Writing a screenplay takes a lot of time, energy, caffeine and self-flagellation. Before you start writing, you need to know if your story idea is going to work with an audience. That means you need to pitch it and get feedback. While someday we hope to have a producer's undivided attention hanging on every word we say, we need to find an audience for our pitches now before we waste a lot of self-flagellation on a script that nobody wants to read. Friends are good for listening to pitches (they watch movies, right?), but fellow writers are even better if you can find them. Say hello to Logline It! - the world's only site dedicated to loglines for film (according to their motto). Here are the details on how it works:
After registering on Logline It!, writers can post their loglines. For the uninitiated, a logline is a one-sentence pitch for your story idea (Logline It! has a nice summary of the key elements of a logline). The site asks that each user review at least two loglines for every logline he or she posts. Since everybody has time to read one sentence, reading and commenting on two loglines is an incredibly low price to pay to get feedback on your own logline.
Once you have received multiple comments on your logline, you pick the most helpful comment, awarding that user brownie points. That makes the user feel super awesome for the day, and hence more likely to comment on future loglines.
Each week, the Judges comment on selected loglines. The Judges are a panel of filmmakers and screenwriters connected with The Story Department, a blog dedicated to the craft of screenwriting written by Karel Segers, who also runs Logline It!
Got a logline you need to test? Want to see how others pitch their stories? Check out Logline It! And don't forget to share with the NFS community how you approach loglines and pitches in the Comments section.
Link: Logline It!
[via The Story Department]
