Screenwriting : A unique Idea by Elrod Chalmers

It doesn't have to be "unique," as you say. It can be shades of unique. You don't want to do something that sounds just like Die Hard in a high rise building in NYC. But you can do the same thing in the White House and call it Olympus Has Fallen (2013). You can put it on an airplane and call it Air Force One (1997). Put it in Alcatraz and call it The Rock (1996). Et cetera.

What is the log line if you don't mind posting it

Unique means putting a spin or a adding the unexpected to what may be a story already told a thousand times. An original story, such as "Snow White" being retold as "Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), "Sleeping Beauty" becoming "Maleficent (2014)". Come up with a basic story idea, boiled down to its simplest form. Boy meets girl but cant have her, man needs a job, family goes on a bad vacation, whatever. Then figure out an angle or add a spin on the story that had never been done before. Something only you could think of.

There are a million stories out there but each writer brings his or her own unique point of view to any story they tell.You just have to find yours.

My logline: A warrior roams in a village for refuge. He finds peace, but it's interrupted by a warlord from his past.

Original doesn’t truly mean original, it means a story that doesn’t rip off its predecessors out of laziness and/or ignorance of the craft. A cure to an unoriginal story is to not force anything but let it unfold organically.

Regarding your logline, there’s a lot of implied drama in there. What specifically does the warlord do to threaten the protagonist and what steps does he take to regain what he lost/prevent further suffering?

Please don't be offended but this sounds like an old Kung-fu flick, only without the Kung-fu. Your logline doesn't have any real stakes. Nothing that catches the imagination and makes you go "Hmmmmm, that's interesting. I want to know more".

The questions you should should be asking yourself are - What would make someone so interested that they'd want to see this as a movie? What twist or plot device would make the average person pay to go the theater?

Right now your logline basically says - A bad neighbor from the past moves into the neighborhood. When it should say - Tired of war, a warrior sworn to peace must break his vow in order to save his newfound family and home from the army he used to lead.Honestly, which one would peak your interest? Find what makes your story interesting and highlight it in your logline.

Just my two cents.

Lol, you are absolutely right.

Find a unique way of telling the same story.

A new twist on one of those ideas.

You are correct. Everything has been done before, hence Genre to collect all the stories into groups it is so common.

But your take must be unique otherwise I will just watch the original. What new thing do you bring to the table?

Tony Spark has always been a self important. But the movie made it different. Pepper was different and he was driven.

You are absolutely correct. Many movies I see are basic ideas. Sometimes basic is good when the characters are developed properly. Those movies only got made because the director has a name for himself.

Don't try to re-invent the wheel... if everything under the sun has been done, then why are you trying to write stories? Surely your story has already been told. We should all just give up now, there is nothing left to say.

I am being facetious, of course. But think of it like this. We already have Joseph Campbells heroes journey, Dan Harmons story circle, Jungian archetypes etc. etc. And these get very repetitive. And on top of that we have the new hollywood cliches, and how many times are we going to have the same re-tread of good vs. evil? BO-RING. All the innovations come from new ways to break the rules... non-linear storytelling (westworld), unreliable narrators (the usual suspects), having parts of the story take place in peoples heads (eternal sunshine), shifting the frame of the story mid way, telling many stories that culminate in one (pulp fiction), killing off your main character in a way that changes the subtext of the series worldview (GOT). Telling a story in reverse (memento). Dude there are so many things you can do, and you don't have to do even just one, you can pick and choose. So maybe every individual thing has been done (it hasn't... yet) but every combination of those things hasn't. Not to mention you're severely limiting yourself if you choose settings and inspirations from the past 20 years only. YOU just have to decide what YOU want, the kind of voice and perspective you feel is lacking, the kinds of stories you can't get enough of that are a rare delicacy to you. And don't feel like you have to hide your influences. Look at Mr. Robot. There are near explicit references to Fight Club, V for Vendetta, American Psycho, Taxi Driver... Alf for some reason? And yet it is a unique story about a struggle to gain back power and human connection in a corrupt and isolated society told in a setting the director is familiar with--computer hacking. Sam Esmail wears his inspirations on his sleeve and makes no apologies for them, and neither should you. We are all a composite of our favorite things. What makes your stories unique is the breadth and variance of the cultural palate you choose to draw from. Obscurity is your friend, it becomes the secret ingredient you add to otherwise familiar dishes to make something worthy of a master chef.

