Chapter 457： high concept

"What is a high-concept movie? In short, there are three words: look, hook, book. Look refers to a good appearance, that is, a beautiful and handsome guy; hook refers to a wonderful plot, which can be fascinating and arouse the interest of the audience; "book" refers to the film's sophisticated shooting techniques, reasonable mirroring, and clear narrative logic."

"In the words of Mr. Barry Diller, it means that in one or two sentences, the plot of the whole movie can be clearly explained. Many people are questioning the concept of high-concept movies that once dominated Hollywood in the 1980s. In the 1990s, Especially after the new century, it doesn't seem to work, is it? Of course not! Let's see the results."

"Titanic" is a love story of a noble girl and a poor boy sinking a ship; "Spider-Man" is a story about an ordinary boy incarnating a superhero to save New York and uphold justice; "Saving Private Ryan" A discussion on the value of one life saving one life..."

On the ppt slides behind Dunn, there are more than a dozen hot-selling movies in recent years, "Have you seen it? Whether it is "Independence Day", "Changing Face", or "Star Wars", "Mission Impossible", these movies Aside from the special effects, it still fits the theory of high-concept movies, look! hook! book!"

"So here, I want to tell you that high-concept movies are not eliminated. This is still the golden rule of commercial movies, and it is a topic that all filmmakers and students of film academies must study carefully! Except for some special cases, no matter the past Or in the future, commercial films have to revolve around high concepts."

"I know that many academic teachers and classmates scoff at high concepts, thinking it's too simple, too stupid, and lacking in thought. I even heard that the film school at New York University called this type of film kiss_movie. Don't get me wrong. , not a kiss movie, it's four acronyms k-i-s-s, keep_it_simple_stupid!"

As soon as these words came out, there was a burst of laughter.

Dunn glanced at the first row in the audience and found that Cameron, Lucas and others were all laughing loudly, except for Michael Eisner, who was sitting upright with a flat face, completely uninterested in Dunn's remarks.

After a little relaxation, Dunn continued: "But I hope everyone can understand a concept. If you want to play with depth and philosophy, please make art films. High concepts are for commercial films! What are commercial films? Commonly known as commodities! Commodities are not available. The responsibility of popularizing art to customers, the existence value of products, is to attract customers to spend money to buy!"

"In other words, if you are interested in commercial films, then congratulations, you have the opportunity to make a fortune. It is no secret that commercial films have more market value and make more money than art films! There are many artists who offer When it comes to the word 'money', they all scoff at it, thinking it's a blasphemy to art, but, I want to tell everyone—"

At this time, Tang En pressed the remote control pen, and the ppt behind him immediately displayed the next picture, with a rather shocking sentence on it.

Tang En read it out loud: "Making money legally is the most dignified way of life in this era!"

Suddenly, the audience burst into thunderous applause again!

This is the cry of a rich man!

It is also the theoretical basis for many aspiring young people to pursue their careers.

Dunn glanced at the first row again, these are elites from Hollywood, and their attitudes must be paid attention to.

This time, even Michael Eisner nodded and applauded, expressing his strong approval.

"So, do you understand? Making money is not shameful, but a glorious mission. Of course, the premise is that your income must be legally taxed."

Dunn paused and continued to change the slides, "So when you shoot a commercial film, your project must not be of artistic value. You have no obligation to create art! On the contrary, in order to make money, what film people often do is to create art. , to make history, to create something extraordinary."

"To make money, you have to attract an audience, to attract an audience, you have to have an original, imaginative concept for a movie, and a low budget can never justify a lack of script, and that's... high concept theory. Here, please let us give a warm applause to this pioneer of film theory, Mr. Michael Eisner!"

Michael Eisner did not expect that Dunn would suddenly mention his name and was a little shocked.

But when he heard the surging applause, he stood up excitedly and waved to the guests, teachers, and classmates at the scene, and his face couldn't help showing a bit of pride.

...

Does Dunn understand film theory?

Of course it's bullshit.

Dunn's speech was drafted by Bill McNick himself and revised by a number of industry insiders in the production department.

Of course, this is, after all, the "secret" of Dunn's commercial films. It is a unique weapon. We must use foresight and add some future popular commercial block production concepts to show the originality of the speech.

High-concept movies are a popular, well-recognized idea for commercial films. For example, characters with distinct personalities, obvious conflicts and resolutions, these three easily recognizable "paragraphs", and themes that can be summed up in a sentence or two, have always been the formula for Hollywood commercial films.

Tang En's speech used "high concept" to introduce the topic, which can quickly drive the audience.

After Michael Eisner was seated with full applause, Dunn's speech continued——

"I repeat, high concept is important, it's the foundation of commercial film, as important as the foundation of the George Lucas Building."

Dunn made his speech as interesting as possible, of course, these are designed.

"But here comes the problem. Some producers use high-concept thinking to make movies, and they succeed; some filmmakers use this thinking to create films, but fail. What's the problem?"

As soon as this rhetorical question came out, it immediately aroused the curiosity of everyone in the audience.

Including the first row of these big and powerful Hollywood figures, all of them opened their eyes and listened carefully.

They want an answer, a Dunn Walker answer.

Dunn smiled slightly, and when he pressed the remote control pen, the slides were changed again. A background image of "George Lucas Teaching Building" appeared on the big screen, and the scene was a little restless.

George Lucas is naturally quite proud, "This Dunn will really put gold on the face of his peers!"

Tang En said: "Let's take the building as an example. As I said just now, the high concept theory is only the foundation of the George Lucas Building. It also needs the building body, decoration and teaching equipment to put this teaching building into use. So everyone also Clearly, the foundation of a movie is high concept, but if a movie wants to be profitable and sell well, it needs more elements.”

"In the 1980s, Mr. Eisner led Paramount and Disney to come back to life twice, and 90% of the films he invested in were profitable. He promoted high concept theory. Besides, what conditions did he set?"

This was originally a question from Tang En, but I didn't expect an enthusiastic classmate to answer: "Low cost!"

Dunn smiled and stretched out a thumb, "Yes, as I said just now, Mr. Eisner strictly controls budget costs. On the basis of high concept, reduce costs The success rate has also greatly increased. Through this logic, we have solved many problems."

"Why is "Alien 2" selling so well? It's a combination of high concept, special effects, and sci-fi; why is "Mission Impossible" selling so well? It's a combination of high concept, superstar, and fast editing; The combination of concept and brand; "Jurassic Park" is a combination of high concept and big production, star director, special effects, brand, etc., which creates a box office miracle."

"Later Independence Day, Titanic, Men in Black, Star Wars Episode 1: The Wraith Menace, Spider-Man, The Unsinkable, etc., were all similar results. Embodiment. On the basis of high concept, adding bricks and bricks, enriching elements, so as to achieve great success.”

"There are some movies... I won't give an example here, I don't want to offend people. Hehe, some movies are beautifully decorated, with superstars joining in, top producers and directors, huge investment, and big productions. The scene, but still failed, why? Because the foundation is not well laid, their concept is not high enough!"

"Of course, the topic of today's lecture is not to pick on other people's faults, but to expound some of my own film ideas. Many people have asked me this question, why do the films I make always sell well at the box office? I think this question is not only of interest to many students, but also to many colleagues in the industry.”

Dunn paused and glanced at the audience who were listening carefully. This feeling was really good.

"So, what method do I use to make the film super-sold?"

Tang En sold himself off and smiled, "The answer is complicated and simple. On the basis of a high concept, I want to propose a new concept - the explosion effect!"

(Sanqi Chinese)