The difference between a logline and a tagline
The difference between a logline and a
tagline
A logline is a one
(or occasionally two) sentence description that boils the script down to its
essential dramatic narrative in as succinct a manner as possible.
A tagline is a
piece of marketing copy designed to go on posters to sell the film
– In space no one can hear you scream (Alien)
Crucially, a
logline contains all the elements necessary for the telling of a good story. It
is written for industry professionals to show them that you can create a viable
story for the script – a marketing hook alone won’t cut it.
One further note
that you won’t like: A logline is the DNA of your script. If you can’t make the
logline work, it’s probably becasue the story in your script doesn’t work. This
is why some people suggest writing a logline for your idea before embarking on
the script.
Not sure where to
begin? These tips are going to help:
1.
A logline must have the following
–
the protagonist
– their goal
– the antagonist/antagonistic force
2.
Don’t use a character name
It has no
intrinsic information and so is a useless word. Instead, tell us something
about the character.
– A sous-chef
– An ex-superhero
3.
Use an adjective to give a little depth to that character
This is your
chance to show some character. Beware of cliche, and also of the power of
irony. It’s helpful if the characteristic you describe will have something to
do with the plot.
– A mute sous-chef
– An alcoholic
ex-superhero
4.
Clearly and quickly present the protagonist’s main goal
This is what
drives your story and it will drive your logline too. Make sure that the goal
is present early in the script – if you don’t make good on your logline’s
promise early enough the rest of the script won’t get read.
– A mute sous-chef
wants to win the position of Head Chef at her boss’ new restaurant
– An alcoholic ex-superhero
searches for his daughter
5.
Describe the Antagonist
The antagonist
should be described in a similar, but preferably shorter, manner than the hero.
If the hero faces a more general antagonistic force then make it clear that
they are battling something, not just life’s bumps and buffets.
– A mute sous-chef
wants must fight off an ambitious rival to win the position of Head Chef at her
boss’s new restaurant.
– An alcoholic
ex-superhero searches for his daughter after she is kidnapped by his dementing,
jealous former sidekick.
6.
Make sure your protagonist is pro-active
He or she should
drive the story and do so vigorously. Good loglines will show the action of the
story, the narrative momentum that carries you through the script. In some
cases the protagonist will be reactive, but note, this is not the same as
passive.
7.
If you can, include stakes and/or a ticking time-bomb
These are very
useful narrative devices that add urgency tou your script. If they fit in
easily, include them in your logline.
– To save his
reputation a secretly gay frat-boy must sleep with 15 women by the
end-of-semester party.
8.
Setup
Some scripts
operate in a world with different rules to our own and require a brief setup to
explain them, e.g. most science-fiction stories. Others have a protagonist
whose personal or psychological history is crucial to the story and needs to be
explained. Again, be brief.
– In a world where
all children are grown in vats…
– Driven to a
mental breakdown by an accident at work, an aquarium manager…
9.
About the ending
Do not reveal the
script’s supercool twist ending, even if it is the next The Usual Suspects. The
story, and thus the logline, should be good enough to hold up by itself; a
surprise ending should be a lovely bonus found when reading the script. N.B.
This all changes when you get to writing your treatment.
10.
Don’t tell the story, sell the story
Create a desire to
see the script as well as telling them what’s in it. Loglines are like poetry,
every word counts. Tinker, test, and tinker some more.
Bonus
If you can’t write
a decent logline of your idea before embarking
on the script, then maybe reconsider writing that thing. If it’s unfocused and
muddled at the loglines stage, it’s not going to get any better as you write.
Good luck, and
feel free to submit samples in the comments box.
1. What is a logline?
A logline, or log line, is a brief (one to two
sentence) summary of a movie, tv show, etc. that hooks the reader in and
describes the central conflict of the story.
If someone asks you what your screenplay is about,
respond with a logline. While we’ll get into what makes the best loglines pop
and get our attention, it’s important to note that movie loglines
are concise.
It's the most important part of a logline
definition.
LOGLINE VS SYNOPSIS
While your logline is a short summary of what your
movie is about, your synopsis is a beat for beat retelling of your story's
plot.
Whether you're crafting a documentary logline or
tinkering with loglines for short films, your logline is never the same as your
synopsis.
LOGLINE VS TAGLINE
While your logline tells us what we're getting
into, the tagline gets us excited and most always a play on words. What's a tagline?
