Overheard at the place where I get my hair cut:
“I think it’s about comedians. It seems okay. Then I saw that Adam Sandler is, I guess, dying or something. It looks really good.”
This was a conversation about the upcoming Judd Apatow movie, Funny People. Yes we are all going to see it, and I personally can’t wait. But just because I’m interested doesn’t mean everyone is.
What I found in that overheard bit of conversation was something fascinating… and a little scary.
If we’re lucky enough to have our movies bought and made, we will eventually find ourselves in the hands of the Marketing Department. There is an array of weapons at their disposal to get the word out about our film: A series of ads on TV, the trailer or two, a Behind the Scenes look on HBO. And there will hopefully be a message that explains “What is it?” One that is clear… and compelling.
But what it boils down to is: Do we get it? Do we pull from the 20-30 second message in a day of a million 20-30 second messages, the thing that makes us go? Because all you really can get across is the barest semblence of the plot, the cast, a general feeling of whether or not it’s interesting.
What travels best is: primal. We sorta had them there with the comedian description, everyone likes Funny People, don’t they? But what got this person’s attention that I heard over the blow dryer, the part that stuck, was the primal part: Adam might be dying. And that made all the difference. Now there are stakes for him — and us. Now there’s a plot. Now I’ll go check it out.
What’s the primal piece in the movie you’re writing? What essential element will catch the attention of busy audiences? A pregnancy, a divorce, the impossible chase to find love? The caveman song of survival, hunger, death, father, mother, sister, brother, wife, child?
When we ask “What is it?” we not only need the hook — and that has to be fantastic!! — we will also need a primal reason to stay put and listen. Finding your primal piece not only helps you focus on what your story is saying, but helps communicate an idea that even the busiest cavemen “get.”
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I’ve just been reading about this ‘primal’ issue in “Save The Cat’. It’s really helped me get the focus on my main character and his journey in my new film project. Thanks, Blake.
Best wishes, Fiona.
Well, I just this morning got hit over the head with a High Concept even I could recognize and I’m not even a cavewoman!
So when I read this piece, I backed up six steps and started looking for that PRIMAL element that would get through the bull-s*t filters people use to screen out commercial messages. Haven’t found it exactly yet.
Thank You!
And then I just read yet another article about people trying to use twitter for advertising, and it occurs to me that ALL the wisdom about advertising (maybe even the primal part?) is slowly becoming outmoded.
This is from
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9f569d94-7546-11de-9ed5-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
———QUOTE————–
The most popular Twitter accounts are those that do more than just post lists of links to brands’ websites or vouchers. According to Will McInnes, co-founder of the NixonMcInnes, the social media agency, many marketers on Twitter have forgotten that engaging consumers on the internet requires more subtlety than simply broadcasting their messages. “What people like is help and utility and value,” he says. “Most of our clients have substantial multimillion-pound investments in customer service and those are the people we need to get online.”
————END-QUOTE————-
In other words, the focus has to get away from “the message” however primal (though McDonalds did well with free food – how much more primal can you get than that? Complete with “whiff of death” since it’s grilled chicken) get away from your message and to the consumer’s agenda.
Hey Jacqueline. I haven’t read the article (just your excerpt), but I have an entirely opposite interpretation of it. The point is not to get away from the message. The point is to make the message more salient and meaningful to the customer. “Help, utility, value” speaks to me of filling primal needs. You can’t just tell someone to “go to this web page,” just like you can just tell someone to “go to this movie.” It’s about connecting with your customers on an emotional basis. One tried and true way to do that is to satisfy your customers’ primal interests.
Here’s a related item – in any sales situation, it’s as if both you and the customer play a game. He puts his money on the table. You put your product there beside it. At the end of the day, customer is going to walk away with either his money or your product.
Your most important job as salesperson is to build up the value of your product in such a way that he leaves his money. To do that, most of the time it involves opening a door into the primal – he or she should feel on some level that leaving his money with you and taking the product means “life” as opposed to walking away with his money, which could possibly mean “death,” now that he knows about what you have to offer. :-):-)
Martin, I like your life and death metaphor. That’s a good way of looking at it.
Blake, I just want to thank you for all of your help. I decided to follow your Save the Cat book by the letter and my screenplay placed as quarterfinalist in the Blue Cat Screenwriting Contest. This was the first contest I ever entered. I couldn’t have done without your help. Thanks!
I’ve been out there trying to do what Blake says.Pitching movies in South Carolina isn’t hard because we’ve got a lot of Cave Men, but the leader of his clan and the dude that tells everybody what movie to go see is not a Cave Man and will pick up your title and run with it.I think that is what Blake is saying.Your work gets passed off like a baton.This is good? Were you ready for it to happen and thats whats scary.I changed the title of my latest script from “Beautifull Tea and Me” to “Carolinafucation”.I pitched it to the Cave Man leader,”My movie is about Carolinafucation”—“Oh you mean like Californication”—“Yeh with Uncle Buck”.I have no idea how this would resonate with the rest of the world but it was dead on and a hit here because of something primal in South Carolina and that is that every one has an Uncle Buck who believes in Carolinafucation.
There’s a sci-fi novel called Snow Crash that has a great gimmick that I think applies. In Snow Crash the author states that it’s not just computers that can be infected by viruses but people as well, that some ideas can spread like viruses. What the author described always sounded to me like the perfect logline.
That’s so true, and I think we all tend to forget the “primal” aspect now and then. But it really is what drives our stories and what keeps people’s behinds glued to their seats. Whenever I get stuck in the future, I’m going to think of this post. :)
You had me at “hair cut”.
I had read every book on screenwriting out there – the ones that mattered anyway. My skills were developing nicely. I knew where the inciting incident was meant to be and I knew where the rest of the conventional beats of a story were meant to be. The only thing was, I didn’t know exactly why I was putting what where.
Every page of Save the Cat was a revelation to me and continues to be. Blake, you really hammer it home about what is important about a story. You have helped me strengthen every idea I have ever had and helped me to develop new ones. You responded to an email regarding a script idea I had within 24 hours and your criticism was priceless.
Your advice never ceases to open new doors and unlock old ones that I’d forgotten about. I can’t wait to sell my first script so that I can dedicate it to the man that made it possible.
Thank you Blake!