Movie logline how to#
Movie logline movie#

Stakes are great when coupled with a goal–when stakes are increased, it makes our desire to see the whole thing play out even greater.

Movie logline how to#

Is it the end of the world? Will a bomb explode? Is there a dastardly villain? How to create the ultimate villain is no easy feat, but it's easier if you have strong stakes.

With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner. In the next logline, we see that there's a very clear goal for our main character and it's very easy to see whether or not he achieves it. While passive events can happen as inciting incident, the characters reaction can never be something s/he just has to do. It’s no fun when something happens to us out of our control. 'A man sets out to build a robot to win a competition.' Immediately, we can visualize a competition and a clear way to benchmark the protagonist's success. That same logline can be strengthened by adding a specific, testable goal.

Movie logline movie#

If you wrote a movie logline that stated, 'a man sets out to build a robot,' it may be a goal, but it is a bit too bland, and possibly too broad. The best logline examples pose questions that we'll have to watch play out. A great logline sets up what the character wants-we’ll have to see if he or she achieves it. The best loglines are goalsĬharacter studies are fun, but characters are only defined by the actions they take. Using tv logline example, Silicon Valley, we'd see that the logline is 'A shy silicon valley engineer tries to build his own company.' While the tagline is 'He's got called company.' While your logline tells us what we're getting into, the tagline gets us excited and most always a play on words. Whether you're crafting a documentary logline or tinkering with loglines for short films, your logline is never the same as your synopsis. While your logline is a short summary of what your movie is about, your synopsis is a beat for beat retelling of your story's plot. It's the most important part of a logline definition.

While we’ll get into what makes the best loglines pop and get our attention, it’s important to note that movie loglines are concise. If someone asks you what your screenplay is about, respond with a logline. that hooks the reader in and describes the central conflict of the story. A logline, or log line, is a brief (one to two sentence) summary of a movie, tv show, etc.