In addition to my own writing, I thoroughly enjoy my work in offering script coverage for other writers. It allows me, in a small way, to pay forward all the information and training that I’ve received from others. In addition to full scripts, I’ve also had many opportunities to talk to people about their ideas, outlines, and pitches. One recurring element that has recently been popping up in scripts I’ve reviewed, as well as conversations I’ve had with people about their projects, is some confusion on the difference between concept, theme and story.
Typically this misunderstanding begins with the innocent question, “what is your movie about?” The response can be as quick as a single word, a phrase, a few sentences, and sometimes a half an hour monologue after which you still have no idea what the film is about. I feel this variance stems from people misusing and misinterpreting concept, theme, and story. So let’s take a quick look at these words, and figure out how they apply to cinematic storytelling.
Concept
Concept can be rudimentarily defined as a general idea or notion. It can also be defined as a sort of functioning prototype. For screenplays (and television writing as well), we can simply take this to mean a basic formulation of a story’s characteristics or elements. An expedition to find the lost Ark of the Covenant. A quest to find true love in New York City. A tornado full of killer sharks. Basic elements. Another commonly used term that could be synonymous with ‘concept’ is ‘premise’. At this phase, we do not want to confuse the basic notion of ‘concept’, with the commonly used filmmaking catch phrase of ‘high concept’. High Concept is an approach to framing your story and pitch in such a manner that it fits certain marketing requirements. From expressing your concept, people should have a general idea of the genre and possible target audience. But this is not what your film is about.
Theme
Theme can be a bit foggier of a path to tread. However, it’s generally agreed that theme is more or less, the message or moral of the story. This is the statement the writer wants to make about society, the human condition, or some sort of social issue. In theatre, poetry, and some books, theme can play a dominant part. So much so, that sometimes the entire production is simply based on an overriding theme. In film and television, theme is almost always a back seat driver to story- which we will discuss in the next section. Films that focus heavily on theme can feel overbearing, preachy and sanctimonious, and often in the scripts of newer writers, results in pages of lecturing monologues. This heavy-handed approach to theme almost never works in cinema and should be reduced to a secondary or tertiary focus. Let’s take a look at the 1984 classic, The Karate Kid. The concept is about a kid learning karate to deal with bullies. The theme is about finding balance in one’s life. It’s briefly talked about, but isn’t a constant focus of the dialogue. However, it is present in just about every scene, because of a concept that screenwriter and author, Jeffrey Alan Schechter calls, “The Thematic Question”. In his book “My Story Can Beat Up Your Story”, he discusses the idea of framing the theme as a question and then having opposite forces pulling at the protagonist, swaying them to one conclusion or the other. As your protagonist moves through the story, just about every scene in some way, shows this thematic question in action, argument or resolution. Having scenes that show the audience the writer’s feelings on a social issue are always much stronger and potent than telling them.
Story
If Concept and Theme are the ingredients, then Story is the whole enchilada. However, there’s one component that’s mission. Above anything else, cinematic stories are about people. People doing things. Screenwriting guru Michael Hague has famously stated that Story must, “Enable a sympathetic character to overcome a series of increasingly difficult, seemingly insurmountable obstacles and achieve a compelling desire.” Story is the perfect marriage of Concept, Theme and Character. An exceptional person does exceptional things to achieve something greater and learns something along the way. That is what your story is. Just about every teacher, author and writer of scripts has their own philosophy on how to achieve this, but one thing is consistent among all of them, and that is that simply concept, nor theme, nor even character alone creates a story. For film, it requires them all and like Daniel-san, in a correct balance, to achieve greatness.
With those ideas in mind, I hope we are now better prepared to tackle our various projects; and when asked, “what is your film about?” we are prepared to deliver the cinematic crane kick we all have inside out head!
Now… Back to one!