Why Big Budget Movies Need Scenario Planning

I agree with Tony Reiss that professional firms need scenarios. But let’s flip that word a bit. I think professional films also need scenarios.

Filmmakers need to use scenarios to help drive plots. Most movies retell tales that writers know—they don’t come up with entirely new plots ideas. Scenarios can, as they do in business, give writers the ability, and permission, to explore areas of the future that conventional wisdom won’t, even can’t, go. I liked Star Trek: Into Darkness, but it wasn’t new. It was Star Trek as adventure, as fantasy, not Star Trek as Science Fiction (yes, with capitals JJ and team). We’ve seen the bad Federation wronging people in Star Trek VI already. Time to think about new planets and new plots. Let’s go where no movie has gone before. (And BTW, this isn’t just a Trek thing. When exploring the future, scenarios can provide interesting twists and insights to any forward-looking genre, even films about the very near future).