Throughout the history, the mode of Hollywood production has long been inclined to minimizing risks and maximizing profits. The self-replicating and income-promising high concept products thus became dominant within the industry for being commercially safe. In this essay, Justin Wyatt argues that the traits of high concept is essential in the delineation of American film history through three perspectives – the transformation of the auteur, television and ideological agenda of high concept, and the alternatives to this style.
One way to understand high concept as a potent force is to observe the circumstances of the auteurs in the post war era. A director as the film’s selling point grew to be a common occurrence, yet after the demise of experimentation