Script Writing: Week 2

These videos are about writing a feature film script. Although the principles apply, remember you are writing a script for a 10 minute audio podcast.

Why Do We Write Loglines?

1. Working out your story idea in one sentence is the first step of the podcast script development process. A good logline tells enough to convey a solid sense of the story, but is succinct enough that the listener doesn’t get bored or confused. It answers the “What is it” question, clearly and enticingly for yourself and others. Playing around with loglines is a quick and easy way to begin to make choices about your story, to test different versions, and to see if there’s a podcast there.

3. The essentials of a logline are really the fundamental “A-B-C” elements of the story you want to tell where:

A.    You are the main character or “protagonist” in a real situation,

B.    You did something (the story goal), and

C.    You went after it against great odds and/or obstacles, the conflict and the “antagonist or person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something.

2. Like first time writer Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” you are writing about your own lived experience. Element “A”, you are the main character in a real situation, means you are not making this up, but are remembering like Lee did about the summer she turned nine. “Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer’s day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square. Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum. People moved slowly then. They ambled across the square, shuffled in and out of the stores around it, took their time about everything. A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer. ”

 3. Story goals that can be achieved very quickly or easily are not going to be enough to write 10 script pages about. Often writers think a logline is more enticing if the goal is mysterious – and that can be the case. But a logline’s function is to give us a true sense of your story It doesn’t have to give away the ending. Your “B” or story goal element should give us an idea what we’ll be listening to during the podcast.

4. You went after it against great odds and/or obstacles, “C”, element is vital to a good logline, and the most often overlooked. It is the adventure. The meat of your story. If you’re describing a sandwich, you don’t stop after what kind of bread it’s on, right? So if you’re describing your story, give us an idea of what we’re going to bite into. Get Out isn’t about Chris getting to Rose’s family’s house. It’s about what happens once he’s there – figuring out what’s really going on, and trying to get away intact. Trying to get out. Hell or High Water isn’t just about the brothers’ plan to rob those banks. It’s about them trying to keep it together long enough to execute that plan, before they’re caught by the lawmen on their tail – to get the stolen money to their bank before the foreclosure deadline, come hell or high water.

5. Finally, don’t include too many story details in your logline. It’s an understandable instinct. You love the details of your story, and you’re sure other people will too. Why wouldn’t you include every last one in the logline? When it comes to loglines, brevity and clarity are your friends. A logline’s first priority is to present the essential core of you story. Loglines can often support a few additional details, but not many. Writing a clear, straightforward logline can help you gain that solid grasp of the story you want to flesh out.

Logline Examples Worksheet

If you have a perfectly constructed logline that genuinely taps into the essence of what your story is all about, then its meaning should resonate on every page of your script. Guess which movies these loglines belong to.

A hauntingly nostalgic portrayal of childhood mischief set in a racially divided Alabama town in the 1930s.

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The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.

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The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster's wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.

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While not intelligent, he has accidentally been present at many historic moments, but his true love eludes him.

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A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against its controllers.

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A young F.B.I. cadet must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims.

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Set in unoccupied Africa during the early days of World War II: An American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.

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A wheelchair bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.

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A Las Vegas-set comedy centered around three groomsmen who lose their about-to-be-wed buddy during their drunken misadventures, then must retrace their steps in order to find him.

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Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency.

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An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African-American maid’s point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis.

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Hollywood, 1927: A silent movie star wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with a young dancer set for a big break.

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A blacksmith teams up with eccentric pirate to save his love from the pirate’s former allies who are now the undead.

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During the Vietnam War, a U.S. captain is sent on a dangerous mission into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade colonel who has set himself up as a god among a local tribe.

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With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.

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A lion cub and future king searches for his identity. His eagerness to please others and penchant for testing his boundaries sometimes gets him into trouble.

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A mentally unstable Vietnam war veteran works as a night-time taxi driver in New York City where the perceived decadence and sleaze feeds his urge for violent action, attempting to save a preadolescent prostitute in the process.

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After a simple jewelry heist goes terribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.

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(Answers: To Kill a Mockingbird, Pulp Fiction, Forest Gump, The Matrix, Silence of The Lambs, Casablanca, Rear Window, The Hangover, The Shawshank Redemption, The Help, The Artist, Pirates of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl, Apocalypse Now, Django Unchained, The Lion King, Taxi Driver, Reservoir Dogs.)

Logline Worksheet

The first step in writing a logline is to select an experience from your past life, now or your future life worth living. This experience should clearly include at least one strong emotion like Anger, Anticipation, Distrust, Fear, Joy & Happiness, Love, Remorse, Sadness, Surprise or Trust. Think about a story that could be told in a 10 minute or under audio podcast.

Now create the 1st draft of the “Logline”, a one or two sentence grabber that tells us everything about the story you want to tell.

Remember that writing can be a slow, messy, sometimes painful process, and that nothing’s going to come out perfect the first time. Take some pressure off yourself and don’t expect a masterpiece to fly out of your fingers on the first try, just get words onto the page in a 1st draft.

After you have written material you can work with, you can set about refining your logline to be the best it can be. Good writing is re-writing, your logline will go several revisions before you are happy with it.

LOGLINE - 1st DRAFT. Date __________________________

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If you get stuck, using a “fill in the blank” longline format like the one shown in the video may help you get unstuck.

In _________________________________________________________________, __________________________________

    (the setting of your story)                                              (you, the main character or “protagonist”)

 has _______________________________, and/must __________________________________

       (a problem)                                                            (go against great odds/obstacles, conflict or a hostile person, “antagonist”) 

to ___________________________________________________________________________.

    (do something, the story goal)      

When you are satisfied, read your 1st draft out loud to yourself or to someone else. Hearing the words out loud rather than just in your own head is a great way to listen for how the words fit together and hear when your logline gets confusing or convoluted. In this writing group we share drafts with our peers. Becoming a careful reader and responder to other people’s work will help you develop the skills to read and revise on your own.

Using the 1st draft as a starting point, don’t be afraid to take risks when you’re developing a 2nd draft -- rearrange phrases; delete the logline’s beginning or end; add, remove or replace words. You can always undo a change if it doesn’t work!

LOGLINE – 2nd DRAFT. Date ___________________________

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Read the 2nd draft out loud to yourself or to someone else.

The more time you spend finding the best way to put your story idea into words, the better you will understand the idea yourself. As you go over and finalize your 2nd draft, you might even come up with something new you hadn’t thought of before writing.

LOGLINE – FINAL DRAFT. Date ______________________

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Before finalizing your logline, read it outloud to yourself or someone else.