On Concrete Babylon as on other films, after I've found what I feel is a story idea/concept that is good enough that it may be developed in to a film, the first step, or milestone, for me is to make the one-sheet. A one-sheet is a short description of the film containing a key image, story pitch and project description.
The reason behind creating the one-sheet is that it sums up the project in a short and easily digestible way that can be used both for external parties, to help get funding, and, more importantly, for the creators to create a stable base to build the rest of the film on top of. The one-sheet also helps in defining the goals of the project and making them more concrete which allows the creators to work more focused and make faster decisions by being able to see if the different choices actually works towards the goals.
The first part of making the one-sheet is to define why, on a personal level, you want to make the film - the goal, and why do it now. Why is the message of the film important for you and why do you want to convey it to your audience? Is the main priority of the film to market you as a director or is there a more universal theme to your film? Neither reason is better or worse, but knowing why you want to make the film should drive all the following decisions.
Finding the real reason we want to tell a story often is harder than it first seems. We often like to pick a reason that we think is deep and philosophical and will make others think of us as intellectual. But this is the wrong reason. The reason should come from inside ourselves. Why idea moves us. Why it important for us. This is the theme of the film.
I find that I, to actually find what it is of a story idea that moves me, often have to write it in several different versions. I may force a different themes on the story, change the sex of the main character or change her to somebody else, writing the story in totally different genre (preferably one that I think is totally wrong for the story) or even write using tarot cards to decide the theme for the acts or sequences. When I write these versions I do it while keeping the knowledge back in my mind, that they only are, similar to sketches when drawing, quick and rough ways to try out different versions as to allow me to see the subject from different angles and give me a more complete picture. I generally don't write these rough drafts in screenplay format, unless its a very short film, rather I do them in either synopsis, outline or treatment form depending on how detailed I feel I need to get.
When you've found you theme, your reason for making the film, define it as simple as you can, preferably in one sentence.
When we know our reason for wanting to make the film its time to start thinking about how to do it - the strategy. Who are our audience and how can we reach them in the most efficient way? If the film is a feature, is a theatrical release the best way to go to reach our goals? Is it better to focus on TV? May a digital release be the best option? And what about festivals? Does our audience go to filmfestivals and do they even care if we've won a prise in Whatnot festival in Whereeverville? What kind of films appeal to them? Artfilms, musicals, drama, comedy or something else? Are there web forums or other social media forms you can use to reach them with information during the production to help generate interest? Know your audience and know how to reach them. Try to sum up, in a few short sentences, a strategy of how you could reach your audience in the most efficient way with the message you want to tell them.
The next step is the "Key Image". The key image is a picture that defines the film. Try to find a image or scene in your story idea that has a strong emotional connection for you. It should be the image you see when you close your eyes and think about your film.
When you have your scene think about, and write down, why it moves you and what emotions it conveys. Think about how you can strengthen those emotions with visual elements. What kind of shapes should dominate the image? Round shapes or hard or maybe twisted shapes? Should there be depth in the image or should it be flat? Should the elements be framed in or should there be an open composition? And so on...
Think about how to help the image convey its message and then start sketching. Don't worry about the design or making it look good, focus only on the shapes and the composition. Use simple geometrical shapes (circles, squares, triangles and lines) and work with silhouettes in different gray scales. Only use colors when absolutely needed. There will, with all certainty, be changes to the key image after the story is written, mostly in design element, so don't put much effort in small details - focus on the impression of the image as a whole.
It is important to remember that, since the key image won't be used directly in the film, you are not forced to use cinematic composition in the image. Think of it more as a picture from a picture book. You can use a composition in the image that lets your eyes wander over the image thus telling the observer several things in one image.
Last but not least, comes the actual story. Why wait so long to come to the story? Don't I agree with Pixar that "story is king"? I do agree that story is king and I think that the story is the base that the rest of the elements of the film (images, sound editing etc.) should build upon. Then why wait with the story? Because I believe that we need to know why and to how to tell a story for maximum impact before we actually tell it. Generally this is found by writing hundreds of drafts of a screenplay untill the storyteller finds what the actual theme of the film (the reason for telling it) and by finding it the writer learns how to tell the story and the words just start flowing out. I do, of cause, write several drafts of a screenplay and I learn something new, if not several things, in each draft I write. But I think we work more efficiently if we know why we are doing something and where we are going. There is still experimentation but now it is more focused.
