How to write high concept films: Revenge of the Nerds

To write a high concept film film script you need a clearly defined central theme that can be expressed in a short sentence. If you cannot do this, it is not high concept.

Jaws: A monster shark starts attacking the people of Amity and the good old sheriff needs to defeat it in an epic battle.

Star Wars: The empire starts attacking people around the universe and Luke and the rebels need to defeat them in an epic battle.

Revenge of the Nerds: The jocks of Alpha Beta are attacking the Nerds and the Nerds fight back to defeat them in an epic battle.

High concept doesn't work where there is no conflict at all.

E.g. Jaws X: the great granddaughter of the shark in the original Jaws is back attacking Amity and the townspeople, who are all very sensible conservationists, initiate steps to learn to live with the shark as they realise that sharks are an important part of the food chain.

For conflict to exist you first have to define the roles of the 'goodies' and the 'baddies'. You, of course, need to make the goodies likeable. In Revenge of the Nerds we are introduced to Lewis and Gilbert, although geeky they seem like they wouldn't hurt a fly, and they are kind of funny when they needlessly carry their trunks across a lawn interrupting many people and causing mayhem.

When they reach the Alpha Beta house they are confronted by Ogre, dangling a nerd over the balcony and, after dropping him, the nerds hear Ogre leading the chant of nerds, nerds, nerds. So, we have conflict. But this is not enough conflict to sustain an entire film, and, for high concept to work, you gotta start ramping it up from the very beginning.

Sure there is obvious potential for conflict between the Alpha Beta jocks and the nerds, but, at this stage it is only potential. You as high concept scriptwriter have to make it real, and you have to do it quick. The writers of Revenge of the Nerds waste no time, they have us visiting the Alpha Beta house party, and in amongst the stair diving into the pool of beer and other shenanigans, they manage to burn down Alpha Beta house.

The Alpha Betas need a new home and their football coach convinces the school administrators to let them have the freshman accommodation. Now the nerds are not just faced with name calling, they are physically turfed out on their butts and in their underwear on the steps of the freshman accommodation.

Okay, let's compare this to Jaws. At the same stage of Jaws maybe one swimmer has been eaten by the shark, and people aren't sure if they need to make anything of it, or if it is really a shark, and maybe if it is a shark it will just go back to eating seals and whale carcasses and leave everybody alone. So to is the cinema audience thinking, well things are a bit bad, but really not that bad. People do occasionally get eaten by sharks, sometimes nerds do get bullied by jocks. Well you can't have this can you, time to ramp it up again. In Jaws, the obvious way is to get more people eaten, in more spectacular ways, and keep getting them eaten to the point where the audience is sitting there shitting themselves thinking, for god's sake if the sheriff doesn't stop this that shark is going to eat every person in Amity and it will literally never be safe to ever enter the water again.

So this stage we can call turning ambiguity into a clearly defined breaking point that will soon turn into a mission.

In Revenge of the Nerds it's the attack of the jocks on the nerds that increase to this critical 'breaking point' where the audience begins backing the goodies against the baddies 100%. First we have the nerds having to sleep in the gym, then, when Lewis and Gilbert get fooled by the gorgeous Betty Childs into thinking Alpha Beta might actually accept them into their fraternity house, they find themselves subjected to humiliation and a good old fashioned tar-and-feathering (without the tar). Then when the nerds do find their own accommodation the jocks launch another attack, and the nerds find themselves having to go to the Greek council to seek justice.

Being high concept the Greek Council was never going to sort out the nerds problem, it's only part way through the film, you can't go to the Greek council and have them say, 'yes nerds, we'll sort everything out for you'. No, the Greek council is run by the Alpha Betas who won't even let them seek a vote in regards to the attack because the nerds aren't a member of a fraternity and only fraternity members get to request votes on the Greek Council.