Using tv logline example, Silicon Valley,
we'd see that the logline is "A shy silicon valley engineer tries to build
his own company." While the tagline is "He's got called
company."
LOGLINE FORMULA
INSERT LOGLINE FORMULA IN YOUR STORY
While no two movie loglines are alike, inserting your story
into logline template can give your project shape and keep you on track.
Use the following formula to get you started:
When [INCITING INCIDENT] happens, [OUR
PROTAGONIST] decides [TO DO ACTION] against [ANTAGONIST].
HOW TO WRITE A LOGLINE
2. Create strong protagonists
A beautiful assassin. A hot-headed anchor. A
culinary-gifted rat.
The first part of your logline should give us
insight into who your movie is about.
While you have a great sense of your main
character, it's important to focus on the key elements that make your character
unique. Usually two conflicting adjectives can grab our attention as to who the
protagonist is.
DON'T USE CHARACTER
NAMES
People didn't know who Ron Burgundy was
before Anchorman...
The original logline for that project most likely
read “A vain, super cool anchorman who is the epitome of 1970's American
culture...etc."
Since your characters only exist in your mind's
eye, it's important to really describe who your characters are.
Napoleon Dynamite
Example
A listless and alienated teenager
decides to help his new friend win the class presidency in their small western
high school, all while he must deal with his bizarre family life back home.
WRITING LOGLINES
3. The best loglines are goals
Character studies are fun, but characters are only
defined by the actions they take. A great logline sets up what the character
wants--we’ll have to see if he or she achieves it. The best logline examples
pose questions that we'll have to watch play out.
If you wrote a movie logline that stated, "a
man sets out to build a robot," it may be a goal, but it is a bit too
bland, and possibly too broad.
That same logline can be strengthened by adding a
specific, testable goal. "A man sets out to build a robot to win a
competition." Immediately, we can visualize a competition and a clear way
to benchmark the protagonist's success.
USE THE ACTIVE
VOICE
It’s no fun when something happens to us out of our
control. That’s why we use the active voice.
While passive events can happen as inciting
incident, the characters reaction can never be something s/he just has to do.
In the next logline, we see that there's a very
clear goal for our main character and it's very easy to see whether or not he
achieves it.
Django Unchained
Example
With the help of a German bounty
hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi
plantation owner.
LOGLINE EXAMPLES
4. Irony is your friend
An airhead blonde goes to Harvard Law School.
A Christmas Elf goes to New York City.
Peruse any great logline examples, and you'll be
sure to find irony. While irony is the bedrock of any comedy movie
loglines, it also makes the protagonist's journey the hardest possible.
By pairing opposite personalities together and
placing fish out of water, your story begins to take shape.
In Silence of the Lambs, irony comes
through as a serial killer is recruited to capture other serial killers.
The Silence of the
Lambs
A young F.B.I. cadet must confide in
an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another
serial killer who skins his victims.
HEIGHTEN THE STAKES
5. Movie loglines should have stakes
Is it the end of the world? Will a bomb explode? Is
there a dastardly villain? How to create the ultimate
villain is no easy feat, but it's easier if you have strong
stakes.
Stakes are great when coupled with a goal–when
stakes are increased, it makes our desire to see the whole thing play out even
greater.
Having stakes is the basis of how to
write a logline. Consider the movie logline for the 1994 film, Speed.
A young police officer must prevent a
bomb exploding aboard a city bus by keeping its speed above 50 mph.
Without "by keeping its speed above 50
mph," this logline loses not only its stakes but also what keeps us
invested in the plot.
TRY USING A LOGLINE
GENERATOR
Maybe you’re stuck for ideas, either way, a
generator is a cool way to brainstorm, but not end up with a final product. A
logline generator can give direction for a character you want to write about,
but any generator or formula will leave you with something lackluster.
Star Wars: A New
Hope
Luke Skywalker, a spirited farm boy,
joins rebel forces to save Princess Leia from the evil Darth Vader, and the
galaxy from the Empire’s Death Star.
Before we get to the next tip, what about TV show
loglines?
Are they different?
MORE LOGLINE EXAMPLES
6. The best loglines break the rules
A producer's assistant will pour over loglines all
day long to the point where they'll all read exactly the same.
While the tips we've outlined should give you
structure and direction, what makes movie loglines truly great is riffing on
the conventional.
