Two approaches to loglines
The other day I responded to a reader question: What makes a stellar logline? In comments, bookworm676 said this:
I see a lot of conflicting advice about loglines… I guess I remain confused as to which advice to follow.
I hear this a great deal, especially in a Craft class I teach: Story Summaries: From Loglines to Beat Sheets. So let me post some excerpts from my lectures on loglines from that course to see if I can shed any light on the subject with two basic approaches to crafting a logline:
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.
If you want to immerse yourself in the world of loglines, a great place is IMDB. The loglines there are user generated, so some are better than others. Here are a few I found that effectively combine Protagonist, Goal, Nemesis:
Raiders of the Lost Ark: Archeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the US government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis.
The Silence of the Lambs: A young FBI cadet must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims.
This construction should suggest, if not downright make overt the central conflict of the story by laying out the oppositional dynamic between Protagonist and Nemesis.
However as we all know, stories are organic, so there is no such thing as one size fits all and this extends to loglines. Again from my lecture:
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.
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: Father reluctantly transfers control of an empire to son.
If you put your mind to it and focus on the right narrative elements, even sprawling stories can be described in a logline.
As with all things screenwriting related, there are no rules, no magical formula, no uber paradigm for crafting a logline. Try the first approach above. If that doesn’t fit your type of story, there’s the second approach. You can even use the six word test detailed in the original post to compel you to drill down into your story and zero in on its most basic narrative conceit. If you’ve got one… and it’s a good one… that will make your logline much easier to write.
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