This document provides guidance on developing the key elements of a screenplay idea, including coming up with a high concept plot or hook, defining the main characters of the hero and adversary, and establishing the hero's internal flaw or need. It stresses the importance of having a remarkable one-line idea, or logline, that pitches who wants what but is blocked by whom. Templates and examples are given to help the reader understand these fundamental components for telling a compelling story.
3. It should have a HOOK.
It should be HIGH CONCEPT.
Which means...
It should be
remarkable.
4. high concept: adj. a story based on a striking and easily
communicable plot or idea
(Oxford English Dictionary)
5. SOME IDEAS
• A cop who has to kill robots might be a robot himself.
• During a preview tour, a theme park suffers a major power
breakdown that allows its cloned dinosaurs to run amok.
• A suicidal family man is given the opportunity to see what the world
would be like if he had never been born.
• A guy who complains about God too often is given almighty powers
to teach him how difficult it is to run the world.
• After an Alaskan town is plunged into darkness for a month, it is
attacked by a bloodthirsty gang of vampires.
10. Your one-line idea, or LOGLINE, should include or suggest these
three elements:
Someone (the hero) wants something (the
goal) but is blocked by something (the
adversary).
11. INTERESTING LOGLINES
• An 8-year-old boy, who is accidentally left behind while his family
flies to France for Christmas, has to defend his home against
idiotic burglars.
• A cowboy toy is profoundly threatened and jealous when a fancy
spaceman toy supplants him as top toy in a boy's room.
• A weatherman finds himself living the same day over and over
again.
• A naive young man battles heartless authorities to protect the life
of his girlfriend when it’s revealed that she’s not human— she’s a
mermaid.
12. If it helps, you can also describe the TONE of your movie
with an “X meets Y”, “X with Y” or “X in Y” one-liner.