This Pirates of the Caribbean logline does just
that. Although it states character names, it gets across character with careful
placed quotation marks around the word "Captain." It shifts the
inciting incident half way through the logline. And most importantly, it
delivers a twist right at the end of the sentence.
HOW TO FIND THE
ESSENCE OF MOVIE LOGLINES
While getting across all the information we expect,
your logline has to have the flavor of your film. To find the flavor, visualize
what your film or show will look like. Knowing how to use storyboards will make this
process much easier.
Pirates of the
Caribbean
Blacksmith Will Turner teams up with
eccentric pirate “Captain” Jack Sparrow to save his love, the governor’s
daughter, from Jack’s former pirate allies, who are now undead.
THE BEST LOGLINE
7. How to write a logline that kills
·
Describe your protagonist with strong adjectives
·
Give your protagonist a clear goal
·
Use irony
·
Increase the stakes
·
Don't be afraid to break convention
The best loglines take multiple drafts and lots of
experimenting.
Once you've come up with a logline that you're
really excited about, you can use StudioBinder's free screenwriting software to
write your entire script. Yup, that's right, it's free.
You can create as many scripts as you like and
write an unlimited amount of pages. Our feature guides you through the writing
process, and teaches you the industry standard format that has been used by
professionals for decades.
How
to write a logline: the ultimate step-by-step guide.
Learning how to write a
logline that achieves this is perhaps the most important stage in the planning
and development phase of writing a screenplay.
Without a great
logline—one that succinctly sums up the core conflict of the story—it’s pretty
hard to write a great script. This is because a screenplay logline contains
the foundational DNA the whole movie is built on: its
struggle between all the major characters and essence of what’s at stake.
In this post, we’ll show
you not only how to write a logline, but how to write good loglines that will
grab the interest of execs, managers and producers.
Learn how to write a
logline the smart way and you’ll save yourself months of
rewrites in the future by addressing problems at the foundational
concept stage.
Here’s
what we’ll be covering in the post:
• What is a logline?
A logline definition that will demystify the process
• How to write a
logline using a simple logline formula
• Bad logline
examples and how to fix them
•Some quick wins to
rescue weak movie loglines
• A key rookie
mistake when it comes to writing a logline
So, let’s dive on in
with the first section.
What
is a logline?
Here’s a quick logline definition:
A logline is simply the script’s core conflict
summed up in one or two sentences.
By “core conflict” we mean the struggle between
protagonist and antagonist that indicates to the reader what’s at stake—the
reason why they should watch this movie.
Before we get into the
nuts and bolts of exactly what is a logline, let’s take a look at a few sample
loglines from famous movies.
Film
logline examples.
Drama.
When his brother dies, a depressed
handyman is forced to return to his hometown and confront his horrific past
having been made sole guardian of his spirited 16-year-old nephew. (Manchester by the Sea.)
Comedy.
Three buddies wake up from a bachelor
party in Las Vegas, with no memory of the previous night and the bachelor
missing. Now they must put together the pieces of the night before and get him
to the altar before it’s too late. (The Hangover.)
Action/Adventure.
In 1936, archaeologist and adventurer
Indiana Jones is hired by the US government to locate the ancient Ark of the
Covenant before the Nazis, and stop them from becoming the most powerful army
the world has ever known. (Raiders of the Lost Ark.)
Thriller.
Two detectives—a rookie and a
veteran—attempt to catch a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his
modus operandi before he kills again. (Se7en.)
Horror.
A young couple becomes increasingly
disturbed by a seemingly demonic presence in their new suburban home and must
figure out how to stop it before it’s too late. (Paranormal Activity.)
Imagine these movie
loglines are for films that are yet to be released.
Would you want to watch them? Imagine you’re an exec who reads one of these
loglines in a query letter or hears it in a pitch. Would you want to read the script?
The answer is probably
yes because each logline makes you want to see the movie or read the script by
perfectly encapsulating the core conflict inherent
in the story.
So let’s now take a look
at just how to write a logline that gets people excited, makes them envisage
the movie and want to read the script.
How
to write a logline by using a formula that guarantees conflict.
There are three elements that go toward creating great loglines.
If you learn how to
write a logline using this logline formula you’ll be putting yourself at a
major advantage over the thousands of specs scripts currently floating around
Hollywood. And potentially save yourself some major headaches while writing the
actual script.
The
3-way triangle of conflict.
