Loglines are tools used in both developing a script and in trying to sell it. A logline translates 120 pages of action into one simple idea. Drilling that idea down to that single sentence that includes all the essential story elements is instrumental for writers to proceed to the next stage of outlining, and then writing a treatment, and then putting the fully formed story that is in regular prose into screenplay format. At the end of the process, once the draft has been revised many, many times, the logline is used when trying to pitch it to a busy development executive who will have a reasonably accurate reference point for the script from which she can decide if that particular story is something the studio wants to learn more about and possibly take on.
A logline is also something that helps you determine whether your story is structurally sound. The great Broadway playwright and producer David Belasco: “If you can’t write your idea on the back of my calling card, you don’t have a clear idea.”
One thing to note is that there is never a single, authoritative logline for a script. Each script will have as many different loglines as there are readers.
How to Write a Logline
A good logline needn’t and shouldn’t mention character names. A strong character trait is what’s important along with a dramatic teaser about the story. All loglines go back to that ancient storyteller’s formula, “What would happen if a character like X ended up in a situation like Y.”
Next add a specific catch word that quickly tell the reader what the story is about. Is it about love, greed, obsession murder, family turmoil?
Once you’re set on one or two words you can push out from there adding a few more economical adjectives and verbs to make up your long line.
This is the story about _______________________who __________________________
Some key concepts to include: hero – flaw – life-changing event – opponent – battle and/or stakes.
A high-concept logline makes a story out of one of the most universal. Examples include:
human emotions such as fear, love, hate, envy, etc.
or
deadly sins such as anger, greed, lust, etc.
or
motivators such as betrayal, vengeance, discovery, rebirth, survival, etc
or
virtues; loyalty, faith, responsibility, etc .
ONE WAY TO APPROACH WRITING A LOGLINE
Create a sentence like so:
When [INCITING INCIDENT] happens, [OUR PROTAGONIST] decides [TO DO ACTION] against [ANTAGONIST].
WATCH MORE ON HOW TO WRITE A LOGLINE
Logline Examples
FICTIONAL LOGLINES
12 Years a Slave
The true story of a free man kidnapped into slavery who fights for over a decade to get home … and free.
American Beauty
The arrival of a troubled family in a small New Jersey suburb collides with their new neighbor’s midlife crisis; the result leads to murder, a frame-up, and two innocents going to prison.
The official DreamWorks SKG logline:
Stuck in a dull life and a loveless marriage, a man stakes out a new direction that ends up costing him his life.
American Pie
Four teenage boys make a pact to lose their virginity by prom night.
Cape Fear
A lawyer’s family is stalked by a man he once helped put in jail.
Casablanca
A jaded (flaw) WWII casino owner (hero) in Nazi-occupied Morocco sees his former lover (opponent) arrive (life-changing event), accompanied by her husband (ally) whose heroism forces the hero to choose between his cynicism, his feeling for his ex-lover, and his once-strong feelings of patriotism (battle).
Castaway
A FedEx executive must transform himself physically and emotionally to survive after a crash landing on a deserted island.
Class Action
An attorney finds that her nemesis is her own father, and must choose between her corporate client and justice.
Cliffhanger
A retired mountain climber must conquer an unclimbable peak to save the survivors of a plane crash from certain death.
Enough
On the run from an abusive husband, a young mother begins to train herself to fight back.
Erin Brokovich
An unemployed single mother becomes a legal assistant and almost single-handedly brings down a California power company accused of polluting a city’s water supply.
ET
A meek and alienated little boy finds a stranded extraterrestrial who helps him find the courage to defy authorities to help the alien return to its home planet.
Gone With the Wind
Against the backdrop of the great Civil War, a narcissistic Southern beauty, obsessed with idyllic love, struggles to reconstruct her life and finds her true love is closer than she thinks.
The Matrix
A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against its controllers.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
A woman attempts to get her fanatically Greek family to accept her not-at-all Greek fiancé.
People Vs. Larry Flint
A pornography publisher becomes the unlikely defender of free speech.
Rocky
A boxer (hero) with a loser mentality (flaw) is offered a chance by the world champ (opponent) to fight for the title (life-changing event) but, with the help of his lover (ally) must learn to see himself as a winner before he can step into the ring (battle).
A small-time boxer gets a shot to be the champion of the world.
Saving Private Ryan
US soldiers try to save their comrade who’s stationed behind enemy lines.
Steel Magnolias
An overprotective (flaw) mother (hero) must overcome her own fears in order to allow her diabetic daughter (opponent and ally) to risk death to give birth (life-changing event), then must fight to make sense of her daughter’s losing battle against death (battle).
DOCUMENTARY LOGLINES
Grizzly Man
A wildlife preservationist tries to become at one with a population of grizzlies and falls victim to their essential wildness.
Fahrenheit 911
The Twin Towers terrorist plot not only destroyed a United States landmark, the response to it destroyed the United States’ moral authority in the world.
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
The quest for ever more profitable financial plays leads Enron executives to market manipulation, fraud, and, finally, the collapse of not just a company but an entire financial system.
