How to Craft Compelling Loglines

It takes time and practice to be able to write compelling loglines. There is, however, a formula for crafting a logline which sells.

But before taking you through that formula, let’s have a look at what a logline is not:

It’s not the blurb on IMDb, or the summary which appears when you’re searching for a movie to watch. Nor is it the tagline used to market your movie.

A logline is, in effect, a tool to get you, or your Agent/Manager, a meeting with someone who has the means to get your movie made.

So, what’s in a logline?

A logline should highlight the core story of your screenplay, using the fewest possible words. It’s your story in its simplest, most distilled form – there’s no room for talking about character backstories, sub-plots or your favourite scene.

It consists of no more than one to three sentences (max!) and be no more than thirty-five words.

How to structure your logline

You want the person reading your logline to understand the core of your story. It should touch upon the following points:

• WHO the story is about – the protagonist
• What does he/she/they WANT – the goal
• Who or what is STOPPING them – the antagonist

For example, if you were asked to come up with a logline for THE WIZARD OF OZ, you could write this:

A naïve Kansas farm girl is transported by a twister to a fantasy land and embarks on a dangerous quest to find a wizard who can send her back home.

Here, the protagonist is the naïve Kansas farm girl; the goal is for her to find the way back home; the antagonist is the journey across the dangerous land.

This logline, like all loglines, brings up many follow-up questions – such as:

• Tell me more about the girl – what’s her name and why is she so naïve?
• How did the twister take her to a fantasy land?
• What is this fantasy land? Who does she meet on her journey to the wizard?
• What are the stakes if she doesn’t get back home?
• How does she get back home?
• Why do we care about this naïve Kansas farm girl?

However, it’s not for the logline to answer these questions – the raison d’être for a logline is to be a catalyst for questions from the people we want to convince to make our movie.

The component parts of a logline

The Protagonist

The general rule is to avoid using a character name when referring to the protagonist in a logline. Why? Because you’re not explaining enough about the character to make his/her/their name meaningful to the reader – the only exception is if your movie is about a real, historical character or famous person such as Mother Teresa or David Bowie.

If they have a profession that is suitable to describe them, then use it in the logline. You can also use an adjective to give it more substance – for example:

• A corrupt surgeon
• A bi-polar FBI Agent
• A depressed teenager
• A distraught knight
• A burnt-out mum

The Goal

The protagonist’s main goal is the engine which drives the story – you must include in your logline what it is that your protagonist wants/seeks/looks for.

This can sometimes be the hardest element to write about succinctly. Some writers craft the logline before they actually start to write the screenplay, as this helps them keep focused on their core story.

The Antagonist (or the antagonistic forces)

Your logline must state who or what stops your protagonist from achieving his/her/their goal. But keep it simple: mention only the obstacle to the major goal. You must convey the idea that your protagonist’s demise – figurative or literal – is at stake.

For instance, in the logline for THE WIZARD OF OZ: who is stopping Dorothy from getting to the Wizard are the Witch and her minions; the Witch, however, is not mentioned in the logline, all that is said is that Dorothy is on a dangerous quest through a fantasy land.

Offering some perspective: the Set-Up.

Your movie could be set in the past, or in some world of your creation. In some cases, it might be worth describing the world to make it clear to the reader that your story is not set in the present.

It could also be that your protagonist has a past – murky or otherwise – that’s also important to the set-up.

A clear example of this is TAKEN:

The protagonist’s goal is to get his daughter back from the antagonists – the kidnappers – but the twist is that he’s not an ordinary father, he’s an ex-special-ops soldier. So, the logline for TAKEN would read like this:

An overprotective, bumbling father reveals his true self – a special-ops background – when his teenage daughter is kidnapped in France, and he does whatever it takes to save her life.

In terms of a time-period set-up, let’s look at the logline for THE LAST DUEL:

In the midst of a bloody war, a medieval French knight challenges his lifelong friend and protector to a duel to avenge the raping of his wife.

The Protagonist is the medieval French knight; the Antagonist, his lifelong friend and protector; the goal, to avenge the raping of his wife.