There is a simple
logline template you can use when learning how to write a logline:
Protagonist
+ Struggle with Antagonist + Death Stakes
We like to call this the
“three-way triangle of conflict” between protagonist and antagonist and
it’s an essential tool in building the best loglines possible.
In fact, the reason why
so many movie loglines fail at the first hurdle is usually that they’ve missed
out one of the three steps in that equation. But before we go into each of the
steps in more detail, let’s apply our three-way triangle of conflict logline formula to the ones we previously looked
at:
Drama.
When his brother dies, a depressed
handyman [protagonist] is forced to return to his
hometown and confront his horrific past [death stakes] having been made sole guardian of his spirited 16-year-old nephew. [struggle
with antagonist] (Manchester By The Sea.)
Comedy.
Three buddies [protagonists] wake up from a bachelor party in Las Vegas, with no memory of the
previous night and the bachelor missing. [struggle with
antagonist] Now they must put together the pieces of the night before and get
him to the altar before it’s too late. [death stakes] (The Hangover.)
Action/Adventure.
In 1936, archaeologist and adventurer
Indiana Jones [protagonist] is hired by the US government
to locate the ancient Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis [struggle
with antagonist] and stop them from becoming the most powerful
army the world has ever known. [death stakes] (Raiders of the Lost Ark.)
Thriller.
Two detectives—a rookie and a veteran [protagonists]—attempt to catch a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins
as his modus operandi [struggle with antagonist] before he kills again. [death stakes] (Se7en.)
Horror.
A young couple [protagonists] becomes increasingly disturbed by a seemingly demonic
presence in their new suburban home[struggle with antagonist] and must figure out how to stop it before it’s
too late. [death stakes] (Paranormal Activity.)
As you can see, the
script logline template of Protagonist + Struggle with
Antagonist + Death Stakes can be applied to any genre of movie. And
as in the case of the logline to Manchester by the Sea,
don’t necessarily have to go in the same order.
What’s important is that there is a three-way
triangle of conflict that gives a sense of the pressure the antagonist is going
to put the protagonist under and why we should care.
You may be wondering why
a drama like Manchester by the Sea or a comedy
like The Hangover contains “death stakes.” We use this as a
catch-all phrase because ultimately all stakes are about death.
The only difference
between the stakes in an action/adventure, thriller or horror and those found
in a drama or comedy is that in the former they’re literal,
while in the latter they’re figurative. But we’ll
get into this in more detail later on in the post.
The
power struggle.
Essentially, a movie is
a three-way power struggle between the protagonist, antagonist and what’s at stake, usually
personified in a stakes character.
Let’s take a closer look
at some of our sample loglines:
• Manchester by the Sea. Lee
is the protagonist, his own personality and terrible past are the forces of
antagonism, and saving his failing life is what’s at stake—personified in the
stakes character of his nephew, Patrick.
• Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indy is the protagonist, the Nazis are the
antagonists and the future of the world is at stake—personified in the stakes
character of Marion.
•Se7en. Somerset and Mills are
the protagonists, serial killer John Doe is the antagonist, and stopping him
before he kills again is what’s at stake—personified in the stakes character of
Mills’s girlfriend, Tracy. And so on.
It’s this three-way
power struggle—the protagonist and antagonist both fighting
in direct opposition over something big at stake (usually
personified in a stakes character)—that makes a screenplay’s conflict feel
complete.
So now let’s go deeper
into each of these specific three stages you should use when writing a logline.
How
to write a logline step #1: add protagonist.
A concept, story, or
plot isn’t much without a protagonist to identify with, and this should be the
first thing you establish.
The
thumbnail sketch.
The trick, though, is to
make sure you define your protagonist (or protagonists) as clearly and
evocatively as you can in a short thumbnail sketch:
• A female FBI cadet
• A middle-aged
beach bum
• An aspiring pop
singer
And so on… This is a
great way of giving us an immediate impression of
who we’re rooting for, as jobs and life statuses often tend to hint at
personality too. Don’t be afraid to add an adjective too: “an uptight
businessman,” “a confused graduate,” “a meek hobbit of the Shire,” etc.
In either case, always lean toward the specific
when writing a logline rather than the general. Write “a frustrated office
worker,” rather than “an office worker,” as it says more about who we’re
dealing with.
The trick is to build as
specific and as vivid a thumbnail sketch of your protagonist as possible in as few words as possible. “A loving father of four who
works as a mechanic enjoys playing online poker, and dreams of one day
emigrating to the US,” could obviously do with some trimming.
