2 From Idea to Premise
The Premise
Once you figure out what you want to say and have an idea for your movie, we can craft a premise. What you are doing at this stage is taking the theme (why you are writing this) and making it into a premise. Think of it this way: we start by being open to the world around us or doing research on something that interests us (like we talked about last chapter) and from that we figure out what we want to say, our theme.
Let’s come up with a hypothetical movie we will write. I have talked to people I know, heard conversations around me, read articles, and see that so many people think they are powerless. They think they do not have any power to make change. I want to write a movie that shows average people can be forces of change and that change can be local. That’s my theme; that’s what I want to say.
From being open, I got a theme. But I have to get that theme into a PREMISE. The premise for a movie often starts with something like “What if…” or “Wouldn’t it be cool…” or “It would be exciting if…” or “It would be heartbreaking if…” Generally, it starts with something that simple.
This is not the meat of your movie. But it is what is going to initially draw people to the movie. More importantly, the premise is how you start figuring out your character and your plot.
Let’s look at some premise examples:
Iron Man – what if a rich military contractor, in order to save his life, builds the ultimate weapon in a suit of armor in order to spread peace?
Avengers: Endgame – wouldn’t it be interesting if Thanos wins?
Captain America: Winter soldier – what if Hydra has secretly been controlling S.H.I.E.L.D. for decades?
Legally Blonde – what if a stereotypical, California, sorority member goes to Harvard Law school?
The Godfather – what if the son meant to be clean has to take over the most powerful mafia family to save it?
Reservoir Dogs – wouldn’t it be cool if a heist goes wrong because one of the crooks is actually an undercover cop?
Barbie – what if Barbie visited the “real” world?
If we analyze some of these more closely, we can see how the premise can come out of the idea and the theme.
Take Barbie as a first example. A theme of that movie is we have to accept our flaws; our flaws make us human. That’s a great theme for a movie about Barbie because Barbie has no flaws, right? But we need to turn that into an interesting premise for a movie. We have to take theme and ultimately create a story. That’s when we develop the premise. To highlight this theme we come up with an appropriate premise: what if Barbie visited the “real” world?
What’s a theme for Captain America: Winter Soldier? A major theme of that movie is that Cap’s values still matter. Cap’s a man out of time who is struggling to adjust to the modern world. How do we show this though? We make Cap face an enemy from his past. Can his values still get the job done?
In Legally Blonde, the major theme is “don’t judge a book by its cover.” Hey, it is OK to have a basic universal theme. It is OK if that is what you want to say. The writers deftly made that theme into an engaging premise. They took a stereotype and put her in a new world.
Going back to my hypothetical movie, I’ve got my theme, my reason for writing. So I need to turn my theme into a premise. We have a character, an average guy, but what could be something he does to deliver our theme?
What if an average guy becomes mayor of his town? I’m going to show how this regular guy can make changes. My theme is put into action.
Once I have my premise, I can ask some foundational questions. Why does he want to become mayor (we need to know what he is changing)? How does he become mayor? What gets in the way of the changes he wants to make? This is the beginnings of a plot. Our plot can be about how he becomes mayor and enacts changes despite strong opposition.
Those questions are key to transforming a premise into a plot. For example, given the premise of Iron Man we need to ask why does Tony Stark have to build a suit of armor to save his life? Who or what is trying to kill him? Now we are truly thinking about plot and can go on to the next stage.
