Make A Strong Story With A Good Story Premise

How do I know if the Premise is good?

 When looking for a story premise it is essential to understand that you can’t judge a premise by the idea itself.  The Premise is ruled by the way the director translate the idea to film. The Premise has to enter the viewer’s mind without him noticing it.

All good premises are built from 3 essential parts:  

• an ambitious character
• a conflict
• and a closure.

I will talk about these three things later on in my blog, but for now, you need to know that your Premise will dictate those three elements. Once you find your Premise, your characters are not free anymore. They need to serve that Premise. Everything in the story- the characters, the conflicts, and the actions should arise with the screenwriter’s Premise.

Now:

Usually, you should be able to sum your Premise up in 2 or 3 sentences. If you can’t, then it’s probably not accurate enough. Ask yourself what your story tell us that we have to know, what’s the point of this story? At first, you can start by formulating it as a question- for example- “Doe’s love wins it all?”
On the other hand, you have to make sure your Premise is not too obvious. We still want to entertain them.

The 4^th element of a good premise

There is another important element to consider when writing the Premise, and it is the script writer’s point of view.  It may sound like a not important thing to deal with, but trust me- it is! First of all, If you don’t have anything you want to say, why do you want to work on this art form? There are many other better ways to make money. But more important, your unique point of view is what can make your movie an original one. In this film directing course online, we talk about delivering your message. I recommend reading the find your own voice article to understand how to find your own point of view.
The theme doesn’t always have to be a very important one about mankind, it depends on your way of seeing the world, but every story has to have one. In my opinion, a movie should never be judged by its Premise, but, by the way, he proves his Premise in the movie.

When do I start thinking about my Premise?

The Premise is usually the next step after the idea, although sometimes it becomes clearer after writing a few drafts.
Once you find your Premise, I recommend writing it in a small piece of paper and putting it somewhere in front of you while you are writing the story.

How to deliver the Premise in the film – 2 examples

In the movie A Clockwork Orange, the story premise is, “Can we define goodness and evil with esthetics?” The answer, according to the movie, is NO. We see it best in this scene (This is a violent scene, if you are having a problem with violence, you don’t have to watch it). “>You can click here to watch it.

In this scene, the hooligans are breaking into the old couple’s house, beat the husband, and rape his wife. For me, This is one of the most violent scenes in cinema’s history. Kubrick plays an evil game with us. He wants us to feel ambivalent about this scene. So how does he do that? With colors! The scene before has very gray colors. When we get used to the gray, blue, cold, and dead colors, we move on to the next scene. Now, we are in a house with lots of warm lights, and the camera is very stable. We feel good about this scene. We are set to start the ambivalent feeling.

Another good example will be the movie Rumble Fish. This is the most important scene in the film. Can you guess why?