Logline
The film's one-sentence shop window: character + event + goal + obstacle, ~30 words, ending unsaid.
Distinction: The logline is the film's SHOP WINDOW (what happens), the premise is its CLAIM (what it says). When the two get mixed you end up with a sentence that neither intrigues nor claims anything.
Common mistake
The chain of "and"s (three films at once) and the cliché ("her life changes").
Example
When a giant chain supermarket opens in town, an ageing butcher who has made needing no one his identity is forced into a one-man fight to keep his shop standing.
Four parts: character — "who has made needing no one his identity" (pull the trait out and the sentence collapses, so it belongs to the character) · event — "opens" · goal — keeping the shop standing · obstacle — the chain supermarket, and his own stubbornness implied by "one-man." The ending isn't said.
How to write a logline
- Write the character with the trait that carries the conflict. Not "an ageing butcher" but "an ageing butcher who has made needing no one his identity." The trait puts the film's obstacle inside the character.
- State the event that breaks their life, once. One event, one verb: "opens," "dies," "comes back."
- Choose a single goal. Two goals are two films; every goal added with "and" weakens the sentence.
- Write the biggest obstacle — if possible, the character himself. The outer obstacle sets up the event, the inner one sets up the film.
- Don't say the ending, keep to the count. ~30 words. If it's too long, the extra thing is usually a second goal.
Check
Try to fit the sentence onto another film: if it fits, it doesn't belong to the character (the cliché test). Then pull out the trait — if the sentence still stands, the trait was decoration.
📄 Blank template and four tests → Writing Documents/Logline
Screenwriting Glossary — more from this shelf
How do you boil your idea down to one sentence?
The lessons for this topic are in Chapter 2 · The Core of the Story — Idea, subject, theme, premise and logline.