Noam Kroll of IndieWire recently wrote an excellent article on the art of writing a logline. The logline is a one to two sentence description of your film that you will use to pitch your story idea to agents, managers, and producers. The logline is also an essential tool in developing your story.
Here’s what Kroll has to say:
Let’s quickly look at the most important components of a log line. Ultimately, you need to get across the following information:
- The protagonist (don’t use their names, just description — for example ‘An alcoholic surgeon…’)
- The goal of the protagonist (this is usually in line with your 2nd act turning point — ‘An alcoholic surgeon must fight for his job…’)
- The antagonist (and the obstacle of the antagonist — ‘An alcoholic surgeon must fight for his job after a disgruntled patient accuses him of malpractice…’)
We also need to recognize how these components fit into the structure. As I said before, there are numerous formats you can use, and you should always adjust this to suit your particular story. But this structural formula is a great starting point:
When [INCITING INCIDENT OCCURS], a [SPECIFIC PROTAGONIST] must [OBJECTIVE], or else [STAKES].
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