Should
you add names?
There are no hard and
fast rules over this, but it’s not necessary to
add names to movie loglines. We don’t need to know, for example, that your
protagonist is called Cindy Schwartzman, just that she’s “a hard-nosed New York
Post reporter.”
On the other hand, if
you think adding your protagonist’s name to the logline helps conjure up an
image of them in our mind, then go for it.
How
to write a logline step #2: add struggle with antagonist.
We could’ve called this
step “Add Antagonist,” but that would be to skip over an essential factor in
creating great loglines: the pressure the protagonist is
put under while struggling with the antagonist.
It’s much easier to come
up with an effective concept and screenplay logline if you do it from the
perspective of a protagonist’s struggle with an antagonist. Rather than simply
“hero vs. villain,” which feels static.
Your antagonist can be a
physical person, a storm, a pack of wolves, an asteroid, or whatever you
choose. What’s important to get across in the logline is just how super frustrating this struggle will be for your
protagonist.
By adding a struggle
with an antagonist to any idea, concept or logline, it can be immediately
improved.
Consider
this logline.
A failed novelist, still hung up on his ex, embarks
on a wine-tasting road trip with a friend right before the latter’s wedding.
It’s not a bad logline
for Sideways. It paints a good picture of who the protagonist
is, and tells us the basic facts of what the story’s about. But it’s still
missing something. And that something is the second step of the logline formula: the struggle with an antagonist.
The problem here is that
“embarks on a wine tasting road trip with a friend right before the latter’s
wedding,” doesn’t give us any sense of the conflict. It’s missing the struggle between the protagonist and antagonist.
A
better version.
A failed novelist, still hung up on his ex,
struggles to handle his soon-to-be-married best friend’s attempts to get them
both laid while on a wine-tasting road trip right before the wedding.
Once the protagonist has
to struggle to do something—in this case “handle his soon-to-be-married best
friend’s attempts to get them both laid while on a wine-tasting road trip”—the
logline immediately gains conflict and
increases interest.
The stakes of “right
before the wedding” are also increased because now we know the antagonist’s
intentions too.
Another popular mistake
when writing movie loglines can be found below.
Too
vague.
A World War II nurse faces death at every turn in
an epic story of love, loss and redemption.
These kinds of movie
loglines summarize the conflict thematically but don’t actually tell us what the
actual conflict is. Or who the antagonist is. Make sure we can envisage
how your protagonist will have to “struggle to overcome,” “battle against,”
“clash with,” “thwart,” etc. an antagonist.
Adjectives like these
really help the reader see the movie in a logline. They add movement to the
story and are the best way of letting us imagine just what the protagonist’s
journey and conflict will entail throughout the film.
If you have a hard time
imagining who, or what, your protagonist struggles against, then you may need
to go back to writing a logline which clearly addresses the conflict.
How
to write a logline step #3: add death stakes.
Many writers already appreciate
that there needs to be something more at stake in a film than whether the
protagonist buys a Ferrari or an Aston Martin, but still come unstuck producing
major stakes for us to care about in the script logline. The reason for this is
often that they’re not applying “death stakes.”
In order for a movie to
have high enough stakes for an audience to care about, it needs in one way or
another to be about the protagonist’s death. Either literally, or
figuratively. This is why we care so much about what happens in great
films because they’re about the highest stakes you can get: death.
Death
stakes in action/adventures, thrillers and horrors.
These types of movies
generally all involve literal death stakes for
the protagonist (and often for others too—either their immediate family or the
wider world.)
♦ Raiders
of the Lost Ark. Indiana Jones is literally threatened with death
at the hands of the Nazis, and so are millions of others if he doesn’t stop
them from capturing the Ark.
• Prisoners. Keller Dover has to find his missing daughter
before she’s literally killed.
• It Follows. Jay
will actually be killed by the evil entity if she doesn’t pass on the curse by
sleeping with someone else.
Death
stakes in dramas and comedies.
The stakes in comedies
and dramas, on the other hand, tend to revolve around the figurative death of the protagonist. This is because
we know they’re running the risk of never being healed or “complete” ever
again.
The stakes you need to
focus on for protagonists in these genres are usually more personal and/or
relationship related.
• 27 Dresses. Jane will figuratively die inside if she
continues to always be the bridesmaid and never find love herself.
