While I am currently working on my 1st novel, I am also trying to promote and hopefully, someday sell my 1st feature length screenplay. To that end, I belong to Desert Screenwriters Group here in the Coachella Valley.
I will also credit them with helping me to shape the rambling story in my head into a well-formatted and engaging story. If not for their constructive criticism, I'd be flashbacking and forwarding more than The 100.
But they cannot agree on the format of a logline. It needs to be more dramatic, clearer, shorter, a tease, more specific, one sentence, two sentences max, a setup, not a summary, a marketing tool, and a selling point. Confused yet. I am. I've written about five versions so far. It was too long, so I shortened it only to be told to write more. I wrote more and was told its too long.
So let's consult, the almighty Internet for advice.
Scriptologist.com defines a logline as a one-sentence summary. Yet, I was told not to summarize at today's meeting.
The Writers Store says its a one or two sentence description of the overall idea of the story, the main goal.
Noam Kroll of Indiewire even says "...there are dozens (if not hundreds) of valid formulas and options when it comes to structuring your loglines." True that.
Though he goes on to point out his own tried and true formula: of protagonist, goal, and antagonist; only to backtrack a second later saying not to plug in your details into his formula but "working backwards to find the essence of your story."
So what does this mean? There are as many interpretations of loglines as there are people involved or interested in the movie industry each with their own take.
For myself, I'm going to recraft my logline into an interesting one-sentence overview capturing my protagonist and her goal. But I will also have a couple other longer loglines waiting on my phone. Mostly, I think it's about selling yourself and reading the person you are pitching you too. What do they want to hear?
If anyone has had success with what a great logline is, please add your two cents for the benefit of the rest of us.
No comments:
Post a Comment