Every day I review my loglines, and I ask myself: "What can I do to perfect it?" A good logline must have these four elements: protagonist, inciting incident, protagonist's goal and central conflict. I am constantly reminded that perfection does not exist, but I still have that expectation. On multiple occasions, I have rewritten the logline for my latest script.
"A young boy befriends his draconic saviour and struggles to surmount the sovereignty of King Harald, a corrupted leader who vowed to wipe out every last clan in the Kingdom of Noregr."
Most loglines are short, summarising all necessary elements in one sentence. Some loglines last for two sentences. But quality is what matters. It's also worth using active, visual language.
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I think there are things that make failure. Not necessarily a list that guarantees success.
Don’t get stuck in the setup. So many loglines do the setup and basically wave at the main story.
example: A man that lives in the poor part of town and has to save every sent as his job is low paying, because the country is going through a depression, invents time travel and then changes the world.
Or the logline is vague. Things like “having to confront their families dark history.” or “confront the struggles of his life”. That sort of things.
Or doesn’t tell the story and sounds like a marketing line. “what will happen when he …. “ or “ only time will time”.
A great logline enables the reader to see what they think is the movie in their mind.
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Great stuff. In my personal opinion derived from my advertising experience, a logline should be simple. Simple words. Your story idea in the simplest form. Simplicity is an art and conveys the most complex message in a streamlined way when done right. For everyone to understand your logline, which represents your story, they should understand the words. You don't want your reader to google the meaning while reading. Simple words, simple form, simple yet engaging style with a breezy finish works always.
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People fail loglines same reason they fail pitching...wanna squeeze the whole story in several words / coupla minutes...just hook 'em
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Thank you all for replying! I rewrote my logline again, keeping it simple and short and hopefully something that says a lot.
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I think it's hard to write a good logline without a cool idea. as soon as you formulate a cool idea, the logline will appear by itself.
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Kiril Maksimoski, they do this because of a weak idea and thus try to strengthen it. or they don't know what the essence of their story is.
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Worry about screenplay execution. Ppl spend too much time "cart before horse" writing.
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loglines should be present tense grammar.
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I know.