The Logline/Elevator Pitch
Where the rubber hits the
road
LOGLINE
"If you can't say it in
three sentences, you
don't know what your
story is about."
LOGLINE
Think of the logline as a
10 second commercial for
your movie.
LOGLINE CHECKLIST
Reveal the star's SITUATION
Reveal the GOAL: the Action the star’s takes
Reveal the important COMPLICATIONS
Hint at the CLIMAX - the danger, the 'showdown'
Identify SIZZLE: greed, humor, danger, thrill
Identify GENRE
Limit to three sentences or under
Use present tense
LOGLINE: Runaway Bride
A New York reporter
travels to Maryland to
profile a woman who left
three bridegrooms at the
altar.
LOGLINE: Dumb & Dumber
An inept dog groomer and
a limousine driver chase
the latter's dream girl
cross country.
LOGLINE: Blue Streak
A jewel thief returns to a
construction site to
retrieve his cache and
finds a police station on
the spot.
LOGLINE: Maid in
Manhattan
A senatorial candidate
falls for a chambermaid
after he mistakes her for
a guest at the hotel.
LOGLINE: El Bolero de
Raquel
Un aseador de calzado
viaja a Acapulco y aprende
a bailar el bolero de
Ravel.
LOGLINE: ET
An alienated boy bonds with an
extraterrestrial child who's
been stranded on earth; the boy
defies the adults to help the
alien contact his mothership so
he can go home.
LOGLINE: The Secret of
Algonquin
An engaging protagonist
discovers the secret to
all of creation.
ELEVATOR PITCH
The Elevator Pitch is a short narrative
treatment which gathers up the threads
of your story: character, motivation,
agenda, setting, conflict, action, key
scenes, and storyline - combining them
into a short treatment that gives you
the first hint of the impact of the
final script.
ELEVATOR PITCH
Focus on large actions stemming
character motivation. The verb
WANT. What does your character
Before writing The PITCH make a
wants for your character. There
one main WANT.
out of
is
WANT?
list of
will be
ELEVATOR PITCH CHECKLIST
Reveal the star's SITUATION
Reveal the GOAL: the Action the star’s takes
Reveal the important COMPLICATIONS
Describe the star's CRISIS decision
Hint at the CLIMAX - the danger, the 'showdown'
Hint at the star's potential TRANSFORMATION
Identify SIZZLE: greed, humor, danger, thrill
Identify GENRE
Limit to one paragraph
Use present tense
THE “ELEVATOR” PITCH
"Secret Of Algonquin”
Shawn Miller, a handsome 29-year-old scientist, wants to make a difference
in life. But to many he seems to have lost direction. However, to those
who know him he still seems to have a strong sense of confidence and
purpose. Confidence and purpose, however, could not be farther from the
truth as the emotional instability of being unemployed begins to consume
him.
Having always been known as an “outsider”, he obsessively decides to get
back into the game at any cost. As the obsession starts to envelop and
control his life, Shawn begins to experience strange and unearthly events
surrounding his endeavors to get hired at a top-secret research center. He
is drawn to the brink of near death as the dark secrets at the research
center began to unfold and reveal an off world intelligence searching for
evidence of Mankind's origins.
Deceptions surface and truths are reached among the characters, yet not
one of them has an answer to the question that looms: What is the secret
of Algonquin?
SHORT ELEVATOR PITCH:
RAINMAN
A self-centered hotshot returns home for
his father's funeral and learns the family
inheritance goes to an autistic brother he
never knew he had. The hotshot kidnaps
this older brother and drives him crosscountry hoping to gain his confidence and
get control of the family money. The
journey reveals an unusual dimension to
the brother's autism that sparks their
relationship and unlocks a dramatic
childhood secret that changes everything.
SHORT ELEVATOR PITCH:
SOME LIKE IT HOT
Two male musicians accidentally witness the
St. Valentines' Day massacre; and to elude
the mobsters who pursue them, they dress in
drag and join an all-girl band headed for
Miami. One of them falls for a sexy singer
and poses as a Miami playboy so he can woo
her; he convinces his pal to dodge the
amorous advances of the rather nearsighted
Miami playboy he impersonates. Love
conquers all -- till the mobsters show up
at the same Miami resort for a convention.