Screenwriting: The Promise in a Premise

To fully appreciate this post, you should probably read my post on the Narrative Structure of Movies (here).

I teach in a Film Production program at Delta College. I notice that my film students are often chomping at the bit to get behind the camera, so they can “really start making a movie.”

My reply and mantra? “It’s all movie-making!”: from premise to treatment (or movie map) to script to script breakdown to storyboarding to shot lists to shooting, etc.

And, importantly, each stage of the process will only go as smoothly as the dedication to the stage that came before it. For instance, no storyboard? Well, your shoot is likely going to take two to three times as long (and the resulting shots likely won’t be as good/cinematically sound).

And so, especially with a feature (but short films, too) The Premise is the starting point. The best premise has the promise of a movie baked into it. If you can’t get your premise to sound intriguing, you’re likely not working on an intriguing story… or you haven’t fully thought it through narratively.

Meaning, you aren't ready to move on to the treatment or movie map.

For instance, here’s a premise I wrote for the movie The Graduate:

A disenchanted college graduate returns to the stifling world of his parents’ home, only to be offered a sexual affair by Mrs. Robinson, the alcoholic wife of his dad's business partner. At first Benjamin flees from the offer, but soon finds himself feeling again like an infantilized trophy child in his parents' world. Adrift, with nothing much happening in his life, he calls Mrs. Robinson to meet at a hotel and start their affair, which will make things very complicated when he falls in love with the Robinson's daughter.

Though they struggle with it, I urge my students to keep their premises to three sentences (albeit, often longish sentences).

The book that I use says a premise should have Visual Opportunity, Interesting Characters, and Intense Emotion/Conflict.

The Graduate delivers in spades.

Here’s what I think the book that I use misses, however. First, I wonder if the book shouldn’t start with narrative structure before it moves to explaining premise (at the very least giving an understanding of Inciting Incident and Plot Point 1).

Why? Well, first--and the book doesn’t really explain this--a premise is not a summary of the entire movie. In fact, it only suggests the first 30 minutes of the movie (and even then, just the key points of the first 30 minutes)

 

And about 30 minutes in is where Plot Point 1 usually kicks in for the narrative.

The best premises already have the Inciting Incident and Plot Point 1 baked into them.

Let’s look at The Graduate again:

A disenchanted college graduate returns to the stifling world of his parents’ home, only to be offered a sexual affair (Inciting Incident) by Mrs. Robinson, the alcoholic wife of his dad's business partner. At first Benjamin flees from the offer, but soon finds himself feeling again like an infantilized trophy child in his parents' world. Adrift, with nothing much happening in his life, he calls Mrs. Robinson to meet at a hotel and start their affair (Plot Point 1) which will make things very complicated when he falls in love with the Robinson's daughter.

With an understanding of Narrative Structure, I believe it would be much easier for people to truly write solid and useful premises… and they will already have worked out two key elements of their narrative.

Oh, and having a solid premise can be very helpful when you finally need to write the dreaded log line for pitching your screenplay to people! (though the log line has the challenge of being one sentence!)

If you find my blog posts instructive or illuminating, please consider purchasing a copy of my new book of short stories, The Neighborhood Division.

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