For example, i found an old play by Shakespeare... I am fascinated by Shakespeare, not for the reasons they teach in school, but because he was a filthy minded nihilist pervert with a keen eye for human depravity and darkness. In this play, Timon of Athens, he writes some of his most HBO worthy shit ever--whores and nihilism, freeloaders and debt collectors and STD warfare and a cranky old cynic who cracks perhaps the worlds first "your mom" joke... But he never finished it before he died so i thought i would. I took that and part of King Lear and turned it into a space epic set in the distant future. And i threw in some philosophical concepts based on the singularity, along with some modern nihilism for good measure. And that inspired an idea for a whole new fictional economy and government--you get the idea.

Not everything has been done already. You want an idea? Find a catalogue of classic stage plays. Flip to a random page, skim to a random title. Find a history book. Flip to a random page and find a random time period. Find a philosophy textbook. Flip to a random page and find a random concept. Open youtube. Skip to a random ted talk with a random technology. Explore the effects of how that random technology would have on the storyline of that random time using the plot of that random stageplay set exploring that random philosophical theme. I 100% guarantee you that it will be an original idea. I can't guarantee you it won't be ridiculous, but it will be original.

Hi Elrod,

From a real-life standpoint - everyday, there are new and unique real-life events that happen, and that have never happened before. From a fictional standpoint, there are slews of characters/settings/times that are being explored by writers, filmmakers and in new films every single year.

So it's up to you - and all of us - to discover how to conceptualize and how to present a new story.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received from a development exec is this: "tell me a story I never heard before." If you or I can't do that....we're really not much of a writer who is capable of competing with the pro's. And I don't mean that with any disrespect to you, since I don't even know you....but it's true. If we can't tell a story that a development exec never heard before....well.....we better.

Best fortunes in your creative endeavors, Elrod!

Unique could mean a lot of things... Depending on your writing experience, if you are less confident you should stick to stuff you can comfortably maneuver your way out when you hit story trouble. For example, your lead characters could die a miserable death and your story ends at page 40 when you're writing a feature. Familiar territory helps you navigate your story better and could give your characters and their dialogue a distinct signature.

A good start for me is look at loglines from other movies to polish my own. An example is die hard - "A New York City cop travels to Los Angeles to reconcile with his wife but learns she’s been taken hostage by terrorist in a skyscraper — and he struggles alone to save her. Once I am comfortable with it, then I can start my outline.

Elrod, look at the "uniqueness" of successful films. You need look no further than this year's Best Picture Winner, Parasite, which also took home Best Original Screenplay, likely because of the uniqueness of the story. How about Memento, about a man with short-term memory loss who can't form new memories and is trying to catch his wife's killer? Definitely a unique plot, to say the least. Or take another Best Picture Winner, The Artist, written as a silent movie. Or The Shape of Water? Pulp Fiction - all of these short vignettes that tie together and written non-linear. You can also just write a GREAT script with a story people connect to and it can get funded, THOUGH, your Best Bet is to raise the money independently with another Filmmaker, who is more experienced than you and take it on the Festival Circuit. But, you have options. Hope this helps. GOD BLESS and STAY FRESH!!! <3

What is a take?

People underrate conglomerates all the time until they reach a producers desk.

Its not elementary so much as as elemental.

You truly have to devote yourself to the craft and if you are right a few percentage points of the time you are a guru.

You will never be unique but maybe you'll have a unique or even if you are really good a basic understanding of an immense industry where uniqueness, well... is just your style.

When you "pitch" what's successful (meaning anything produced and rarely nothing like it) has been done before you and why you are equal to or greater than that exists may be helpful

Being unique entirely to at least general aspects never explored will doubtfully get you optioned as media, movies are.

Hey but then again dreaming outside the

"powers that be"

may have worked for someone.

Doubt it though.

I know other way to inspire.

Good luck Elrod.

Oops. " I know no other way to inspire".

apparently every movie about a crim trying to go straight but has to do just one more job or his past comes back to disrupt his new life is unique.

I think the idea of a unique script has been done to death. I try to tell honest stories, often historical, from the experiences I have had (not about me, but the experience) and try to write it compellingly. I don't know if it works. No one has bought any of my scripts, yet. I have made some really valuable contacts, though. When I get done with my next one, I know two or three people I can email with it and I know it will be read.

Hi Elrod, recently I've been going through Karl Iglesias' books and seminars, and he believes that Hollywood wants Unique, but yet also relatable. And in his Writing for Emotional Impact book he does set out some useful ways to try and find ways to hook the reader when the overall concept may not, on the surface, appear that unique. Hope it helps

Today's Script Tip: http://www.scriptsecrets.net/tips/tip285.htm