The premise of a film or screenplay is the fundamental concept that drives the plot. Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ... A screenplay or script is a blueprint for producing a motion picture. ... // Plot in literature, theater, movies According to Aristotles Poetics, a plot in literature is the arrangement of incidents that (ideally) each follow plausibly from the other. ...

A good premise can usually be expressed very simply, and many films can be identified simply from a short sentence describing the premise. For example: A lonely boy is befriended by an alien; A small town is terrorized by a shark; A small boy sees dead people. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a Academy Award-winning 1982 science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg that tells the story of a young boy, Elliott, who befriends an alien being called E.T. stranded on Earth and trying to find his way home. ... Jaws (1975) is an American film, based upon a bestselling novel by Peter Benchley, which tells the story of a resort towns sheriff who tries to protect beachgoers from the predations of a huge great white shark by closing the beach, only to be overruled by the town council. ... The Sixth Sense (1999) is a film that tells the fictional story of a troubled, isolated boy (played by Haley Joel Osment) and a child psychologist (played by Bruce Willis) who tries to help him. ...

The uniqueness or compelling nature of a film story's premise is often a key element in selling it, especially during the initial pitch. However, truly original, compelling premises are fiendishly difficult to come up with, and may take a writer many months of thinking and reading. Unfortunately, most premises are either derivative (Die hard in space), contrived (two black guys must dress up as white girls) or simply dull (A man has an extremely boring job). However a compelling premise is absolutely no guarantee of a film or screenplay's quality, nor is a derivative or lacklustre premise the kiss of death. A pitch is a concise verbal (and sometimes visual) presentation of an idea for a film, generally made by a screenwriter or director to a producer or studio executive in the hope of attracting development finance to pay for a screenplay to be written. ...

A story which has an easily understood, compelling premise is said to be high-concept, whereas one whose premise is not easy to describe, or relatively small-scale or mundane, is said to be low-concept. A low-concept story is highly execution-dependent because the commercial viability of the project will depend largely on the quality of the creative endeavors of those involved, whereas a high-concept story may still pull in audiences even if the script is flawed, the acting wooden and the direction directionless.

It is a common misconception that high-concept movies are necessarily expensive or effects driven. One of the most successful low-budget independent British films of recent years, The Full Monty (1997), had an almost perfect high-concept premise: a group of male steel workers decide to become strippers. There is no doubt that the simplicity, originality and compelling nature of the premise (which was perfectly captured in the film's publicity posters) played a major role in the film's commercial success. The Full Monty is a 1997 comedy film, a story of six unemployed British steel workers who decide to form a male striptease act. ...

See also

• Premise