Log Lines: simple concept, straight-forward rules, impossible challenge

 What the heck is a log line? I've heard of tag lines -- you know, "In space, no one can hear your scream" or "Who you gonna call?" -- but a log line? That's new to me.

I had already been working on tag lines for my new romantic comedy screenplay. If I do say so myself, I came up with some pretty good ones. They need to be short, pithy and memorable. They don't have to say what the movie is about in any detail: they just have to spark interest, catch attention, make people want to know more.

That's why the two I include above (from Alien and Ghostbusters respectively) are so successful. They grab you. They're memorable. And they make you want to see the movie.

But a log line? Yikes.

The problem is, the Final Draft script-writing contest, The Big Break, tracks entries not by the name of the screenwriter or the title of the project but by the log line. So I had to do some research, and get good at writing log lines, pretty quick.

A search on the internet came up with some pretty consistent rules, thank goodness:

1. Limit your logline to between 25 and 30 words
2. Describe your protagonist clearly
3. Set a clear goal for your protagonist
4. Be ironic, or punny, where possible
5. Set high stakes; give your protagonist something to lose
6. Make it memorable, even if it means breaking these rules

From my research, it seems a log line is sort of like an elevator pitch for your script: clear, concise and effective. A person reading the log line should not only understand the basic plot of the screenplay but should also be intrigued enough to want to read it.

I bet you can identify the movies to which the following log lines relate:

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.

A young police officer must prevent a bomb exploding aboard a city bus by keeping its speed above 50 mph.

And I bet you understand why producers wanted to read, and eventually option, the scripts themselves.

With my research complete, I sat down and tried to create a log line for my own screenplay. I sat for hours. On several different occasions. I checked with my readers for ideas. I tried hundreds of combinations of words. I used a thesaurus.

My partner and I had an extended conversation about the difference among the words/phrases "reclusive", "publicity-shy", and "privacy-seeking", trying to figure out which one was right. And asking if a hyphenated word is counted as two words.

You argue with yourself about which aspects of your story are most important to include in the log line -- is the setting important? or some aspect of the protagonist's past? or the antagonist's profession? -- because, with a maximum of 30 words, you can only include so much!

And then you get to the point where you have several options for expressing the same ideas and have to type out every possible combination of them to figure out which combination works best.

I have currently narrowed it down to 22 possible log lines, with one (at just 23 words!) the frontrunner. I plan to make the final decision today -- just to put the matter to bed!

Creative tension helps make better scripts

To make matters even better, as I work to produce the first five scripts for The Station, I am coming to the realization that I have really lucked in to a fantastic creative partner in Nancy Lynch.


Thanks to her exceptional training and experience as a screen writer and short-film producer/director, Nancy brings to the table a great many skills and abilities that I lack. That's very important to the creative process -- a diversity of talents.


Our process to date has been as follows:

1. We met first to talk through the themes, structure and characters of our proposed show. In this meeting, we also came up with an outline of the first five episodes, both in terms of individual plots and overarching story;
2. I then drafted episode one and shared my draft with Nancy;
3. Nancy read, reviewed and revised that first episode while I went to work on episode two;
4. I reviewed Nancy's revisions to the first episode, gave her my feedback and she went through and did another polish based on our discussions;
5. I submitted episode two, draft one to Nancy and we started steps 2 and 3 again, this time with the second episode as the subject of our work;
6. I, meanwhile, drafted episode three. I sent it to Nancy but, in light of an intense discussion we had on episode two, three now needs extensive revision.

It's an amazing process. We are both creative people who respect each other's input and neither of us is afraid to challenge the other and his/her ideas.


For example, episode 2 involves a bit of a mystery and I, with my children's book sensibility, thought it important that we wrap up the mystery by the end of the episode. Nancy thought otherwise: let's leave some question as to whether or not the obvious resolution was actually the correct resolution so that we can play with the mystery -- and its impact on the people involved -- in future episodes.


I never thought of anything like that. And I love it. It means that episode three needs to be revised but I think it is going to be much stronger as a result.


On the other hand, I find myself having to challenge Nancy's instinct to add extra conflict/action to every story. I agree conflict is important and action is absolutely necessary in the visual media of a web series but I also think that one of the strengths of any good show is character development and the introduction of more thoughtful, emotional story lines to the series.


I don't think Nancy would disagree with my position, to be honest. But I think we are going to continue a respectful debate on how much action is required. And that debate, like any conflict of that kind, is going to be healthy for the final product.

In the groove with a more mature Abigail storyline

After complaining about being tasked with writing five scripts for the proposed web series, The Station, I find myself in the position where I have to offer an apology. I shouldn't have complained.


I am actually quite enjoying the experience. And I've completed the first drafts of three scripts already.


It's an interesting challenge, to be honest. My colleague, Nancy Lynch, and I have agreed that the web series should be based on the Abigail Massey children's stories but should aim for an older, more mature audience. As a result, I basically need to re-write the larger Abigail story arc, adding depth and detail and a great deal more conflict.


Where Abigail Massey of the children's stories responds to tense situations with an "Oh, golly" and a can-do attitude, Abigail of the web series will be forced to face much more difficult situations and much more challenging moral questions.


