All Media Access 2025 (Part One)

About the role

This article explores how to determine the best medium for your story idea—whether it’s a screenplay, limited series, novel, or network series. The goal is to match your concept to the right market before writing, ensuring it fits the format and audience expectations.

Key Considerations

• Market Fit: A story idea must align with the medium’s requirements. For example, a concept too small for a feature film might thrive as a TV episode or limited series.
• Timing: Decide on the market before writing. Writing first and marketing later risks creating a product with limited appeal.
• Passion vs. Viability: Write stories you’re passionate about, but ensure they also have commercial potential. Aim for ideas that resonate with a broad audience, including yourself.
• Medium-Specific Adaptations: A two-hour movie stretched into a 10-episode series often results in padding. Conversely, a sprawling idea crammed into a feature may feel rushed. Adapt the idea to the medium’s strengths.

Theatrical Movie Ideas

Movies must appeal to a global audience, compelling enough to justify the effort of leaving home, paying for tickets, and sitting in a theater. Key traits include:

• Strong Central Conflict: The conflict should escalate throughout the story, sustaining interest over 110 pages. Avoid ideas with "flatlining" conflicts better suited to shorter formats.
• Three Basic Types of Movies:
  • Big Event Films: Epic stories (e.g., Gladiator II, Marvel films, Dune) that appeal universally. Often based on existing properties, but original screenplays can succeed with a globally compelling idea.
  • “Meat and Potatoes” Genre Films: Targeted at specific audiences (e.g., action, horror, rom-com). Examples: The Beekeeper (action), Heretic (horror), Anyone But You (rom-com). Budget-conscious, requiring focused ideas.
  • Independent Films: Often dramas or personal stories (e.g., The Bikeriders, Anora). Typically low-budget, sometimes self-funded or adapted from novels/plays.
• 100 Idea Theory: Generate many ideas and select the best fit for the medium, rather than committing to the first or favorite idea.

TV Movie Ideas

TV movies (e.g., Hallmark, Lifetime, SyFy) target smaller, more personal stories with limited budgets. Key traits include:

• Commercial Breaks: Scripts must include ~7 cliffhangers to retain viewers during ads. Structure typically includes a teaser, 7 acts, and sometimes a tag.
• Budget Constraints: Limited locations, speaking roles, and crowd scenes. Examples: holiday romances (e.g., Hot Frosty), thrillers, or genre-specific films (e.g., SyFy’s disaster/monster movies).
• Network-Specific Requirements: Lifetime thrillers favor female leads in single-family homes; SyFy leans toward sci-fi/mockbusters. Research the network’s brand.

F.A.S.T. Movie Ideas

Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST) networks (e.g., Tubi, Pluto, Roku) produce low-budget, genre-focused films. Key traits include:

• Budget-Friendly: Minimize locations, speaking roles, and crowd scenes. Commercial breaks and cliffhangers are often required (e.g., 7-act structure).
• Genre Focus: Tubi, for example, prioritizes "fun" content, even in horror (e.g., gory but entertaining).
• Reruns and Originals: FAST networks initially relied on reruns but now produce originals to compete with paid streamers.