Pitching: The Art of the Log-line

When describing a story idea, whether it be pertaining to narrative or world, it soon becomes necessary  to be able to summarise and condense the idea into what is often a single sentence: the log-line.

Slightly differing methods exists in the creation of these pieces of writing, but one that  appears particularly succinct is the way outlined in  Kathy Fong Yoneda’s publication on script development and selling.

In her chapter on  pitching, she proposes a linear building approach by which a simple and short sentence has detail added  sequentially until an effective and mature log-line is produced.

For example, such  a concept is applied by Yoneda to the film Finding Nemo:

Young fish is captured  — establishes character and catalysing  event

A father fish witnesses the capture of the young son –  introduces another character and its relation to the first.

When his young son is fishnapped a father clownfish sets out to rescue him – adds tone

After considering this  concept, it behoved us to begin thinking about this technique, not in respect to narrative (as was done in the above example) but int terms of world.

In the light of this, my fellow table members and I, came up with this log-line for a fictional world employing the same sequential additive method:

A dormant volcano begins to erupt.

An erupting volcano causes chaos to ensue in a small sleepy town.

When the eruption intensifies, darkness blankets the land, disrupting agriculture and ruining the lives of the town inhabitants.

When the eruption is at its peak, the ash from the blast obscures the sun destroying the rice crop of a family living in an alpine Nepalese village rendering theirs and their fellow towns people’s livelihoods destroyed.