This week’s class was focused on the idea of ‘High-Concept’ films through the film we had been allocated for the week, Jaws (1975).

Primarily, we discussed what we learned (from the readings) a high-concept film to be. It is a film that revolves around large amounts of revenue being generated; the film appealing to a wide cultural/age demographic; and can be pitched with a very succinct premise.

We used the film Jaws (1975) to explore this notion further. Jaws (1975) did exceptionally well in Box Office and was the highest grossing box office film for 2 years prior to the release of Star Wars. One of the reasons why Jaws (1975) did so well was because the directors and producers knew that the film would be popular with a large demographic of people – due to the success of the novel with the same name released in 1974.

We discussed that one of the major reasons why Jaws (1975) can easily be recognized as a ‘High-Concept’ film was because there is not much substance in regard to character development or thematic qualities – in short, it is a horror/slasher film that can be succinctly summed up in the premise: Giant shark attacks civilization.

To put the concept of ‘High-Concept’ films into practice, we were asked to create a High-Concept film from a classic fairytale. My group chose ‘Goldilocks’ and transformed it into: ‘Mature age student goes back to college to find love, education and herself’.