Tag: ?It is said that a mind is a terrible thing to waste? For some, it is also a very terrifying thing to lose?? Logline: Wrongfully incarcerated, an innocent gay male must rely on his feminine nature to survive as he struggles to maintain his sanity against the uncertainty of unpredictable cellmates and the jailhouse mentality that threatens to break him.

>>?It was noted that loglines can actually be longer, so I thought it was okay.

Karel alluded to? a collection of loglines for films I have been building and analyzing for several years now . The? collection now exceeds 800 loglines.? Here is what I have found:

Over 1/2 of the loglines are 25 words or less in length.? (58.3% to be specific).? ? More than another 1/4 (27.9%) are between 26 and 30 in length.? So cumulatively, over 86% are 30 words or less in length.

Another 10% are between 30-35 words, and 3% are between 36-40 words in length.

None of the loglines exceed 40 words.

So, here are my personal guidelines for logline length:

Ideal length (and most common) -- 25 words or less?
Acceptable length (but not common) -- 26-30? words
Tolerable length (rare) - 31-35 words
Borderline length (very rare) -36-40 words

Any logline over 40 words is too long.? It must -- and can -- be pared down to under 40 words.??

(With loglnes less is almost always more.)

fwiw

"A sensitive Black gay man struggles to survive while serving jail time with unpredictable cellmates and the jailhouse mentality that threatens to break him."? (24 words)? (Psychological?Drama)

I can see something like this working, but I've been writing so long with the specifics of the 3 C's - Character, Conflict, & Concept - my loglines always come out longer than 25 words.? ?Thanks again for the reminder that?less means more.? ?:o)

I will say that I recently watched the latest podcast with Mr. Karel & Nir.? It was noted that loglines can actually be longer, so I thought it was okay.

I concur with Nir Shelter that the story for the purpose of being adapted for film would benefit from a more substantive objective goal.

But there is an important distinction between "The Shawshank Redemption"? and this story.? In "Shawshank", Andy faces a seemingly insurmountable obstacle to gaining his freedom..? He's serving a life sentence. And when an opportunity for exoneration appears late in the story, the warden kills has the witness killed.? Andy seems to have no hope of getting out alive .

But the character in this story does.? All he has to do is hunker down for 60 days.

A lot can transpire in 60 days.? I am all too aware of the stress of doing time and? the conflicts that simmer and boil over in jails.? And conflict is necessary, it's the raw material for drama.?

But conflict is not sufficient.? Drama also needs a character with a compelling purpose to shape the raw material into a form other people want to look at on the silver screen -- or their??75" , LED , 2160p , 4K Ultra HD? home monitor.

fwiw