2013 Black List Word Cloud Logline Challenge: Winners!

Scott Myers

24 Dec 2013 • 5 min read

It started here:

We did this last year and had a helluva lot of fun, so following in footsteps of Hollywood’s studios, it’s sequel time! Yes, it’s the 2013 Black List Word Cloud Logline Challenge!

Here is a word cloud based on the loglines for the 2013 Black List scripts, all 72 of them:

[You can see the entire 2013 Black List including loglines for the 72 scripts here.]

Your mission for the 2013 Black List Word Cloud Logline Challenge should you choose to accept: Come up with a logline using words from the word cloud. Or loglines (you may enter as many times as you want).

Two days of entries: Here. Here.

The judge? Hollywood movie producer extraordinaire Max Millimeter.

The prizes?

* 3 lucky winners: Free 1 script read + 1 month script hosting via the Black List website.

* 3 lucky winners: 1 free Craft class that I will be teaching next year through Screenwriting Master Class. There are 8 of them: Pixar and the Craft of Storytelling, Story Summaries: From Loglines to Beat Sheets, Handling Exposition, Character Introductions, Character Development Keys, Create a Compelling Protagonist, Write a Worthy Nemesis, and The Coen Brothers and the Craft of Storytelling. Each winner gets their choice of one class.

And it ends up here with the announcement of this year’s winners. Here is a transcript of a voice mail Max Millimeter left me:

Awright, Kid, just got back from Musso and Frank. Went through every single damn logline with a couple of buddies of mine, an actor and a retired agent. Read ’em out loud, order a round. Read, drink. By the time we got done with all of ’em, holy shitballs, we were toxicated. I mean seriously shellacked and schnockered. Lemme get my notes…

[Rustling pages]

Okay, first three. Uh… this one we all liked:

NASA’S FIRST FEMALE TIME CONTROL AGENT MUST SAVE RECENTLY MURDERED FIANCE.

That was easy peasy: Gravity meets Back to the Future. Next one was a piece of cake, too:

On a ROAD TRIP to MEXICO, TWO TEENAGE GIRLS pick up ROGERS, an attractive, yet VIOLENT, YOUNG MAN, and listen to STORIES of his PAST, which end with the ACCOUNT of TWO GIRLS he MURDERED on his LAST hitchhiking TRIP.

My six word test: Two girls. Pick up hitchhiker. Killer. We’re talking high concept, low budget, horror thriller. A big fat fucking fastball down the middle of the plate. Whack!

This third one? Tough.

A MAJOR DRUG dealer MUST clean up his act when his aging MOTHER comes to live with him.

I was all, “Hey, it’s funny.” And they were like, “Guy only used four of the words he was supposed to.” But I kept sayin’, “But it’s fucking funny.” Finally the agent said to look at another logline from the same guy:

A psychiatrist is HIRED to HELP a YOUNG boy LEARN to CONTROL his superhuman abilities after a TRAGIC ACCIDENT.

It’s Spiderman meets Analyze This. Get it. Got it. Good!

As for the others… just a sec…

[Ice rattles in drink. Slurp. Belch.]

Kid, I know you said three more, but we came up with seven. Now just hear me out, awright?

Three of ’em have snipers. First one:

After he DISCOVERS a MYSTERIOUS CHILD HIDDEN among FOUR MURDERED FRIENDS, FORMER U.S. MILITARY SNIPER “TRIP” ROGERS MUST SAVE the YOUNG GIRL from a VIOLENT AMERICAN DOCTOR and his WIFE who now CONTROL the BIGGEST ILLEGAL DRUG cartel in MEXICO.

You got your protect your kid angle. You got your cowboy called in from the cold. And you got your big, bad business guy thing. Bruce Willis as the sniper. Some younger Jennifer Lawrence clone. Bang. Got a movie. Next:

MR. DAVID, the GREATEST SNIPER in HISTORY, FINDS the WIFE of a JOURNALIST and the SON of a MILITARY INTELLIGENCE AGENT tied up together in his HOME, both MURDERED, a minute before FOUR COP CARS block the ROAD.

Nice setup. Gets you asking questions. Who the woman? Who’s the son? Why have they been whacked? Why in the sniper’s house? Who are the cops? Why are they blocking the road? You get me goin’ with that many questions, ya’ got me curious. And believe me, curiosity doesn’t kill this cat.

[Glass rattles again. Lots of slurping sounds.]

One more sniper story:

A MAN marries into a FAMILY of SNIPERs and DISCOVERS a new CAREER as their AGENT, although his ex-FIANCÉe — a COP — really doesn’t like that at all, obviously, and therefore BEGINS a MISSION to UNCOVER the TRUTH. (BASED on a TRUE STORY.)

Action comedy, right? Will Ferrell, he’s the, ya’ know, guy, the agent. And Melissa McCarthy, she’s the cop. Well, she probably wouldn’t do any other cop thing than The Heat. So how about Tina Fey? Or Amy what’s-her-name, the blonde? God, they were great at the Golden Globes last year.

By the way, this guy, the one with this logline, he came up with something funny with another one:

A MOVIE SET in the MYSTERIOUS WORLD of LOVE…? Or an OFFICE…? A WAR MOVIE…? Something BASED on a TRUE STORY…? HELP.

Man, ain’t we all been there! Sit around working an idea until your brain feels like a plate of mashed yeast.

Okay, where are we?

[Crinkling papers. Clinking ice.]

Next one I wasn’t so sure ‘bout, but the actor, he was all mother this, son that, Oscars blah blah:

A TEENAGE BOY DISCOVERS his TERMINALLY ill MOTHER is the WRITER of a VIOLENT NOVEL BASED on her own DEVASTATING childhood EXPERIENCE. He embarks on a MISSION of mercy to SAVE her from the shadowy demons. HELPING her let GO of the PAST and die in peace.

Me? I’m thinking Ordinary People meets Forrest Gump. And if the demons are real, toss in The Exorcist. That could maybe work.

The last three deserve a lil’ something special. This one is The Kitchen Sink Award, given to the person who tosses in everything:

After his MYSTERIOUS AGENT/FORMER WIFE is MURDERED by a VIOLENT FEMALE SNIPER in MEXICO, DRUG-addicted AMERICAN MOVIE WRITER EDWIN ROGERS uses NASA’S FIRST TIME travel machine to take a TRIP BACK in HISTORY so he can UNCOVER the TRUE, HIDDEN STORY BEHIND her TRAGIC DEATH — and SAVE the LOVE of his LIFE. BASED on the NOVEL “DEVASTATING EVENTS” by Sapphire.

This next one is The WTF Award:

After taking a MYSTERIOUS DRUG, a MR. WORLD competitor BECOMES a WOMAN, and MUST win the LOVE of his lesbian ex-WIFE.

I don’t understand it. But I it feels funny to me. Finally there’s The Writer With Chutzpah Award:

In a world where every stinking MOVIE is the STORY of a YOUNG MAN, one determined WOMAN SETS off a JOURNEY to find an AGENT and forge a CAREER as a screenWRITER, even though her skeptical FRIENDS think she should just get HIGH and write a NOVEL.

That ain’t much of a story, but hell, she’s right. I mean look at the cloud doohickey, the two biggest words: Young. Man. How ‘bout next year, it’s Young. Woman. Or Old. Fart.