log line

A log line is a brief summary of a television program or movie, often providing both a synopsis of the program's plot, and an emotional "hook" to stimulate interest.

Uses

There are two principal uses for log lines:

• In printed form, such as a television listing, a log line serves to inform the reader -- a potential television viewer -- of the content of the program.

• Television listings are found in printed publications such as local newspapers, magazines such as TV Guide, electronic form on websites, and onscreen programming guides such as those provided by satellite TV and DVR services.

• These listings can be editorial in nature -- representing some degree of journalism -- or they can tend more toward advertising, or some combination (see advertorial). If a log line is written by the publication, it may be relatively objective; if the log line is furnished by the production company, it effectively serves as an advertising tagline to increase viewership of the program being described.

• In Hollywood jargon, a "log line" is a one-sentence summary of the pitch for a proposed movie or television series. Such a sales pitch is often used by a screenwriter to secure development support from a studio executive, such as a producer.

History

The log line first came into use and was recognized as a separate form during the old studio days of Hollywood. The studios had script vaults in which they stored screenplays. Readers wrote a concise one line summary of what the script was about either on the cover of the script, on the spine of the script, or both. The log line on the spine of the script allowed people to read the log lines of scripts that were stacked without having to unstack them.

The log line allowed studio executives, producers, directors, and actors to scan a great many scripts quickly while searching for a project that they were interested in that met their needs, whether love story, horror film, action film, comedy or drama.

Examples of log lines

An actual example

Charlie Brown is finally invited to a Halloween party; Snoopy engages the Red Baron in a dogfight; and Linus waits patiently in the pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin.

-- Log Line for It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, as retrieved from titantv.com on 2005-10-25.

A humorous example

The following "log line" has been widely circulated on the internet:

"Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first woman she meets, then teams up with three complete strangers to do it again."

-- Log Line for The Wizard of Oz, attributed to Richard Polito of the Marin Independent Journal, who writes humorously sarcastic briefs for the paper's daily TV listings.

See also

• Random Log Line Generator
• Star Trek Random Plot Generator