Quote: Marc P @ May 27 2009, 11:24 AM BSTNot neccessarily. Anything can be summed up in one sentence. Look at how simply E=MC squared can be said.
What shows/films would you say are high-concept, Marc? As you understand it?
Low concept V high concept Page 3
I would say The Matrix was high concept, whilst Happy-Go-Lucky was low concept.
Quote: Dolly Dagger @ May 27 2009, 11:27 AM BSTwhilst Happy-Go-Lucky was low concept.
And vaguely vomit inducing. 
(And possibly high-concept, now I come to think of it)
Well for me I suppose High Concept involves a gimmick of some sort that twists the normal exploration of human life. So as Michael says My Family is low concept, My Hero is high concept. [coming from the tradition of Bewitched/I dream of Jeannie, The Ghost and Mrs Muir. etc] The extra gimmick is a kind of lens to explore the realities of human life. All fairy tales are parables of one sort of another, a heightened metaphor to uncover our real existence. In Film the obvious High Concept stories are SCi Fi/Fantasy etc. But it can also be a gimmick like Body swaps so that a man can understand a woman, Liar Liar a man has to tell the truth to discover that telling the truth will make him a better person, What Women Want so that Mel Gibson can get intouch with his feminine side.
Low concept just relies on people being people in a situation that contains and defines them. The Royle family - what it is to be northerners watching telly. Reggir Perrin is low concept, middle aged man had mid life crisis. The Good Life is High Concept - middle aged man has mid life crisis and decides to go self sufficient with hilarious consequences.
The trouble with high concept is that sometimes the gimmick becomes increasingly harder to maintain. And if it is of it's time that becomes tricky - I.E. The 'materialness' heart of Reggie is misplaced in these times of Depression I think. And The Good Life has a certain shelf life on the basis of Self Suffieciency being interesting of itself. WHich is why the HC Good Life finished long, long ago and the LC Last of The Summer Wine is only now getting to the dregs of the bottle some 37 years later.
Lucky guess...
Dan
Agree about high-concept being about a gimmick, which is why it's easier to maintain over a ninety minute film than a three series season of six six episodes. But I would say The Royle Family is just as gimmicky in it's own way as something like Die Hard. The gimmick being, nothing much happens each episode, the family just sit around and watch telly and talk.
Thanks again everyone. So would I be correct to say that "after your gone" would be low concept and "goodnight sweetheart" would be considered high concept?
J26
I'd agree with that.
Perhaps (as I conjectured in a thread above) it could be said that "low concept" is the characterisation driving the storylines, whereas "high concept" could be the idea driving the storylines. (Obviously characterisation is paramount in both, so I'm not saying it's not important!)
Also, I might be wrong
Dan
So who else would say The Good Life is high concept?
Quote: Marc P @ May 27 2009, 11:35 AM BSTthe LC Last of The Summer Wine is only now getting to the dregs of the bottle some 37 years later.
"Only now"? Some might take issue with that assertion.
Just guessing - and I don't know if it has been mentioned before - but could high concept be too technical about something that nobody would really understand whereas low concept is everyday situations?
(I'm probably wrong though!)
Quote: Tim Walker @ June 1 2009, 5:06 PM BST"Only now"? Some might take issue with that assertion.
Examine the metaphor Tim.
I would agree that the Good Life could be seen as high concept. "Working class couple live next door to slightly posher more uptight couple" is pretty low concept. "Working class couple live off the land in Surbiton, next dooor to slightly posher, uptight couple who like them but are mildly embarassed by their lifestyle" is more high concept.
I don't think the Royle Family is high concept. Just "family sits about on sofa talking to each other". Tha fact that nothing much happens just makes it incredibly low energy rather than high concept.
The genesis of The Good Life was thinking about what someone would do when he was about to turn 40 and wanted to escape a dead-end job and change his life (just as One Foot in the Grave was about a man being retired and finding things to fill his life up). So I'd say both were low in concept.
All Drama is about life. Sitcom is a sub genre of Drama. All good sitcoms have a look at what is to be human in the times in which we live. The 'pitch' though can be high or low and in the case of The Good Life I would say the 'Pitch' was high. The engine of every episode was the self sufficiency story.
I think we should book a hall at Oxford and have a proper debate!