While a group of older teens are on a camping trip secretly building an unregistered ship,their planet is attacked and destroyed those not killed were taken.The teens have to rescue their families/friends.

And remember that even way back in 1977 George Lucas still had to pitch to many producers most of which turned him down before getting a budget for a complex scifi production. Even after getting the budget it was minimal and barley sufficient to produce the first Star Wars film.

There is no visual effect or super-dooper scifi gizmo you can describe in a logline, pitch or synopsis that will be surprising or unique to a producer. Most of them and their audiences have seen enough of these types of films to render them unimpressed by another CGI spectacular event.

In my mind what you could use to, as DPG puts it, hook their attention is a compelling unique story about an empathetic character with a powerful inner journey.

Good questions. George Lucas had already broken into show business, had a film resume (THX-1138, American Graffiti) and contacts all over Tinseltown by the time he began pitching his Star Wars epic. And it was different era back in 1977; the theatrical production pipeline wasn't clogged with sci-fi/ super-hero movies as it is today.

The biggest problem facing anyone writing a logline for an original sci-fi script is that the script is about a world that only exists in the mind of the writer. How is it possible to invoke a vision of that world in the mind of a reader in 30 words or less? Well, it isn't possible.

Also, sci-fi films usually rely on a lot of CGI special effects; your logline suggests there will be a lot of CGI eye candy--action scenes and props. CGI technology is awesome now-- and very expensive. So the industry favors proven story lines and familiar characters from established franchises or popular sci-fi books or graphic novels to improve the odds of getting a return on the very substantial investment required.

How does an original sci-fi story line compete for mind-space in such a market? I don't know, except to suggest that more than ever before a sci-fi spec script has to have an irresistible hook, a unique twist. I suggest the question to ask is: What is the irresistible hook in this story or unique twist that makes it stand out from the competition, all the franchises and all other original spec scripts clamoring for eye-time and mind-space? Try to build a logline around the answer to that question.

how would George Lucas have explained Star Wars along with the story line in one or two sentences ? other than in a, galaxy far far away... would he use that or just start off with just Luke being a "farm boy" if this has the same idea as in not being of this planet idea.. "camping with friends" indicates why they survived the invasion, but isnt necessary, also building the unregistered ship tells how they could search for the missing people, again not necessary, would it be wrong to go with a world far away or would that be necessary ? appreciating your input !