- You started it with the phrase “in a post-apocalyptic world.” Nope, producers and agents have never seen that set-up before, Professor Original. 2. “Rain Main meets Freddy Kruger” probably wasn’t the best way to describe your horror film about a savant slasher. 3. Instead of making a logline point list of “Hero, Main Flaw, Ally, Changing Event, Jeopardy, Opponent, Enabling Circumstances”, your point list has “Toilet Paper, Tooth Paste, Orange Juice, Chicken, Fritos, Ice Cream, Batteries”. You don’t dip your Fritos in ice cream, do you? 4. A logline that mimics a nursery rhyme and that has little yellow stickers of good queens and wizards around it doesn’t quite work as well as it did in 2nd grade. 5. Your script really stinks. If it was an animal part, it would be the colon of a bear, after digesting the bags of McDonalds hamburgers that it foraged from your car with the open window at Yellowstone while you were hiking. Bad bear! 6. The guy who runs the 16-week class “How to Write an Effective Logline that Will Turn the Heads of Producers” that cost you $1,295 didn’t tell you that their heads will turn towards their toilets. Get out of the way! 7. You asked your spouse/partner “honey, how does that one sound?” Gotta love the empathy and the ability to tell a little white lie of a significant other. 8. You said “ah, screw it! Let them read the script to find out what it’s really about!” Uh…yep…that usually works. 9. The subliminal message strategy backfired, and instead of offering you a contract with a killer Santa Monica office and an ocean view, the producer put a contract out on you with a killer Columbian hit man with a Beretta and a silencer. Sometimes even you can outsmart yourself. 10. You ended it with “and hi-jinks ensue.” Oh yeah, now that’s really gonna make tears of joy flow uncontrollably from a producer’s eyes. Here are the first ten. Good karma will follow my fellow screenwriters who come up with the next 40 reasons why loglines really suck, and we will have all optioned or sold a script before the summer ends! The savant slasher will follow those that don't contribute, and that's not a bag with Fritos and ice cream behind his back.
Screenwriting : Fifty Reasons Why Your Logline Really Sucks by Bill Costantini
Fifty Reasons Why Your Logline Really Sucks
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lol.. I can already tell you, I look forward to reading this thread!
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Where's yours, Shawn? Is that the savant slasher I see in your back yard?
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Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery I guess? ;-)
lol… still thinking on this one, Bill! … Yeah, that's the slasher I'm working on - APARICIO. Thanks for the look!
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Wow. This was...very...informative.
My fav is #6, because I know the name of that teacher running this class: Will Turner
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LOL David! I love your comments!
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Thanks, Lis! Shame my comments don't get me noticed as much as you do. Perhaps I need to be an attractive woman! lol.
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Write it, Owen! Write it!
lol… That's too funny, Owen!
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I'm waiting for the "Savant Slasher" to get me in the night. Cos right now I ain't got the time to answer your question Bill.
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In a Post Apocalyptic World... just after the cereal company went bankrupt, the world went to hell. Or maybe: It was a mix up at the Postal Service that sent society spiraling into chaos...
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"Yeah, definitely, in the jugular, twenty times." "Stop-" "1.625 liters of blood gone now, yeah." "We need to get out of here!" "Siren. Loud siren." "We gotta go god dammit!" "Police will be here in 5 minutes, 34 seconds."
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Thanks for your #3 summary - great reminder of how to make the logline functional and succinct.
I don't know... Number 9 looks like something waiting to be developed. Is this blog haunted by Elmore Leonard?