Start again with "Why?" or the theme and then go on with the "How?" or the metaphor used to carry the theme to you audience. Think about symbols, are there objects and environments that can represent the theme in different ways? How are you going to use sound? Is there dialogue and why? If there is music, why and of what kind? How will you use sound effects? And what style of editing will you use?
Then comes the "What?". What character drives the story and what does she do, that is, what is the plot? Who is your character? What does she want and what is stopping her? What are her strengths and what weaknesses does she need to conquer? To make your character more cinematic, try describing her personality using verbs and not adjectives.
When it comes to what happens in the movie, the plot, you can use the three act structure and the 5-point story structure (or what ever your favorite methods are) and write the story in synopsis form. I prefer to do it in five sentences, one for each of the five story points. If your synopsis gets very long, longer than half a page, it's generally a sign that you don't really know your story that well. When writing the synopsis, think about why things are happening and focus on what is needed to convey the message to your audience.
When you've found your character and story you will probably want to make her and the rest of the key image more detailed, and that is exactly what I would do too. If you don't feel you have to redo your key image from scratch, you can use your earlier version as base and, if working digital, draw on top of it, adding more detail. Before you start coloring the image think about how you can use the colors as story elements. What colors represent who the character is and what environment is? Will a color represent the theme or an emotion for the character? Will the colors change during the film to help convey the characters personal development? Or would the story best be conveyed in black and white?
When your finished, sum everything up in a nice layout. Even though it's called a one-sheet I generally use two pages, one for the key image, film title and maybe a catchy logline, and a second page for the story and project description. If you're going to use the one-sheet to help with marketing you may want to be carefull with writing your personal reasons for wanting to do the film if you think that the reason may make you as being perceived as egotistical or self-centered.
Although I've written each step in a step-by-step manner, I generally jump a bit back and forth between different areas while doing the one-sheet, as I find this more flexible way of working more efficient since it allows me to get a more multi angled, three-dimensional impression of what I'm working on. But, even though I jump back and forth, I do finish the steps in order since they build on each other.
It is also important to remember that, although the one-sheet is the base that the rest of the film will build upon, sometimes the base will need reconstruction or even be replaced. The one-sheet is a guideline - not a rule. Rules that are set in stone will often be the wall that stops you from moving forward.
Thank you for spending your time reading my post,
Peter Hertzberg
The reason behind creating the one-sheet is that it sums up the project in a short and easily digestible way that can be used both for external parties, to help get funding, and, more importantly, for the creators to create a stable base to build the rest of the film on top of. The one-sheet also helps in defining the goals of the project and making them more concrete which allows the creators to work more focused and make faster decisions by being able to see if the different choices actually works towards the goals.
The first part of making the one-sheet is to define why, on a personal level, you want to make the film - the goal, and why do it now. Why is the message of the film important for you and why do you want to convey it to your audience? Is the main priority of the film to market you as a director or is there a more universal theme to your film? Neither reason is better or worse, but knowing why you want to make the film should drive all the following decisions.
Finding the real reason we want to tell a story often is harder than it first seems. We often like to pick a reason that we think is deep and philosophical and will make others think of us as intellectual. But this is the wrong reason. The reason should come from inside ourselves. Why idea moves us. Why it important for us. This is the theme of the film.
I find that I, to actually find what it is of a story idea that moves me, often have to write it in several different versions. I may force a different themes on the story, change the sex of the main character or change her to somebody else, writing the story in totally different genre (preferably one that I think is totally wrong for the story) or even write using tarot cards to decide the theme for the acts or sequences. When I write these versions I do it while keeping the knowledge back in my mind, that they only are, similar to sketches when drawing, quick and rough ways to try out different versions as to allow me to see the subject from different angles and give me a more complete picture. I generally don't write these rough drafts in screenplay format, unless its a very short film, rather I do them in either synopsis, outline or treatment form depending on how detailed I feel I need to get.
When you've found you theme, your reason for making the film, define it as simple as you can, preferably in one sentence.
When we know our reason for wanting to make the film its time to start thinking about how to do it - the strategy. Who are our audience and how can we reach them in the most efficient way? If the film is a feature, is a theatrical release the best way to go to reach our goals? Is it better to focus on TV? May a digital release be the best option? And what about festivals? Does our audience go to filmfestivals and do they even care if we've won a prise in Whatnot festival in Whereeverville? What kind of films appeal to them? Artfilms, musicals, drama, comedy or something else? Are there web forums or other social media forms you can use to reach them with information during the production to help generate interest? Know your audience and know how to reach them. Try to sum up, in a few short sentences, a strategy of how you could reach your audience in the most efficient way with the message you want to tell them.
