Greenlight Strategy #1: Keep the Premise's Promise
Every premise makes a promise. The premise of Big promises we'll see a grown man doing stuff only little boys do. The Truth About Cats and Dogs promises we're going to see Janeane Garofalo squirm as her Cyrano-inspired love triangle gets harder to maintain. The premise of L.A. Confidential promises we'll delve into the seedy underworld of 1950s Los Angeles. It's crucial to actually include scenes the audience will subconsciously be hoping for based on the story's premise.
Case Study: The Banger Sisters. The premise: after twenty years of estrangement, two former rock groupies reconnect. One's working in a bar, and the other's become a prim and proper mom. What's the promise of this premise?
Two middle-aged women acting like teenagers.
And it's nailed in a number of scenes, but particularly in the "Rock Cock Collection" scene. Susan Sarandon and Goldie Hawn divide up their old polaroids of various rock stars'... you know... based on their memories of who actually slept with them. Here's part of the exchange:
The names are on the back.
I'm nervous now, Vin.
Guess who the first rock cock is.
Ooh.
(both chuckling)
Roger...
Waters.
Jimmy Page.
Give me that. Are you kidding?
And this one is...
Jimmy?
Very veiny and...
Ooh!
Arlo Guthrie.
Oh, no. That's yours, babe.
You take that one. Look at this.
Ha ha! - What?
Keith! That's Keith.
And this one is...
I get it 'cause I backlit it.
It's no surprise to me that this one was greenlit. The best actresses of a generation were bound to sign on for this kind of fun.
Always know what scenes are truly delivering the promise of your premise. And protect 'em.
Every premise makes a promise. The premise of Big promises we'll see a grown man doing stuff only little boys do. The Truth About Cats and Dogs promises we're going to see Janeane Garofalo squirm as her Cyrano-inspired love triangle gets harder to maintain. The premise of L.A. Confidential promises we'll delve into the seedy underworld of 1950s Los Angeles. It's crucial to actually include scenes the audience will subconsciously be hoping for based on the story's premise.
Case Study: The Banger Sisters. The premise: after twenty years of estrangement, two former rock groupies reconnect. One's working in a bar, and the other's become a prim and proper mom. What's the promise of this premise?
Two middle-aged women acting like teenagers.
And it's nailed in a number of scenes, but particularly in the "Rock Cock Collection" scene. Susan Sarandon and Goldie Hawn divide up their old polaroids of various rock stars'... you know... based on their memories of who actually slept with them. Here's part of the exchange:
The names are on the back.
I'm nervous now, Vin.
Guess who the first rock cock is.
Ooh.
(both chuckling)
Roger...
Waters.
Jimmy Page.
Give me that. Are you kidding?
And this one is...
Jimmy?
Very veiny and...
Ooh!
Arlo Guthrie.
Oh, no. That's yours, babe.
You take that one. Look at this.
Ha ha! - What?
Keith! That's Keith.
And this one is...
I get it 'cause I backlit it.
It's no surprise to me that this one was greenlit. The best actresses of a generation were bound to sign on for this kind of fun.
Always know what scenes are truly delivering the promise of your premise. And protect 'em.
posted by Jennica at 11:26 a.m.
3 Comments:
Can you think of any films that failed (miserably)?
This is actually pretty tough, since not delivering the promise of the premise would (by my argument) make it tough for a script to get the go-ahead. I definitely read lots of unproduced scripts that don't deliver.
But, let's see. I think Dark Water qualifies, in that its promise was chills and creeps and fun. The Village failed (for me, and many) for similar reasons-- breaking the promise of genre. The Village quits being horror around the halfway mark.
It may have been brought up on this blog before, but Pushing Tin broke a different promise: the promise of a new and interesting world (air traffic control). The movie bails on that world pretty early on, despite that unique world having been the allure for many movie-goers.
Maybe those who have seen them would consider weighing in on whether Rumor Has It, Hulk, or Alfie fit the bill here. I suspect they just might.
Next post? When movies rely to heavily on premise!
You stole my Pushing Tin example!
I've never felt so cheated out of what seemed like a gift-wrapped concept.
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