The stakes are high – in order to avenge the raping of his wife, the French knight is prepared to lay down his life in a duel against a lifelong friend. The logline tells us also that the film is set in the past because medieval is referenced. But it doesn’t go into the intricacies of the historical period, the subplots of fealty, or the wars being fought at the time – all this is left for the follow-up conversation.

The Protagonist as an Ensemble

Sometimes your protagonist is not just one person, but an ensemble – such as in THE THREE MUSKETEERS or the OCEANS’ franchise. When you’re dealing with an ensemble, it’s important to clarify if there is actually one key protagonist. If not, then you may have to resort to making the theme your protagonist.

LOVE, ACTUALLY is a clear example: the film follows a series of characters as they find love one Christmas. The challenge here is for the logline to show the dramatic core of the story without referring to any one character. It could read like this:

A diverse group of Brits struggle to find the true meaning of love, despite the odds, at Christmas.

Common problems when writing loglines

Quite obviously, the main difficulty in creating a compelling logline is to keep it concise. This is something which is hard to do, but please remember that all writers experience it, so you’re not alone in this – it is, in fact, the most common problem when writing loglines. Writers know how important it is to be able to pin down the core dramatic plot which drives their story, but many mistakes are made in the process offing so.

These are, statistically, the most common ones:

• Writing a logline without a full understanding of what a logline should be
• Trying to tell too much of the story
• Adding too much detail about the characters
• Not focusing on the protagonist and his/her/their goal
• Giving too much detail about the antagonist
• Referring to the wrong antagonist
• Outlining sub-plots unnecessarily
• Not indicating the stakes
• Writing a summary of the story instead of a logline
• Using bad grammar
• Making spelling mistakes

Things to consider

Think about it this way: a logline is its own story – it should make sense on its own.

Keep the focus of the logline on external factors, not internal – keep to action and visual elements, avoid words like ‘feels’, ‘thinks’ or ‘realizes’.

Make sure your protagonist is active and not passive – his/her/their actions set the story in motion.

Check your logline with your accountability writers – writers whom you trust and friends and family who understand the kind of feedback you need in order to progress.

Write it, write it, and write it again – spend as much time and write as many versions as needed. Do everything you can to make sure the logline you write is the best it can possibly be to showcase the dramatic core of your story.

Logline Checklist

• Use the formula – who is the protagonist; what is his/her/their goal; who or what is the antagonist?
• Keep the logline simple and concise
• Focus on the protagonist and his/her/their goal
• Use adjectives to describe the protagonist
• Keep the protagonist active, not passive
• Keep the protagonist focused on external, action-related factors
• Set the scene if the story is written in the past, the future, or in some other world
• Read many loglines, and assess them against the formula
• Write many loglines, and assess them against the formula
• Share your loglines with accountability writers – writers who are also crafting screenplays and loglines and ask for their feedback

Sample loglines

CONTAGION

A group of experts struggle to save humanity from a mystery virus that rampages the planet.

FREAKY FRIDAY

A battling mum and teenage daughter magically switch bodies and struggle to live the other’s life.

HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND ALIENATE PEOPLE

A rude British journalist takes a job at a New York magazine and struggles to live in his new life.

JUMPER

A young man discovers he has a special ability to transport himself from location to location, but overusing his ability attracts attention and he finds himself running for his life.

2012

As earth self-destructs, a group of travellers struggle to reach a mountain in China where a fleet of high-tech arcs wait to save those with the right credentials.

THE PROPOSAL

To avoid deportation from the U.S, a ruthless publishing editor blackmails her long-suffering editorial assistant to marry her.

THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE

A university student discovers he is a sorcerer and has to use his powers to save the world against an evil presence.

For further reference

The Executive Chair by Kelly Edwards

Gold Productions by Jenni Gold

Storywise by Jen Grisanti

The Script Selling Game: A Hollywood Insider’s Look At Getting Your Script Sold and Produced by Kathie Fong Yoneda

The Inside Pitch by Christopher Lockhart, WME Story Editor

Intensive Programmes: Story Structure by Corey Mandell