In the movie business there are some important things that a script has to keep in mind to get a green light. Thousands of movie scripts are resisted every year and only a fraction of them get turned into movies. One of our favorite places to find great stories is the Black List. You might have heard of this list that is made of up the top scripts that didn’t get produced for the year. They poll producers and get a list of scripts that people loved but didn’t green light. Just having a great story isn’t enough. That story has to meet the needs of the producer. Below is a list of elements that a great story must include to have a chance of getting made.
- Great Title
- High Concept (Marketable)
- Marketable Audience
- Tropes of Genre
- Budget Matches Genre
- Attractive Parts For Bankable Actor
- Heros Journey
- Structure (Plot Points)
- 10 Pages (Entertaining beginning that gatekeepers read past)
- Ending (We always start at the end and work backwards)