Let's compare this to Jaws, when Brody goes to the Mayor to get support to close the beaches does the Major go, 'yeah, that sounds swell'. Of course not, same type of point in the film as Revenge of the Nerds, you can't have things resolved just yet. This is the point of the film where they need to take the law into their own hands, which in Brody's case in Jaws isn't too hard because he was the sheriff.

The nerds, and Brody, can't do things on their own though, they need to enlist some allies, characters whom we may not have seen thus far, but who have credible introductions. In Jaws it's the shark expert and the expert shark hunter. In Star Wars, it's Han Solo, Chewbacca, Obi Wan, and, when they bust her out, Princess Leia. In Revenge of the Nerds it's the tri-lambas and the Omega mus.

Gilbert picks up one of the Mu's in a computer lab, Lewis, with the help of Poindexter's knowledge of the tri-lambas bi-laws, convinces the tri-lamba's to give them a 60-day trial as a new fraternity. In Star Wars they pick up Han and Chewie in a strange bar and convince Han that a large treasure awaits him on helping to rescue the princess. In Jaws the expert shark researcher is brought in and the expert shark hunter just likes hanging around town hall meetings itching to go out and hunt monsters.

Now there's some allies a plan of attack can be further developed. For the Nerds it's take on the Greek council by winning the Greek Games and installing video cameras in the Pi's, the sorority allied to the Alpha Betas whose nominal leader is Betty Childs, bedrooms and bathrooms to watch boobs, muff and Betty Childs' butt as they eat cheerios drenched in beer. Now things can start working out fr the goodies, there's still a fight to have, but it's all been set up. The rebels have got the plans to the death star, the Jaws mob have their boat, and harpoons and guns and stuff, the nerds have their superior intellects.

I call this the 'plan stage', where a plan is hatched. It's also where things start turning around so you could also call it the 'turning point'.

You still got to have times when you don't reckon they'll make it. In Jaws the shark is too strong for the barrels and starts munching the boat, in Star Wars Han and Chewie desert them and the Death Star is just about to blow up the planet the rebels are hanging out on. In Revenge of the Nerds the Pi's and Alpha Betas conspire to ruin the nerds' chances of getting into the Tri-Lamabas by ruining their party in front of the Tri-Lamba boss.

Because it is high concept, these obstacles can now all be resolved. Brody gets a lucky shot in a blows the shark to smithereens. Han shows up and helps Luke get a lucky shot in to blow up the death star.

In Revenge of the Nerds the nerds begin the fight the very concept of nerds as well as the Pi's and Alpha Betas who are trying to put them down. When the Pi's don't show up to the nerd's party after promising to, Gilbert is able to enlist the support of the Mu's. When nobody is having much fun at the party and it looks like the Tri-Lamba President, invited to see how great the party is by Lewis, is frowning upon their nerdness, Booger is able to produce some wonder joints to get the party started. When the Alpha Betas. On hearing of the Mu's attendance, let some piss loose in the nerd's house and moon the party, the nerds fight back and put liquid heat on the jocks' jock straps.

When Stan, the Alpha Beta alpha male, leaves his Darth Vader mask at the kissing booth at the charity event that is part of the Greek Games, Lewis picks it up and wears it so he go anonymously have sex with a horny Betty Childs, who, once Lewis' mask is lifted, realises that nerds are good at sex, and that being a nerd is not really that bad. After winning the Greek Games, and having the Alpha Beta's show up and destroy the nerds fraternity house, the Tri-Lamabas show up to homecoming letting the nerds give a rousing speech on how great it is to be a nerd and putting the final nail in the coffin of the Alpha Beta/ Pi dominance.

This is the time of resolution, it's when people kiss and Luke gets a medal for blowing up the Death Star, and Han gets a wink from the princess and people cheer and shit. And it's where the nerd can stand proud and acknowledge that they are nerds, but there's nothing wrong with being a nerd anymore.

So there you have it, high concept. If it is difficult to understand it ain't high concept!

And I know the women in Revenge of the Nerds may now be a little older than they were in 1984, but we can all still be eternally gratefully that they showed us their boobs and the wonderfully described 'muff'.