What Makes a Great
“One-And-Only Pitch,”
Loaded-Up (Written) Screenplay Logline?

Loglines are a currency of Hollywood screenplay consideration.  While two- or three-sentence loglines can work, there’s something classic and inherently attractive about a great one-sentence version.  But, if it’s the only written pitch you get for a story, how much can one fit into one sentence?

To begin with, it’s hard to construct a great logline without first writing a great script.  And that, of course, requires skillfully orchestrating a number of dramatic story elements.  If one has enough outstanding story elements to make a great screenplay, there’s usually a way — if you’re willing to cram some — to get several of them into a brimming, written-out logline.  Here are some categories of story elements that can be poured into just one scripted sentence if one works hard enough at it:

1. Unique (as in non-everyday) Character(s)
2. Unique (as in non-everyday) Place/Setting
3. Extremes and/or Opposites
4. Conflict/Trials and Tribulations
5. Emotion, or at least a “pointer” of sorts to Likely Emotion
6. Triumph, or at least Attempt at Such
7. A Funkiness Factor (–>That’s hard to fully define, but some scripts organically have it, while others don’t and may not need it)
8. Unique Light Shed on the Human Condition and Outlook (–> For some higher storytelling/filmmaking aspirations, this can be a mandatory element, although it need not and should not be a heavy-handed one)

Getting all of that well integrated into a screenplay is no small feat!  Getting a bunch of that into a written logline may be even more challenging in a way.  But the effort can be worth it at times.

If one scores a loaded-up logline (not the script that goes with it, but just and only the one-sentence logline) with respect to those eight categories, granting 0, 1, or 2 points in each category under the following grading system:

0 points = The element is not really perceptible at all from the “going-long” logline itself;
1 point = The element is in the logline in some measure, even if it’s not overwhelming; and
2 points = The element really jumps out as notably strong/good just from the long-ish logline

…then a totaled-up score of 10 should equal a pretty darn good “full-pitch,” scripted logline, signaling to the reader of it that there’s a pretty good screenplay behind it.  Especially if category 8 is a component of the overall score, when that is a desired element.

Not everything in screenwriting or filmmaking can or should be reduced to a scoring system, any kind of scoring system (that would undoubtably threaten the unbridled creativity that makes great films great!), but this is a shorthand way that can, at times, produce a uniquely targeted logline.