Tweetstorm: Eric Heisserer on Loglines
If you are an aspiring screenwriter, Twitter is an amazing resource. Eric Heisserer (Arrival, Lights Out, Hours, A Nightmare on Elm Street…
If you are an aspiring screenwriter, Twitter is an amazing resource. Eric Heisserer (Arrival, Lights Out, Hours, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Final Destination 5, The Thing) is probably the Hollywood screenwriter most willing to go online and provide a tweetstorm on a specific subject related to the craft.
Today: Eric’s March 2014 series of tweets on loglines.
Notes call now has me writing furiously into the night. But a quick break to talk loglines.
The short version (“I see what you did there”): I’m terrible at loglines. No way around it. But I can recognize a great one instantly.
There is a mountain of how-to material out there about constructing an amazing logline. A lot of formulas and rules. A lot works, too.
One version is the WHEN > THEN > UNTIL model. In one sentence you lob the situation, the complication, and the big conflict.
Another model suggests you clash your protag’s emotional need with your antag’s need. Set up both and smash ’em together in 2 sentences.
Yet another model pushes you simply to tee up the movie rather than summarize it. Hit the inciting incident and drop the mic.
There is no single method to a great logline. But I can tell you the interesting versions that fire people up.
The first is the one that plays the big reveal at the end of the logline. You read the conflict and then BOOM, bomb dropped.
“A frantic father struggles to save his community against authorities conspiring to cover up an unstoppable disaster called GODZILLA.”
That isn’t perfect, but that’s the WHAMMY I’m talking about. You get the heart and the humanity in the front, then end with the “oh shit.”
Another version uses brevity as its main weapon. It offers a question or a declaration that creates a dozen more questions in your head.
One of the shortest I’d ever seen:
“A man sues God.”
Another variation: “What if your whole life has been in a virtual reality?”
These can work in certain circumstances, although they fail when applied to script repositories like Black List, because lack of story.
The strongest loglines speak to the big conflict the protag faces, and suggests the choice they must make without giving away the answer.
In other words, strong loglines communicate the subtext and theme of your story. Which is why some writers start with one.
What is really going on in your story? The thing behind the thing.
Rather than getting into the minutia of word choices and sentence structure, let me toss out some practices that will help.
1. Have five trusted friends read your script and ask them to write a logline for it. Compare them, notice what they responded to/ignored.
2. Use a fun social game on the logline: Tell your story in one minute, then in three words, then in only one word.
3. Pick a favorite movie and pitch it in one sentence to friends. See how many guess the movie, how many agree with your logline.
All right, that’s good for now, I must crawl back to the salt mines for more work. Keep creating, you gorgeous monsters.
Eric has put together a book that arose from his Twitter exchanges: “150 Screenwriting Challenges” which is available for Kindle here.
You may follow Eric on Twitter: @HIGHzurrer.
You may read my April 2013 interview with Eric here.
You may see all of the Screenwriting Tweetstorms archived on the site here.