| Synopsis or Treatment? Neither: Haiku! |
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Q: Which is the best way to submit a concept-- a treatment or a synopsis? Frank T. Every modern screenwriter has struggled with this question, Frank. Executives generally demand a submission to have a fully plotted story, fully rendered characters and a clearly established tone. But executives also want a submission that does not bore them with the details. These people are highly intelligent, extremely intuitive and very easily distracted by shiny objects. A submission that requires too much focus it is just as likely to be rejected as a submission that doesn't make them laugh, cry and learn a little bit about the power of dreams. Treatments are comprehensive but dense. Synopses are attention deficit friendly but lack heart. Screenwriters, it seemed, were doomed to die without ever knowing whether it was the content or the submission format that sank their surfing porcupines concept. Until the year 2003. That's when a saucy young screenwriter by the name of Merton Swank introduced a third and better option called the haiku pitch, which has since become the industry standard for submissions. A little background: Haikus are everywhere you look these days, but back in '03 only five other people Americans were working with the form: Mos Def (the hip hop haiku), Chuck Palahnuik (the shock haiku), Sophia Coppola (the celebrity karaoke haiku), Barack Obama (the stump speech haiku) and Ted Kaczynski (the haiku-festo).
So even though it now seems like a no-brainer that Hollywood would require submissions take the form of an elegant poem with a three line 5-7-5 syllabic structure, it was quite a radical idea at the time. The logic behind my idea, however, was completely practical: if you can’t get your story down to the length of a traditional Japanese poem how can you expect Joe or Jill Quicktime to sit through it? And if it’s shorter than 17 syllables, well is it really worth $11.50? A few examples of high profile haiku pitches set up around town in the past few weeks: Mail Bomb John Woo’s Sponge Bob Oldest Profession in the Galaxy Harry and Maude Sherlock Gump Nazarene's 12: 100% Prophet SEND YOUR QUESTIONS FOR MERTON SWANK TO: |
Screenwriter Merton Swank (Mr. Felony, The Warm Breath of Strangers) answers your questions about writing in, for and in spite of Hollywood. Questions should be submitted to
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"Let's see here... After 'organization dependent technology' I only have five syllables left to finish my haiku manifesto with."| Next > |
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