![]() In BREAKING BAD the antagonist is literally the looming spectre of imminent death. How is the antagonist standing in the way of your hero achieving their goal?.To help establish the conflict of your logline, answer these two questions: This is more often than not the antagonist or villain, but your hero can also be up against a powerful force (like racism, poverty, or a sharknado). Keep it tight! Great loglines focus on conflictĪfter you’ve established your protagonist, give us the conflict. If you can remove even one word from your logline, do it. You only have one sentence to accomplish all of this, so be concise. A good logline should first and foremost define the story’s protagonist by answering these simple questions: So one of the best ways to write an effective logline is to keep the focus on the hero. Here are a few quick tips to help you write an effective logline. And it creates an instantly compelling character. That’s what the protagonist has to overcome. The real obstacle (and inciting incident) of this story is a terminal cancer diagnosis. The interesting thing about this logline is that it might seem like it omits the obstacles - the logline doesn’t mention the Krazy-8, Tuco Salamanca, or Gus Fring - but that’s because they aren’t the real obstacles for Walter. In fact, this logline establishes not just a hero, but an anti-hero in just a few words with motivations that everyone can understand (mortality, family, and money). What is the main obstacle keeping him from achieving his goal? Terminal cancer, and the unknown perils of making and selling crystal meth for the first time.What does your hero want? To provide for his wife, disabled son, and newborn before he dies.Who is the hero? A chemistry teacher with terminal cancer.You can easily see that this logline answers the three essential questions with compelling story elements. Here’s the original BREAKING BAD logline:Ī chemistry teacher diagnosed with terminal lung cancer teams up with his former student to cook and sell crystal meth in order to provide for his family, his wife, disabled son, and newborn. Let’s examine the logline for BREAKING BAD to see if these elements exist and how well they summarize the screenplay and generate interest in the reader. If your logline can answer those questions - in 30 words or less - you’re much more likely to generate interest in your script and increase the chances that studio execs and decision-makers will open your screenplay up and take a peek. What is the main obstacle keeping them from achieving their goal?.What does this character want (and why should we care)?.Who is this story about (and why is this person interesting)?.Here’s how to write a great logline and the three questions things every logline needs to answer.Įvery logline should strive to answer these three questions: And even though the system has evolved from vaults to online screenwriting profiles, a great logline is still essential if you want your screenplay to get made. A great logline can spark interest, open the right doors, and get the wheels turning on your project. In a lot of cases, the strength of the logline would decide if studio execs wanted to unstack the scripts and make the film.įast forward to today, and loglines are still king. A logline that could hook a reader in a single glance went a long way. ![]() ![]() Remember, loglines literally had to fit on the spine of a script. The goal of a logline - both then and now - is to express as much information about a screenplay in the shortest amount of time. These “log-lines” were so useful to studio heads and decision-makers that loglines quickly became an indispensable part of screenwriting. In order to keep track of this massive script-library, studio executives would write the title and a one-sentence summary along the spine or “log” of the script. (Picture Scrooge McDuck, but with spec scripts instead of gold coins). Where did the term “logline” come from?ĭuring the Golden Age of cinema - long before the advent of digital technology, the internet, and the cloud - scripts were stored in massive studio vaults. But before we breakdown the three questions every great logline needs to answer, let’s take a quick look at the history of loglines in Hollywood and why they’re (still) one of the most important parts of getting your script read, optioned, and produced. And the truth is, loglines have always been important in Hollywood. ![]() ![]() In fact, this one sentence can determine who options, produces, or even reads your screenplay. A great logline might just be the most important part of your script. ![]()
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