The Logline Formula
Submitted by VPhan on Sun, 01/24/2010 - 10:32pm
The Logline Formula
Last night one of my clients e-mailed me asking what a logline should look like. I replied with Jule Selbo's formula. It's from her book Gardner's Guide to Screenplay From Idea to Successful Script.
I've taught from her book at the college for 3 years (hurry up and write a book, Mark!). Jule is a great mentor and friend. She's written for Lucas, Romero, and Disney so I think her formula is pretty legit.
NAME OF SCREEN STORY is a GENRE about NAME OF PROTAGONIST, AGE, ONE OR TWO VIVID WORD DESCRIBING THE CHARACTER who wants HIS/HER IMMEDIATE GOAL. When THE INCITING INCIDENT happens and ONE MAJOR PLOT POINT, he/she goes on a journey to ACCOMPLISH GOAL and discover/realize/find THEME.
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Loglines are a funny thing.
Loglines are a funny thing; trying to sell 110 pages with about 30 words.
I think I've seen maybe 327 different formulas for writing one. Each formula seems to contradict, at least in part, another formula written by an equally successful and well known writer. Classes are taught at the big film schools and in LA for the sole purpose of crafting the perfect logline. There are logline contests where it's the only thing you submit.
To me loglines are kind of like the screenwriter's equivalent of diet advice. In order to be successful, you absolutely need to have some sort of way to control the beast, but from what I can see nobody has the absolute, sure fire, 100% proven one that guarantees success.
Over on the Save the Cat Forums, there's an entire forum devoted to refining loglines and beat sheets. The folks over there are very helpful in giving critiques on works in progress.
Save the meat, ditch the details
I too like the "Save the Cat" method most. A logline shouldn't just tell you what the story is about, but it should catch the pitchee off-guard, be slightly sarcastic or surprizing, and motivate him/her to want to see more. I don't think there's a formulaic way to do that, or a "drag-and-drop" format that works. To me, the best-sounding log-line is the simple, ONE-sentance (two if really short), clever zinger. If you can't get your idea down to one line first, it's probably going to be hard to get the whole script down to 110 pages later.
Beginners often tend towards the "THIS MOVIE meets THAT MOVIE" comparison form, which might occasionally paint the most realistic picture, but has gotten very cliche' and might be better used as a secondary description if someone asks, "what is it like?". A better route, I feel, is to find the fewest, finely-crafted words that really NAIL exactly what the film "is" at its core. You want whoever you are pitching a log-line at to be floored, not bored. Cold descriptions, ages, and connecting phrases, like "...is a film about..." and even "...who..." sometimes make a log-line sound academic and bland. I say, dazzle them! Let your log-line represent your script as also tightly-written (something I have not accomplished with this posting, obviously). I won't quote the examples in "Save the Cat" here, but the author lists some great ones.