The next step is the "Key Image". The key image is a picture that defines the film. Try to find a image or scene in your story idea that has a strong emotional connection for you. It should be the image you see when you close your eyes and think about your film.
When you have your scene think about, and write down, why it moves you and what emotions it conveys. Think about how you can strengthen those emotions with visual elements. What kind of shapes should dominate the image? Round shapes or hard or maybe twisted shapes? Should there be depth in the image or should it be flat? Should the elements be framed in or should there be an open composition? And so on...
Think about how to help the image convey its message and then start sketching. Don't worry about the design or making it look good, focus only on the shapes and the composition. Use simple geometrical shapes (circles, squares, triangles and lines) and work with silhouettes in different gray scales. Only use colors when absolutely needed. There will, with all certainty, be changes to the key image after the story is written, mostly in design element, so don't put much effort in small details - focus on the impression of the image as a whole.
It is important to remember that, since the key image won't be used directly in the film, you are not forced to use cinematic composition in the image. Think of it more as a picture from a picture book. You can use a composition in the image that lets your eyes wander over the image thus telling the observer several things in one image.
Last but not least, comes the actual story. Why wait so long to come to the story? Don't I agree with Pixar that "story is king"? I do agree that story is king and I think that the story is the base that the rest of the elements of the film (images, sound editing etc.) should build upon. Then why wait with the story? Because I believe that we need to know why and to how to tell a story for maximum impact before we actually tell it. Generally this is found by writing hundreds of drafts of a screenplay untill the storyteller finds what the actual theme of the film (the reason for telling it) and by finding it the writer learns how to tell the story and the words just start flowing out. I do, of cause, write several drafts of a screenplay and I learn something new, if not several things, in each draft I write. But I think we work more efficiently if we know why we are doing something and where we are going. There is still experimentation but now it is more focused.
Start again with "Why?" or the theme and then go on with the "How?" or the metaphor used to carry the theme to you audience. Think about symbols, are there objects and environments that can represent the theme in different ways? How are you going to use sound? Is there dialogue and why? If there is music, why and of what kind? How will you use sound effects? And what style of editing will you use?
Then comes the "What?". What character drives the story and what does she do, that is, what is the plot? Who is your character? What does she want and what is stopping her? What are her strengths and what weaknesses does she need to conquer? To make your character more cinematic, try describing her personality using verbs and not adjectives.
When it comes to what happens in the movie, the plot, you can use the three act structure and the 5-point story structure (or what ever your favorite methods are) and write the story in synopsis form. I prefer to do it in five sentences, one for each of the five story points. If your synopsis gets very long, longer than half a page, it's generally a sign that you don't really know your story that well. When writing the synopsis, think about why things are happening and focus on what is needed to convey the message to your audience.
When you've found your character and story you will probably want to make her and the rest of the key image more detailed, and that is exactly what I would do too. If you don't feel you have to redo your key image from scratch, you can use your earlier version as base and, if working digital, draw on top of it, adding more detail. Before you start coloring the image think about how you can use the colors as story elements. What colors represent who the character is and what environment is? Will a color represent the theme or an emotion for the character? Will the colors change during the film to help convey the characters personal development? Or would the story best be conveyed in black and white?
When your finished, sum everything up in a nice layout. Even though it's called a one-sheet I generally use two pages, one for the key image, film title and maybe a catchy logline, and a second page for the story and project description. If you're going to use the one-sheet to help with marketing you may want to be carefull with writing your personal reasons for wanting to do the film if you think that the reason may make you as being perceived as egotistical or self-centered.
Although I've written each step in a step-by-step manner, I generally jump a bit back and forth between different areas while doing the one-sheet, as I find this more flexible way of working more efficient since it allows me to get a more multi angled, three-dimensional impression of what I'm working on. But, even though I jump back and forth, I do finish the steps in order since they build on each other.
It is also important to remember that, although the one-sheet is the base that the rest of the film will build upon, sometimes the base will need reconstruction or even be replaced. The one-sheet is a guideline - not a rule. Rules that are set in stone will often be the wall that stops you from moving forward.
Thank you for spending your time reading my post,
Peter Hertzberg
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