• It’s a Wonderful Life. George Bailey will figuratively die
if he doesn’t lead the life he wants—traveling and seeing the world.
• Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Neal’s relationship with
his wife and kids will figuratively die a little more if he doesn’t make it
home in time for Thanksgiving.
The number one thing you
must do when writing a logline and considering the stakes of your movie is
always ask yourself:
How does my protagonist risk dying in this film,
either literally or figuratively?
Add
some death!
If there’s no clear
sense of the protagonist’s imminent death then a logline can usually be
strengthened by adding it.
The foundation of all
good conflict rests on the aforementioned three-way triangle of conflict
between the protagonist and antagonist. Two characters struggling to achieve
something with high stakes attached.
Again, this can be a
love interest, or the protagonist’s life, or a magic cat, depending on the
genre and the story. The main thing to remember is that whatever’s at stake,
must be of super high importance to the characters
involved.
If we can sense, even
slightly, from the logline that the protagonist and antagonist will find it
hard to care about the stakes, we will find it hard to care as well.
How
to write a logline step #4: learn from bad logline examples.
Here are some bad
logline examples, followed by better versions with
the three-way triangle of conflict added.
So-so
versions.
• A happy-go-lucky pastry chef is given maid-of-honor duties for her
best friend’s wedding but doesn’t get on with one of the other bridesmaids.
• An actor who once played an iconic superhero puts on a Broadway
play hoping to revive his career.
• A United Nations employee traverses the world to stop a zombie
pandemic.
Note how these aren’t
the best loglines because they fail to really engage the interest as well as
they could, especially when compared with the versions below with an added
three-way triangle of conflict.
Better
versions.
A down on her luck pastry chef [protagonist] clashes with a competitive bridesmaid [struggle
with antagonist] while struggling to handle maid-of-honor
duties for her best friend’s wedding. [death stakes] (Bridesmaids.)
A washed-up actor who once played an
iconic superhero[protagonist] battles his ego, family, and
cast members [struggle with antagonist] while putting on the Broadway play intended to revive his career. [death
stakes] (Birdman.)
A United Nations employee [protagonist] traverses the world in a race against time to stop the zombie
pandemic that is toppling armies and governments, [struggle with
antagonist] and threatening to destroy humanity itself. [death
stakes] (World War Z.)
As you can see,
the three-way triangle of conflict and some well-chosen
adjectives can really help bring a logline to life and really strengthen the
core conflict in the movie.
How
to write a logline step #5: use these quick wins.
How do you know if your
screenplay logline is weak or not? If most or all of the following three
statements ring true, there’s a strong possibility your logline isn’t as strong
as it needs to be.
1. I find it hard to
articulate what the script’s about if someone asks.
2. It’s hard to locate a
triangle of conflict in my logline.
3. When I tell someone my
idea they get confused.
Many screenplays we
receive for script coverage are weak because their initial concept is weak. In order to strengthen the
concept, however, here are five quick wins that you can apply to any script.
1.
Ask yourself three key questions.
If the concept is
lacking, we advise writers to return to the logline stage and
ask themselves the following three questions:
1. Who is my protagonist
and what do they want?
2. Who (or what) are they
struggling against while trying to achieve this?
3. What’s at stake if my
protagonist doesn’t achieve what they want?
Asking yourself these
questions should help show you what main areas need addressing in the logline.
2.
Force your protagonist to do something they don’t want to do.
If your protagonist is
just doing something in your script logline because they want to, maybe
try forcing them to do it instead in order to raise the pressure and stakes.
Let’s take a look at a
few logline examples:
• Manchester by the Sea. Lee is forced to
look after his nephew, rather than happily agreeing to it.
• Sideways. Miles is forced into a
different kind of wine tour than he expected by Jack, rather than both of them
agreeing from the outset to try and get laid.
• Don’t Breathe. The trio of burglars are forced to fight for their lives after becoming trapped
in the blind man’s house, rather than them choosing to remain because of the
money.
When writing a logline,
it’s always good to eliminate all possible escape routes for your
protagonist, box them in a corner and then try
and get them out of it.
3.
Tell us one idea, not many.
This is a key thing to
remember when learning how to write a logline. Often newbie writers’ loglines
tend to jump from one idea to the next. Something like this:
When a farm boy discovers a magic portal to another
world he realizes his imaginary friend is real and together they must find the
princess before the king imprisons him for theft and the evil queen invades
with her army.
