“The Quest”: How should you write a logline?
I am pleased to announce “Go Into The Story: The Quest,” my attempt at creating a new pathway into Hollywood for aspiring screenwriters: A 24-week online screenwriting workshop which I will offer for free to as many as 4 writers. I introduced the idea in this post last week [if you haven’t read it, please do so now], and I will be talking about this initiative each day this week on GITS at 6PM Eastern / 3PM Pacific to give readers a complete understanding of what it’s about. If you are interested to learn more, click here.
NOTE: I WILL NOT BE ACCEPTING ANY LOGLINE SUBMISSIONS BEFORE TUESDAY, MAY 29, 2012. PLEASE RESPECT THIS SCHEDULE!
If you did not read this post from Monday [“The Quest”: What is it?], this post Tuesday [“The Quest”: Why is story concept critical to your success?], this post Wednesday [“The Quest”: Why do you need to think in terms of genre?], and this post yesterday [“The Quest”: Why is your passion for your story important’], do so now.
Today I want to talk about loglines because that determines the first cut for the “Go Into The Story: The Quest” workshop. I have no idea how many people will contact me with submissions, but I’m guessing based upon the response so far this week, it will be a lot. The only way I can handle those numbers is by reading and assessing loglines.
First I want to cover one aspect of this “Quest” workshop and that is if you are selected as a participant, you complete the workshop including the first draft of your original screenplay, and I am excited about that script, I can than attach myself as a producer to the project. Why?
In Hollywood, there is a saying: “A producer is a dog with a script in its mouth.” That’s an acknowledgement about how easy it is to call oneself a producer: You have a connection to a scripted project and you’re trying to set it up. It’s also an acknowledgement that some producers may do very little to end up becoming attached to a project.
I want to do more than be a dog with a script. I will be putting in hundreds of hours of work with the writers during “The Quest,” teaching them, mentoring them, even at times serving as a ‘pastor’ to work through the inevitable down times of writing. There are many different ways of being a producer. One of them is working with writers in developing stories. With “The Quest,” that’s what I will be doing.
In sum: (1) I will provide you with a set of essential screenwriting principles and practices that will engender your ability to write a great script. (2) Those principles and practices will also give you a much better shot at developing a career as a screenwriter because you will have a solid writing foundation in place. (3) I will help steer you through the Prep-writing part of your script process. (4) I will mentor you through the Page-writing part of the process. (5) If I choose to go forward with your project, I will mentor you through the Rewrite-process. (6) In addition I will use my Hollywood contacts to get the project set up.
The risk I’m taking is that I’m doing this for free with the hope that some of the projects may turn out to be great scripts. The reward for that risk is me being a producer on those projects.
How should you write a logline?
Here is a lecture excerpt from my Craft: Story Summaries class:
The logline’s function in Hollywood has not changed all that much from the old studio days. It’s still primarily used as a means of conveying a story’s most basic narrative elements to sellers and buyers.
And what are those basic narrative elements? Like every one of the story summaries we’ll be studying this week, there is no set formula. However one of the earliest things I learned when I broke into the business was to identify three fundamental elements of any story by answering these questions:
* Who is the Protagonist?
* What do they want?
* Who is keeping them from it?
Protagonist. Goal. Nemesis. I would argue that is the essence of a logline.
Now I have read some screenwriting gurus who expand this list to four, five or even more elements for a logline. Some say you need to get into what makes the story distinctive. Others state you must provide specifics about the story’s setting. Still others insist you have to introduce some sort of emotional hook.
Two things. The first is straight from one of Hollywood’s major agencies ICM. Some years ago, they put together the “ICM Story Department — Coverage Packet” as a set of guidelines for anyone who would be reading scripts and providing coverage for the agency. I did a series of posts on Go Into The Story analyzing that packet including this one, specifically about loglines. In that section, the document says:
The logline provides a one-sentence summary of the script’s premise and plot. It should succinctly describe the situation of the protagonist and include any major story elements.
Concise, concise, concise. One sentence that generally describes the script. General is the key word. Don’t worry about every detail of the story in the log line.
“Concise, concise, concise.” They didn’t use that word in triplicate because of some errant repeat key. People who work in the Hollywood movie business are extremely busy and they have the attention span of gnats. Therefore a good logline is a concise one that says what it needs to say in the briefest possible form.
The second thing: If you can’t convey how your story is distinctive, what its setting is, and its emotional hook based on Protagonist, Goal, Nemesis, then you haven’t done a good enough job crafting your logline or your story may have some inherent issues.
So my advice? Keep it simple: Protagonist, Goal, Nemesis.
Finally let’s acknowledge an issue you may be dealing with in a current story or doubtless will at some point: How to write a logline for a complex story, one that can’t be neatly summarized with Protagonist, Goal, Nemesis.
Here is where our screenwriting gurus’ advice may come in handy. Still thinking concise, try to nail these three elements: Protagonist, Distinctive, Emotion.
Protagonist: Give the reader the primary character’s perspective into the story.
Distinctive: Provide some key narrative element that will hook the reader.
Emotion: Present a point of emotional connection for the reader.
With a complex story, you’re not going to be able to grab a reader with a simple logline, so you have to go at them laterally with a distinctive hook and an emotional connection. Here is a pretty good IMDB example of such a logline:
Forrest Gump: Forrest Gump, while not intelligent, has accidentally been present at many historic moments, but his true love, Jenny, eludes him.
Protagonist: Forrest.
Distinctive: He leads a fateful life that intersects him with numerous historic moments.
Emotion: He pursues his true love throughout his quixotic journey.
The Godfather: The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.
Protagonist: Don Corleone.
Distinctive: Organized crime dynasty.
Emotion: Transfers control of an empire to a reluctant son.
If you put your mind to it and focus on the right narrative elements, even sprawling stories can be described in a logline.
Now a few words from Producer Scott: “Awright, here’s what you need to know about loglines. You probably think part of a producer’s job is to read your script. Wrong! You think I got time to read your fucking script? I’m rolling calls! I’m taking meetings! I’m doing lunch! No, what I read is coverage. In fact, most of the time, even that’s not true ‘coz I have my people cover the coverage. Just gimme the story in… are your ready… a logline, tell me whether I like the story or not, and I’m good to fucking go. So when you work on a logline, make every goddammed word count. Or I’m gonna count you out.”
NOTE: I WILL NOT BE ACCEPTING ANY LOGLINE SUBMISSIONS BEFORE TUESDAY, MAY 29, 2012. PLEASE RESPECT THIS SCHEDULE!
“Go Into The Story: The Quest” is my humble attempt to do what I can to create an alternate way into Hollywood for those outside the system, and in the process provide participants principles and practices that maximize their chances of success as a professional screenwriter.
I will post something on Monday with all the questions that have been submitted to me this week about “The Quest” along with my answers to give you as much information as possible. If you have any questions, please post in comments. Only email me if you have some personal matter related to this initiative.
Good news! Every single person who applies for “Go Into The Story: The Quest” wins a free 1-week Craft course taught by me at Screenwriting Master Class! You can check out those classes here under the Curriculum / Craft tab.
Good luck crafting your loglines!
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