I'm having fun with the project. I don't want to give too many details away -- we are hopeful of securing funding for the series and then revealing details over the course of the show's first season -- but I will say that Abigail's family relationships aren't quite so rosy in the new series, her love life is more complicated and the group of young women she meets at the Station include not just a couple of nice girls like Jenny and Alice but also a group of "Mean Girls", as I've dubbed them in early drafts.


My sister, Lynn, suggested that I should name the two main "Mean Girls" after her and my other sister, Janice. But, when I explained to Lynn some of the things the Mean Girls get up to, she quickly retracted the suggestion. Yes, they are that mean...


What's fun for me is that, now that I have made the adjustment from writing stories for 8-12 year olds to writing scripts for teens and adults, I am finding myself in the same writing groove I have so enjoyed over the first five books of Abigail stories.


I feel I have a strong understanding of the characters, the setting and the overall arc of our storylines -- and that makes the writing easy and enjoyable.


Let's hope it keeps flowing along so well for the final two draft scripts.

Thinking about writing for screens, big and small

Screenwriting is never something I've considered seriously as a way to tell my stories. I'm not sure why. Perhaps because it seems to require such a firm commitment to forms and structures, like a sonnet almost. I look at a published screenplay and I think: whoa, I could never write one of those.

I think my hesitation also might come from the fact that I see screenwriting as a short-story art: even feature film scripts are closer in length to Alice Munro than to Charles Dickens. And I've never been very good at writing short stories, at least not short stories for adults.

Then a colleague at work told me that she had taken a scrip-writing course out of UCLA and had really enjoyed it. We got to talking about writing and our own projects and she asked me if I would be willing to read one of her scripts and giving her my thoughts on it.

"Sure," I said, all the while wondering why my stomach clenched almost the moment she asked the question.

I took her script and gave it a good read. Two immediate responses: wow, it is good (I could actually see many of the scenes playing themselves out visually in my mind); and thank goodness it's a romantic comedy. I'm a huge fan of rom-coms and felt I was at least somewhat on safer ground. I might not know screen-writing but I do love my rom-coms.

In order to ground myself even more firmly, I did a quick web search on screen plays. To my amazement, up popped an IMDB website that is dedicated to making the scripts for Hollywood films available to the reading public. Awesome.

I soon got lost in the site. I read the script for my all-time favourite romantic comedy, Notting Hill, then went on to read Shakespeare in Love, Pretty Woman and finally When Harry Met Sally. It was a real education, both in the form and in the strategic approach to writing a good screenplay.

And it proved to me just how good my friend's script really is. It also clarified in my mind exactly what I felt worked in the screenplay and what could be improved.

She and I sat down to discuss the script and had a really good talk. She was pleased that I had enjoyed her work so much but also open to some of the suggestions I made as to how she could go about making it even better. The fact that I could refer back to some of the best romantic comedies of the past 30 years as we spoke only made my comments carry that much more weight.

All of this got me thinking: could I write a screenplay? I'm still not sure but I think I'd like to try.

I've been working on my Abigail Christmas novella, trying to turn it into a stage play and I realized, but for the formatting issues and questions of length, the two forms -- stage plays and screen plays -- are not that different.

And then my friend, as if reading my mind, suggested that I start adapting the original 12 Abigail short stories into tele-plays so that we can create a web-series from them. Interesting idea.

I have so many projects I'd like to get to but this one intrigues me strongly. I'm still not sure I have what it takes to write screenplays but I won't really know until I try.

You find writers in the strangest places

I work for the government. Although the job I do involves a lot of writing, I cannot call myself a “professional writer” by any stretch of the imagination. I do government work and that’s the beginning and end of it. My writing is a side-bar, a diversion, a hobby. Sure, I would love it if it could become more someday but, for now at least, writing is secondary for me.

But I’m amazed how many people I’ve met in government who consider themselves writers too (if only on a part-time basis). Just by telling them about my various writing projects, I seem to induce so many people to share with me their various exploits in writing, their successes and their dreams.

Just recently, for example, I was in a meeting with a new colleague and, once the business matters were worked through, we started chatting about our interests. I told her in some detail about my Abigail Massey stories and she asked, without a hint of a smile, if I planned one day to produce a screen-play based on my new Abigail Christmas novella.

I said, no, not really, since I haven’t the faintest idea of how to write or market a screenplay.

And she said, as serious and dead-pan as you please, “Well, I do. I have a degree in screen-writing from UCLA.”

My jaw hit the floor. Here she is, a government bureaucrat of significant achievement and high stature, sitting on a degree in screen-writing from a well-known and respected school.

She sent me a link to a trailer for one of her short films and, I have to say, I was impressed. It was extremely well done.

Which of course leads me to start to speculate on how I can benefit from this new-found connection, mercenary that I am. I mean, my hope of course would be to enter into a mutually beneficial relationship but one of the quiet goals of my Abigail project has been to convince some production company and television outlet to turn my stories into a family-oriented historical television series, of the kind the CBC likes to show on Sunday evenings.

And here was a wonderful opportunity to partner with a person who appears to have the talent, training and skills needed to help me push even further toward that goal.

And I met her in the context of my job as a civil servant. Amazing.