Just Effing Entertain Me

Hook, Idea and Sinker

Today in Storylink, I ran an article about testing your ideas and I thought that for those of you who don’t get Storylink (naughty, naughty!) I’d run it again here on Just Effing:

Question: “How do I know if my idea is original?”

Audiences crave that which is different and yet familiar. So how can you set your script apart? By lending to it your unique voice and by looking for creative opportunities to make a familiar story paradigm different enough in its details to provide unique entertainment.

Let’s start with…Five Ways to Test Your Idea for Originality:

1) Share a pithy version of your idea with a few movie-savvy friends and ask for their honest feedback. Don’t get defensive, just hear them out. Does the idea sound familiar to them OR does your idea engage and excite them as something they’ve never heard before? Make sure to talk to friends who are real movie buffs.

2) Make a list of as many movies as you can that bear ANY resemblance to your idea. When were those movies released? How did they do at the box office? Is it therefore TIME for another movie like DISTURBIA or is it better to let it go and come up with another idea?

3) What would the poster for your movie look like? Does it contain familiar and yet unique elements?

4) Who would you cast in the leading roles? And what movies have those actors done in the past? Anything similar?

5) Does your story idea have a hook?

What Means…Hook?

The hook is something about the script that is centrally very simple, very cool and very original. There are many different types of hooks but here are some likely suspects:

Character Hook: JAMES BOND, SHREK, AUSTIN POWERS, THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN, BONNIE & CLYDE, PSYCHO, BATMAN, ANNIE HALL, TAXI DRIVER, SEXY BEAST, PULP FICTION, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, CLUELESS. Think of this as the “you talkin’ to me?” category. Movies that carry a character hook are movies in which the central character is so unique that moviegoers remember that particular character for a long time, quoting him or her, etc.

Plot Hook: THE SIXTH SENSE, IDENTITY, GATTACA, JAWS, DONNIE DARKO, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, SAW, SPEED, TERMINATOR, THE ISLAND, JURASSIC PARK, THE RING, PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO, 28 DAYS. Think of this as the “I see dead people” category. Movies that have a plot hook are movies that have a central plot or plot twist that we have literally not seen before: A giant shark terrorizes a town, two gay cowboys have a love affair, a bus will explode if it goes under 60mph, a video tape that if you watch, you’ll die seven days later.

Wow Factor Hooks: MEMENTO, THE MATRIX, CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON, JESUS’ SON, TRAINSPOTTING, SEXY BEAST, PULP FICTION, THE RING, THE FIFTH ELEMENT. Think of this as the “bullet time” category. These are movies that have a really unique look or narrative methodology that we have not seen before. A stylized look, CG effects, super-saturated footage, jumps in time – but more than simply a look or a narrative style, the execution is intrinsic to telling the story. It’s not frosting; it is a delivery system without which the story wouldn’t be the same.

Note: You’ll notice some titles appear under more than one category. True enough. If you can get your script to carry all three hooks? You are golden. But that’s hard to do. That said, writers should strive to come up with a hook, that I can tell you. Because having a hook is golden, my friends, it will move your script from the bottom to the top of the stack, it will get you meetings and it might even get you sold.

Need a few more “tests” for originality?

Here are Ten Questions You Should Ask About Your Idea:

1. What is the main character’s flaw?

2. Who is the antagonist and what is his or her plain, simple want, or goal?

3. What is the main character’s main crux of conflict, i.e. what is the main character trying to achieve and why is it not working?

4. What is the big choice/climax/cliffhanger of the third act?

5. What is the hook? What type of hook is it?

6. How does your main plot fit into the zeitgeist for audiences?

7. What is your theme?

8. Is this story a BIG Friday night big box office movie or a quiet, indie Sunday matinee?

9. Is this truly 90 minutes worth of story?

10. What is totally unique and compelling in this idea?

It is essential to thoroughly test your ideas before you begin to write. If not, it is tantamount to building a house without a blueprint. Do you really want to spend six months to a year working on a script that is unoriginal, derivative or just not entertaining? No, of course not. Nobody sets out to write an unoriginal script. But it is my belief that we are often not hard enough on our ideas in the first place. So put your idea through the wringer. Be tough on it and spend your writing time wisely.