theguardian.com/film/201...en-warner-bros

                                (I've actually worked on cases on both sides, so yes script theft can happen but it's vastly more the case of independent, non-infringing creation of two highly similar concepts)

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X