What Is a Logline? Formula, Free Template and 12 Logline Examples

Your script is 110 pages. The first person who judges it will read one sentence. A producer’s assistant skimming a query letter, a contest reader working through a stack of entries, an agent on the phone. That one sentence is your logline. Get it right and they read page one. Get it wrong and they never do. Here is what a logline is, the formula behind it, and 12 logline examples from film and TV.

What Is a Logline?

A logline is a one or two sentence summary of a screenplay, film or TV show. It tells a reader who the story is about, what happens to them and why it’s worth their time.

Screenwriter John August puts it plainly. “Loglines aren’t plot or story. At most, they’re arrows pointing towards story.”

The term is usually traced to Hollywood story departments, where readers logged every script that came in with a one-line summary. TV listings used the same idea, one sentence per show. Either way, the job hasn’t changed. One line has to sell the whole thing.

A logline is easy to confuse with three other short pieces of writing.

	What it is	Who reads it	Example (Alien, 1979)
Logline	One sentence on the story	Producers, agents, contest readers	A space crew answers a distress call and brings back a creature that hunts them one by one
Tagline	A marketing slogan	Audiences, on the poster	“In space no one can hear you scream.”
Pitch line	A quick comparison	People in a meeting	“Jaws in space”
Synopsis	A full summary, ending included	Producers and development teams	One to two pages

The logline sells the script. The tagline sells the ticket. For the longer version, see our guide to the movie synopsis.

The Logline Formula

Most loglines have the same five parts.

1. The hero. Who is it about? Give them one defining trait, not a name.
2. The inciting incident. What happens that starts the story?
3. The goal. What does the hero want now?
4. The antagonist. Who or what is in the way?
5. The stakes. What happens if the hero fails?

John August writes it as a fill-in-the-blanks sentence: “When (inciting incident), (hero) struggles against (antagonistic force) in order to (goal) before (stakes are lost).”

You don’t have to use that exact order. You do need all five parts somewhere in the sentence.

Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! adds a test on top. A strong logline has irony, a compelling mental picture, a sense of the audience and budget, and a killer title. Irony is the one most writers miss. A cop who hates the water has to hunt a shark. A lawyer who can’t lie. A woman everyone underestimates walks into Harvard Law. The contradiction is the hook.

How to Write a Logline in 5 Steps

1. Write the long version. Put down every part of the formula, even if it runs to three sentences.
2. Swap names for traits. “Marty” means nothing to a reader. “A teenager stuck in his parents’ high school years” does.
3. Find the irony. What about your hero makes this problem the worst one they could face?
4. Cut the subplots. One hero, one goal, one antagonist. Everything else goes.
5. Read it out loud. If you run out of breath, it’s too long.

How Long Should a Logline Be?

One sentence is the goal. Two is the limit. Most readers expect something you can say in one breath, which usually lands somewhere between 25 and 50 words.

A TV logline works the same way but sells the series, not one episode. It sets up the world and the engine that keeps generating stories. A documentary logline can’t promise a plot twist, so it sets up a question the film will answer, like whether a man can survive a climb.

Free Logline Template

This free logline template turns the formula above into a one-page worksheet. You break your story into its five parts, write three drafts, and check the final line before anyone reads it.

• Step 1: the hero, inciting incident, goal, antagonist and stakes, plus a box for the irony
• Step 2: three drafts, each with a word count and a note on what’s not working
• Step 3: your final logline
• Step 4: an 8-point check, and space to write down what three test readers asked

Logline Template Example: Dead Air

Dead Air is our made-up 14-minute thriller about a late-night radio host. Here’s how its logline got better, draft by draft.

1. Draft 1 (25 words): “A radio host gets creepy calls from a stalker during her night show and has to figure out who he is before he finds her.” It could be any thriller.
2. Draft 2 (27 words): The caller requests the song her mother used to hum. Now there’s a hook, but the hero still has no trait.
3. Draft 3 (22 words): She becomes “a radio host who hides from daylight.” That trait is the irony. She hides from the world, and one listener finds her anyway.
4. Final (27 words): “A late-night radio host who hides from daylight takes a call from a stranger who knows her childhood song, her front door and where she’s going next.”

