Develop a film idea · Part 5 of 6

Sharpen Your Ideas with Agent Interviews

Let an AI agent question you until the idea holds up.

The highest-leverage use of an AI partner is not generation. It is interrogation.

Sit down with the locked logline, the bibles, the beat sheet, and the world page, and let the agent ask questions until you can restate the movie in your own words.

What is an agent interview?

A timed conversation with one job: make you say the film out loud. The agent does not outline. It does not compliment. It does not name beats unless you do. It asks one question at a time. You answer. Then it asks the next question that your answer failed to close.

A restated logline in your words
The dramatic question
Why this protagonist only
The ending irony
Three ways the idea dies in development

A sharp answer names a person and a cost. A soft answer names a topic.

Four rounds

Keep each round short. Change the agent’s job each time.

Round 1. Ignorant exec.
They have not read your pages. They need a pitch in one breath. If you need the whole bible to explain the movie, the idea is not simple enough yet.

Round 2. Hostile buyer.
They do not want to make this. Their job is to prove it is a stack of scenes, not a film. Let them be rude.

Round 3. Audience.
They only care how they feel at minute twelve and at the end. What were they promised. When are they paid.

Round 4. Lock.
The agent restates the movie in your words. You correct the restatement. Repeat until you would sign it.

Questions that close holes

If the agent stalls, point it at these.

Whose day is ruined on page one, and why should we stay?
What does the hero do that a decent person would not?
What one noun is the movie about (shame, debt, appetite, belonging)?
If we cut the twist, does Act Two still turn?
What image could you not lose if you shot this for no money?
What would a skeptic ask you first?

Kill test

Make the agent argue against the lock.

Is the restated logline a topic or a person with a cost?
Could another protagonist give the same answers?
Did you need the twist to make Round 3 work?
Are you defending research and wardrobe, or want and lie?
Can you say the pitch in one breath without the beat sheet in front of you?

Using AI as a writing partner

Give it a job per round. One question at a time. Then argue with the draft.

Paste into your AI chat

Act as my creative co-author, not my replacement. You are interviewing me. Do not outline. Do not compliment. Do not name Save the Cat beats unless I do. Do not invent plot to fill a hole.

Inputs: [locked logline] · [want / need / lie] · [key beats] · [world constitution] · hard limits.

Run four rounds. One question at a time. Wait for my answer.

Round 1: ignorant exec. Get the film in one breath.
Round 2: hostile buyer. Prove this is scenes, not a movie.
Round 3: audience. What am I promised at minute twelve, and when am I paid?
Round 4: restate in my words: logline, dramatic question, why this protagonist only, ending irony, three ways this dies in development.

If want, arena, or ending irony is empty, ask about that slot instead of inventing it.
After the restatement, attack it. Do not pick a winner for me.

Treat the model like an operator. Constraints, structured output, real stakes. Not “help me brainstorm.” Nainsi

When the restatement is something you would sign, the concept is sharp enough to write pages. Coverage comes after those pages exist. That is the next lesson.