Читать книгу Writing Screenplays - Paul Peditto - Страница 21

When you have finished either Worksheet 1 or 2 (choose one), you will create your logline (i.e., a 25-word or less description of your movie). It sums up the whole movie in a sentence or two. Sounds difficult, but it’s not. Every great logline has these three elements: who, goal, and obstacle. For example:

• When a Roman general is betrayed and his family murdered by an emperor’s corrupt son, he comes to Rome as a gladiator to seek revenge. Gladiator

• A journey of self-discovery by a brilliant mathematician once he is diagnosed with schizophrenia. He eventually triumphs over tragedy and receives the Nobel Prize. A Beautiful Mind

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

Now it’s time to craft your logline:

It’s a story about a __________ who does __________ and _________ happens.

Play around with this description for a little while until you find something you feel really good about. This is the tough part. Once you get this description written down, the rest should be easy; then again, maybe not!

There are two sample loglines in Chapter 7.