The one sentence that can make-or-break your script.

Did you know that one sentence can make the difference in the way you write, “pitch” and maybe even sell your script?

One sentence that can attract investors or a producer.

One sentence that can get your script read or thrown aside?

The funny thing is that the one sentence that every script should have ISN’T IN THE SCRIPT.

It’s the logline.

Now, before I get to much further I must admit I have freely stolen some of the following dogma from some of my online writing associates and mentors (thanks to Jim K and Allen A) but this is a part of the CRAFT of screenwriting I have learned to embrace so I am passing this onto you (with a little embellishment on my part…)

I have seen so much confusion and downright aversion to writing a good logline it’s hard to believe.

“I don’t need no stinkin’ logline. If my script is good enough, it doesn’t matter if I have great logline, once they read my work they’ll fall all over themselves to option it.”

or

“It’s the script that counts why should I care about the advertising? I leave that to the marketing department after the film’s made.”

Here’s the deal:

I don’t care if you have the greatest, most impressive, most mind-blowing, box-office-record-breaking, Oscar-winning script in the history of screenwriting…

If your logline sucks IT WILL NEVER GET READ.

As a producer/director I get emails ALL THE TIME from people trying to get me to read their script.

They don’t send the script (and they shouldn’t) but every single one tries to use a few lines or a synopsis (bad form) to get me interested in their work…like a query letter or email “pitch.”

I can tell in thirty words if I want to read that script.

If a writer can’t write ONE good sentence about their script…why should I believe they are able to write hundreds?

“But my script is so deep, so entangled in intrigue and the subtle nuance of character development and …how do you expect me to tell a story like that in one or two sentences…?”

That’s because YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO TELL ME THE STORY.

Tell me what your script’s ABOUT…two very different things. Tell me a plot and theme and why I should care.

This can be done in fewer than thirty words.

People confuse Loglines with Taglines all the time.

A logline is a succinct paraphrasing of the story boiled down to its bare-bones absolute essentials.

With a great logline I know who and what and why and the genre.

The TAGLINE is “quip” for the movie poster…TWO VERY DIFFERENT THINGS.

Examples from the Oscar-winning “Gladiator”:

Logline:

“When a Roman general is betrayed and his family murdered by an insane and corrupt prince, he comes to Rome as a gladiator to seek revenge.

Tagline:

“What we do in life echoes in eternity.”

You could use the “Gladiator” tagline on the poster for “It’s a Wonderful Life” …it tells me nothing.

A logline is the answer to “What’s it about?”…which is the first thing you’ll get asked by a producer and it’s the answer you’ll give in the allotted thirty seconds before you lose said producer’s attention.

So before you are even able to get that script read you are going to have to have a logline that gets their attention.

But there is more to loglines than meets the eye, in fact I’ve come to see my logline as the key that unlocks my script, and saves me untold hours of rewrites and frustration.

Everyone works differently. I’m just telling you after working one way for years; I finally gave in and actually thought about my logline before I started writing.

Sound easy? It’s not, because many don’t know what their story is really about until they write FADE OUT.

You hear complaints about “writing to the logline” and that it “railroads you into sticking to one train of thought” by not allowing you to explore other avenues in your story. That may be true, but one thing it does do is KEEP THE WRITER FOCUSED.

Don’t like a million rewrites where one idea comes to you in the middle of the script and changes everything that came before it causing a complete retooling of theme, pacing, character arc etc…?

Try writing your logline first.

Before I go further lets look at a fairly well-known “standard” for a good logline (Thanks to Jim K):

A few years ago, Christopher Lockhart wrote an article called “THE CONSTRUCTION OF A LOGLINE” in which he presented the idea that a logline should cover:

1. Who the story is about (protagonist)
2.  What he strives for (goal)
3. What stands in his way (antagonistic force)

This became the standard in the aspiring screenwriter community. It’s pretty much accepted as fact that if you want your story requested and read by potential buyers, you pitch it with a “Lockhart logline.”

FYI:  The term “logline”, is simply the line entered into an agency’s or studio’s script log to help readers and execs keep track of submitted material. /FYI

It also serves as the go-to line when confronted with a potential contact or when you meet Steven Spielberg on his way out of the Men’s room. (That hasn’t happen to me by the way…I don’t “stake out” Men’s rooms at Hollywood hotspots…though many aspiring screenwriters have…)

There are different logline formulas and many have had success with a variation on this theme but I contend YOU CAN’T GO WRONG WITH THE STANDARD.

Here are some examples of loglines from popular films like the Gladiator logline used above (credit):

• In a future where criminals are arrested before the crime occurs, a cop struggles on the lam to prove his innocence for a murder he has not yet committed. (Minority Report)
• A 17th Century tale of adventure on the Caribbean Sea where the roguish yet charming Captain Jack Sparrow joins forces with a young blacksmith in a gallant attempt to rescue the Governor of England’s daughter and reclaim his ship. (Pirates of the Caribbean)
• A young man and woman from different social classes fall in love, must outwit her abusive fiancé, and find a way to survive aboard an ill-fated voyage at sea. (Titanic)
• A comedic portrayal of a young and broke Shakespeare who falls in love with a woman, inspiring him to write “Romeo and Juliet. (Shakespeare in Love)
• An archeologist is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis. (Raiders of the Lost Ark)

So why should I care about this when I sit down to write you ask?

Because if any of these writers had their logline in front of them before they started the actual process of developing scenes and writing dialogue they would know if everything they wrote stayed true to the plot, theme, genre and GOAL of the script.

As you write that great scene that surely won’t get cut or edited out because it has nothing to do with the rest of your film wouldn’t you want to hold it up and say…does this scene, or dialogue PUSH my story forward? Does it support the logline (what my script is about) or make me wonder if it’s from the same story, planet or universe?

I am not saying every scene has to be about your “protag doing this to stop the antag from doing that”…that would be a pretty thin storyline BUT every scene should affect the STORY…found in your logline.

A great script sets several “meshed” stories in motion that inevitably create an outcome. So, in a well-written script every character, scene and plot point SHOULD affect the overall story, it should drive the plot forward to the climactic conclusion we have all been waiting for. EVEN IN A CHARACTER AND ENSEMBLE PIECES. This is true of every one of the loglines used as examples above.

Here’s another great tip for writing that logline FIRST before you open Final Draft on your laptop in Starbucks.

Use your new logline and pitch it to friends, family and colleagues BEFORE you spend six months writing that Oscar-winner.

If you “pitch” someone your thirty-word logline and they look at you with a blank stare…do you think they’ll be chomping at the bit to devour your 120 page finished epic?

Maybe you need to re-think the logline…(does it at least fit the “standard?”) or maybe, just maybe, you need to rethink your story…is it convoluted, confusing, uninteresting, uninspiring, un-cinematic, or unoriginal?

Or do they say: ”WOW, What happens? I can’t wait to find out!”

If you want to streamline your writing, and feel confident you aren’t adding scenes that don’t help drive your plot forward, do yourself a favor and write that logline first.

It will force you to analyze what your film is ABOUT before you write.

Don’t think of your logline as a throw-away gimmick…it’s a powerful tool, in one sentence (or two) that can be a lifeline for your script; saving you time, keeping you focused on your script’s plot, theme and genre…and who knows, if your logline is strong enough, maybe one day you’ll hear that same logline used when they announce the première of your film.

I hope I get invited.