concepts and planning

1. Screenwriting
Concepts & synopsising

2. What were we looking
at last week?

3. Today
In todays workshop you will be;
• applying your knowledge of concepting to
create and develop 3 ideas for
screenplays.
• Pitching one of these ideas to your peers.

4. By the end of today, you
MUST use idea generation strategies to
create 3 story concepts
SHOULD be able to present a creative idea
for a film in an elevator pitch
COULD communicate idea clearly and
effectively.

5. Syd Field
Famous American screenwriter Syd Field
came up with a way to describe a films
concept in its simplest form.

6. Describe each

7. Story Concepts
A person
A geeky high school loser

8. Story Concepts
In a place
New York City

9. Story Concepts
Doing his or her thing
Fighting crime as a masked vigilante

11. Syd Fields rule
of story concepting
 A person
 in a place
 doing his or her thing

12. For example
A recently widowed OAP
In America
Flying his house off
on the adventure of a lifetime

13. Up

14. A wealthy industrialist
In America
Using his super armour to fight terrorism

16. A young farm hand
On Tattoine
Trying to rescue a princess from an evil
empire

18. An orphaned billionaire
In Gotham City
Becoming a vigilante crime fighter

20. Idea generation techniques
What techniques can we use to help us
come up with ideas for our story concepts?

21. Idea generation techniques
What techniques can we use to help us
come up with ideas for our story concepts?
- Research
- Brainstorms
- Team work

22. If you’re struggling to come up with
ideas where can you look for
inspiration?

23. Secondary research
• Internet
• Magazines
• Graphic novels
• History books / novels
• Photos
• Films

24. For example…
nothing is more dramatic than real life

25. If you find some useful research
what should you do?

26. Research
for one of your assignments for this unit you
have to conduct reliable & useful research
into your idea.
So print anything you find off, and annotate
notes on it which explain how useful &
reliable it is!

27. Task 1
You will develop 3 story concepts.
You have 30 minutes to come up with 3
strong concepts. If you are stuck for ideas
what can you do?
If you finish your 3 concepts you can begin
to research them

28. Pitches
Video here

29. What makes a good pitch?

30. What makes a good pitch?
• Clearly communicate your idea
• Engage your audience
• show confidence
• Be passionate
• Know your subject

31. Task 2
Using the feedback you’ve received begin to
develop your idea, conducting secondary
research.

32. Task 2
if you finish you should think about the moral
of your story. What’s it really about? What
should your audience take away from the
experience?

33. Plenary
Next week you will learn about narrative
planning. You will need to bring a rough
outline of your story.
For homework this week develop your story.
Make sure you know your concept inside out
and have come up with a beginning, a
middle and an end.