Keep your script logline
simple. Tell us who or what the protagonist is struggling against and what’s at
stake and that’s it.
4.
Use irony to make things extra interesting.
Ask yourself what’s
the most ironic situation your character could find
themselves in, given their personality?
Here are a few film
logline examples that use irony to great effect:
• Bridesmaids. It’s ironic that the best friend of the bride
doesn’t want to be her bridesmaid.
• The King’s Speech. It’s ironic that the king, whose royal position
involves public speaking, can’t talk without stammering.
• Don’t Breathe. It’s ironic that three young burglars fall victim
to a blind old man as they try to rob his house.
Irony can strengthen a
logline immeasurably by making the core conflict that much more surprising,
intriguing and contrary to what audiences expect.
5.
Exploit ordinary vs. extraordinary dichotomies.
If your script is set
somewhere extraordinary, one easy way to strengthen the logline is to make sure
the protagonist is as ordinary as possible. Likewise, if your protagonist is
extraordinary, you can make sure the world of the story is as ordinary as
possible in order to heighten the conflict.
Here are some sample
loglines that show this in action:
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Joel is a shy
office worker who winds up racing through his own memories. [ordinary protagonist > extraordinary world]
• Enchanted. Giselle
is a cartoon princess who is sent to New York where she falls in love with a
lawyer. [extraordinary protagonist > ordinary world]
• Wanted. Wesley is a loser office worker who gets drawn
into the world of elite assassins. [ordinary protagonist >
extraordinary world]
Accentuate these
dichotomies when writing a logline and you’ll make it pop that much more.
How
to write a logline step #6: avoid these key rookie mistakes.
The biggest key rookie
mistake we see many aspiring screenwriters make is:
Starting a screenplay without first making sure
their concept is absolutely rocking beforehand.
All too often scripts
are written without the initial idea behind it being first vetted by others and
pulled apart by the writer. More often than not, the writer then ends up wasting months rewriting a script with a
flawed concept that could’ve been improved in the logline stage.
If your logline doesn’t
include all the elements from our logline template—a three-way triangle of
conflict and doesn’t excite and intrigue those you tell it to—it may be worth
spending some more time reworking it until it does.
Good
loglines can also evolve slowly.
However, this is not set
in stone. Good loglines can also come slowly—even after having
already started on a script. Sometimes you may want to start
writing without nailing the concept and that’s fine. Some of the best
loglines have been known to evolve and reveal themselves over a series of
drafts.
If you’d like help
learning how to write a logline, or with a specific idea for a movie, check out
our Concept Analysis service. Send over your logline and
we’ll write up a page of notes on your idea’s core conflict and marketability.
How
to write a logline: conclusion.
When it comes to writing
a logline you may have heard the phrase “concept is king.” It’s
kind of a cliche, but that’s because there’s a lot of truth in it.
In Hollywood, you stand a much better chance of
selling a spec screenplay with under-developed characters, but a great concept,
than one with wonderful characters but an uninspiring concept.
That said, this post has
been all about how to write a logline for a script that you want to sell in the industry. If you have an idea for a film about a
sheepherder in Anatolia who’s trying to come terms with his past, it’s unlikely
to spark the interest of a Hollywood exec.
When
it comes to learning how to write a logline remember…
Not all movies can be put in a box.
Yes, it’s true that some
movies that don’t seem to have much of a three-way triangle of conflict and yet
have been successful and/or gained a cult following.
Films like Clerks, Hannah Takes the Stairs and Boyhood, as well as a multitude of foreign arthouse films,
don’t appear to “play by the rules” or “be tied down by restrictive Hollywood
conventions.”
In most cases, however,
these movies were shot and independently produced by
filmmakers doing things their own way—either as mavericks at the beginning of
their careers or as established filmmakers with slightly bigger budgets but the
reputation to do what the hell they want.
If you have a
low-budget, slow-burn arthouse idea for a movie, rather than focusing on how to
write a logline using the steps in this post, we recommend simply shooting it yourself and going the festival route.
Festivals love these
kinds of movies in a way that’s yet to catch on in the industry. Write loglines
for short films as well as features. Create, follow your vision and get your
art out into the world. Whatever method you choose, we hope this post has
answered your question of what is a logline and how to write good loglines.
– their goal
– the antagonist/antagonistic force
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