All platforms, channels, and production companies are looking for innovative, groundbreaking series and films with striking concepts never seen before or with the right twist. Series with local conflicts that are also universal, to be seen not only in the local market but also internationally. What has come to be called GLOCAL what don’t popular “write my paper for me” workers write about?
Or that’s what they say in their briefings, in the successive interviews that the executives give, or in the meetings you have with them in which your idea doesn’t quite fit them.
But the reality is that they are looking for scripts to fall in love with, whatever that means in real life or the audiovisual world.
Isn’t it true that, despite those briefings, we keep seeing series or movies about missing girls in a town where the local police have to roll up their sleeves to find her, whether she is kidnapped, dead, or partying in Ibiza, and, above all, to find her aggressor or kidnapper?
Answer: Yes, that’s true.
And you may be asking yourself… so what do I do, do I come up with an original concept. This premise attracts attention for its originality, or do I consider making a series whose concept has already been seen a thousand times?
The premise is key when it comes to selling your script.
And you will say that there are wonderful movies and series about concepts apparently not so striking or insignificant. What’s more, with concepts that have been seen before.
And yes, you’re right.
But those stories so well done about small or not groundbreaking things, those premises that do not have a clear differential, unless you are a top screenwriter already reputed in the industry and with a trajectory behind, it will be more difficult for you to sell them.
That is to say, another series about a missing girl in a small town will be easier to be sold by an Alex Pina, an Alejandro Amenábar, an Alex de la Iglesia, or a Carlos Montero. I will explain why later.
But for you, in case this is your case, you don’t have Goyas, Emmies, Oscars, or great successes in your backpack, as it happens to most screenwriters, whether they are professionals or not, it will be easier for you to sell a project with a premise that has a great differential.
And I say this from experience, in my case, with the Parot series. If it had not come with a novel premise that generated a great moral dilemma, it would have been much more difficult than it was to sell the series.
So I advise looking for a differential in your project that can attract attention.
But what really matters is the execution
And now you’ll say I’m contradicting myself, but I’m not.
A differential premise will help you draw attention to your project and get your script read. Still, if your story does not have a good execution, it is possible that after being read, it will go to the trash can or to the recycling garbage can of a computer.
And there can be superb executions of not-so-good or flashy ideas or concepts already seen, albeit with little twists.
That’s why, often, even if screenwriters come to a production company with good ideas, there is a tendency to accompany that author with other more experienced screenwriters or those in whom the executives have confidence.
What does it mean if your script or project is well executed?
Well, that’s where we get into everything that goes into a well-written script: that the structure works, that the reader empathizes with the characters or understands their conflicts and motivations, that there are moral dilemmas, that the dialogues sound natural, that they are agile or not according to the type of film or series it is, and give off subtext everywhere, that the tempo, tone, and theme are well defined and transmitted, that the twists are in the right place and are surprising or not depending on the film, that it is not predictable, that it has a good ending with emotional impact, that you fall in love with its message? And you will continue to discover an endless number of things if you want to keep reading this blog.