#SLUGLINE SCREENPLAY DEFINITION MOVIE#

#SLUGLINE SCREENPLAY DEFINITION MOVIE#

Tagline are sometimes called вЂњstraplinesвЂќ (nothing to do with sunbathing with your bikini top on) and belong on marketing materials such as movie posters. (25 words) I threw the baby bit in (or the tiger in the bathroom) to suggest a вЂњset pieceвЂќ to aid the comedy. Following a drunken bachelor party in Vegas, there is no groom, no memory, a baby and a nervous brideвЂќ.

The word count for this logline is 49 words, but I have seen loglines up to 60 words.ДЄ 25 word version might read: вЂњThe wedding is 40 hours away. The retracing of steps tells us where the plot might go. We visualize the comic mix of such explosive characters. We get a sense of character вЂњbest buddiesвЂќ, вЂњgoofball fianceвЂќ and вЂњBridezillaвЂќ). We get a sense of genre (comedy), a sense of conflict (wedding with no groom) and a sense of urgency (must find groom). They must retrace their steps to find him, or his Bridezilla wonвЂ™t be happy. The wedding is less than two days away, the groom is nowhere to be found and nobody remembers what happened the night before. Frivolity aside, they are powerful devices to stay focussed and avoiding writing unnecessary scenes.ДЄ typical logline for вЂњThe HangoverвЂќ might read something like this: Three best buddies take their goofball, soon to be married friend on a wild bachelor party in Vegas. Now, I write the logline along with the premise before I start writing, to help me better focus on my script. I used to have a love hate relationship with loglines (mainly hate) because they force me to decide on what my screenplayВ is really about. Character A emerges a changed person by learning something about themselves or humanity at large. Another recent trend in loglines is to pose a hypothetical question such as вЂњwhat ifвЂќ? or вЂњimagine ifвЂќ? The basic anatomy of a logline is: Character A must achieve a goal, but character B blocks him in a unique way different to other films.

Whatever the format, the purpose of the logline is for you to quickly pitch your film script to a producer and talent to convey the general concept. Some loglines can stretch out to 3-4 sentences and are more like mini synopses.ДЄ new trend is emerging to describe your film in 25 words or less. They aim to identify the main character, the tone, the conflict and give an idea of theme and plot. TheyВ are a 1-2 sentence description of your screenplay which carry the entire burden of selling your movie script. LoglinesВ are a more common screenwriting term. SLUGLINE: MONTAGE SEQUENCE, or CLOSE ON GIDEON. They can be used for split screen telephone conversations, answering machine messages, print (posters, magazines etc). Sluglines are used to aid the reader and help clarify the screenplay. SluglinesВ tend to appear in shooting scripts and can be described as вЂњsub headingsвЂќ. There are however, script purists who consider scene headings to be different to sluglines. Think of them like bullet points in a document to highlight key elements. They are used to breakdown aВ movie script into вЂњslugsвЂќ or вЂњscenesвЂќ or вЂњstory beatsвЂќ to indicate how many locations there are in a film script, an overview of the key action points and a rapid way of finding certain scenes.

They were phasing them out while I was going through film school, but are still used. These are an old term for scene headings. WeвЂ™ll begin with some definitions all script writers should know. With so many lines to think about, how can screenwritersВ possibly concentrate on theirВ film script? IвЂ™llВ demystify the вЂњdosвЂќ and the вЂњdo not dosвЂќ of all these lines.

Slugline screenplay definition