The final version ends on the threat, and it leaves the reader asking the right question: who is he?

12 Logline Examples From Film and TV

We wrote each of these loglines ourselves, using the formula above, so you can see how the parts fit together. They count down to the one we think is the most perfect logline ever written.

12) The Office (2001)

This is a series logline, so it sells a situation, not a plot. The engine is the gap between how David Brent sees himself and how everyone else sees him. That gap produced two series and a Christmas special. The mockumentary crew is in the logline because the format is the joke.

11) Free Solo (2018)

A documentary logline can’t hide the ending, since the climb made headlines before the film came out. So it sells the question instead. The second half is the smart part. The crew’s fear gives the film a second story about the people behind the camera. It won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.

10) Toy Story (1995)

The irony is built in. Woody wants Buzz gone, and now he has to save him. The logline gives you the rivalry, the goal and the ticking clock in one line. You can also picture it right away, which is Snyder’s compelling mental picture at work.

9) Legally Blonde (2001)

Harvard Law is the last place anyone expects Elle Woods. That contradiction sells the film before you’ve seen a frame. The goal in the logline, winning him back, is also the wrong goal. The film is about her finding a better one.

8) Back to the Future (1985)

Every part of the formula is here. The hero, the accident, the goal and stakes that could not be higher. The irony is that the biggest threat to his parents’ romance is Marty himself. It’s a sci-fi premise with the heart of a teen comedy, and the logline says both.

7) The Big Short (2015)

This one works because of its final turn. The heroes are right, and being right is a disaster. Adam McKay’s film, based on the Michael Lewis book, is a comedy about the worst financial crisis in 80 years. The logline carries that same uneasy mix.

6) Get Out (2017)

The logline holds back. It gives you the setup and the unease, and stops. That restraint is the point. Jordan Peele’s script, which won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, starts as a meet-the-parents story and turns into horror. A logline that gave away the twist would kill the film.

5) Die Hard (1988)

“Die Hard in a…” became a pitch line of its own, because this logline is so clean. One man, one building, one night. The estranged wife adds the emotional stakes. The film is based on Roderick Thorp’s novel Nothing Lasts Forever.

4) The Truman Show (1998)

The premise is so strong that the logline almost writes itself. Andrew Niccol’s script turns the idea into a choice. Truman’s goal isn’t just finding the truth. It’s leaving home. That second half gives the logline an emotional ending without spoiling the actual one.

3) Alien (1979)

Before this logline, there was a pitch. The film was sold as “Jaws in space”, according to Film London. The pitch line gives you the feel. The logline gives you the story. Notice the logline doesn’t name a hero. The film doesn’t pick one early either, and that’s part of the fear.

2) The Godfather (1972)

This logline sells a character arc, not a crime plot. The irony sits in the middle. Michael is the one son who stayed out, and he becomes the one who takes over. Mario Puzo’s novel gave the film its story. The logline gives it its tragedy.

1) Jaws (1975)

This is our pick for the most perfect logline. The hero’s weakness is exactly what the story needs from him. The mayor adds a human antagonist, so the conflict isn’t only man against shark. It’s short, visual and full of irony. It shows every part of the formula in under 30 words.

Common Logline Mistakes

For the next steps after your logline, see our guides to the film treatment and how to sell a movie. For the struggle at the heart of every logline, see conflict in film and the character arc. For the whole process from idea to script, see our screenwriting guide.

Once your logline works, turn it into a story plan with our Save the Cat beat sheet template.

Your logline is the first line of every script coverage report. Make it the one a reader would write.

Once your logline works, build the rest of the pitch around it with our free film pitch deck template, which includes a one sheet.

FAQs About Loglines

The Final Cut on Loglines

A logline is one sentence that sells your whole story. It names the hero, the problem, the goal, the obstacle and the stakes, and it leaves the ending out.

The best logline examples have irony at their core. A cop who hates the water. A toy who has to save his rival. A son who swore he’d never join the family business.

Write yours before you write the script. If you can’t say it in one sentence, the story might not be clear yet.