As we gear up for the final weekend of horror pitches (starting tomorrow!), I wanted to broach the most common question I’ve been asked during this submission process. And that question is, “Should I reveal my big twist in the logline?”
In order to answer this question, a question I’ve been asked so many times over the years I’ve lost count, you have to understand what the purpose of a logline is. Because I don’t think enough writers know. I think they believe that a logline is like a trailer or a poster. You would never reveal your movie’s big twist in the trailer or the poster, so why would you reveal it in the logline?
The answer is that a logline has a different objective, and that objective is to place a movie idea in front of someone who has the power to make a movie so they can make a quick decision on whether that’s a movie they would want to make. If it sounds like something they’d want to make, they’ll request the script. They’ll then read the script and make a final decision on whether to make the movie or not.
Even if you’re not sending a logline to someone who’s directly responsible for greenlighting a movie, you are still sending it to someone who will be thinking in those terms. So, if you’re sending it to an agent, he will be looking at the logline through the producer’s point of view.
What does this mean in terms of what you should include in your logline? Well, what it means is that industry people are not reading scripts to enjoy them. Yes, everybody loves to read a good script. But they’re not reading scripts for the same reasons that moviegoers go see movies. To them, they’re reading the script for business reasons. They’re reading the script in hopes of finding something that can make them money so they can keep their jobs.
This is why, when you’re writing a logline, you want to include as much relevant information as you can.
Another relevant piece to this puzzle is that you’re competing against a ton of other loglines. This is something I think too many writers forget. They’re so wrapped up in all the time and energy they’ve put into their script that they think just conveying that they’ve written the screenplay should be enough for people to be interested.
But the reality is, since you’re competing with so many other loglines, it is essential that your logline stand out. Which brings us back to the original question. “Should I reveal my big twist in the logline?” Well, knowing what you know now, what do you think?
Chances are that if you have a big twist in your script, it’s the biggest selling point of the script. Therefore, if you don’t include it, you are not including the thing that has the best chance at making your logline stand out from the competition. “But Carson,” you say, “Then, when they read the script, it won’t be as enjoyable because they’ll already know the twist.”
Again, the job of a logline and a screenplay is not to entertain the person as much as it is to get them to make the movie. And smart producers can identify a great twist even if they hear about it ahead of time.
Of course, we can have the discussion about how powerfully a twist will hit someone in the moment as opposed to ahead of time. But here’s the problem. If your twist is the main selling point of your script and you don’t mention it in the logline, the producer won’t request the script. So they never get to the point where they can experience the twist while reading the screenplay.
Now, just like any discussion about art, there is nuance. So, let’s get into the nuanced part of this conversation. We’ll start with what I call the “climax holy shit twist.” Think The Sixth Sense. Primal Fear. The Others. Saw. And The Usual Suspects. For scripts like this, you don’t want to include the twist in your logline. This is because the twist happens so late in the story and is so big, that you are literally destroying the reading experience by revealing it. So, if you have a twist like this, don’t include it in your logline.
But, what if you’ve written a script like The Matrix? That has a giant twist in it as well. Except that giant twist comes at the end of the first act, when we discover that Neo has been living in a fake constructed reality. In that case, you will DEFINITELY include the twist in the logline.
In fact, here’s a rule you can bank on 99% of the time. If you have a big twist that happens up to and including the midpoint of your script, you should include it in your logline. So, yes, that means that, if you’ve written From Dusk Till Dawn, where there’s a major twist at the midpoint, you would include that in your logline.
Some of you may call that blasphemous. “No! That must be preserved for the reading experience!” (Spoilers). Well let me ask you this. What does the logline look like without the big twist of the vampires? It’s just a bunch of random crazy shit happening. You could spend weeks obsessively trying to craft the perfect logline for that, but it’s not going to have anywhere close to the same request rate as the version of the logline that includes the twist of vampires.
Are there exceptions to this?
Yes, there is, actually.
The HUGE concept.
If you have a concept that is gigantic, it can override the need to expose the twist. And this goes back to my original explanation. A logline is meant to convey to a producer whether that movie could make money for them. Therefore, if you have a really giant idea, a la Jurassic Park, that’s enough to convince the producer that they can make a movie out of this. So the objective of the logline has been fulfilled.
But before you go off and start coming up with huge concepts with big twists so you can write loglines that don’t have to include those twists, it’s important to keep in mind that this combination is pretty rare. Mainly because if you have a giant concept, you don’t need a big twist. So that will be a very unique situation.
Let’s say, in spite of all of this, you’re still on the fence. You think that your script is different. You’re worried that if you reveal the twist in the logline that it will destroy the reading experience. I have good news for you. It won’t. In fact, it sometimes makes your script better.
Knowing what’s coming creates a fourth-wall breaking form of dramatic irony, which is when we, the reader, know more than the characters. In that sense, it can be exciting to know what our characters are in for!
If you have any doubt about this, look no further than how many times you’ve watched your favorite movie. Why do you keep watching it even though you know exactly what’s going to happen? It is this form of dramatic irony that still makes the movie entertaining. I know that Marty McFly is going to end up in his mother’s room, who’s going to fall for him, and he’s going to freak the hell out and look for any way to escape, and I can’t wait for the characters to catch up to me.
Finally – and this is something I hope you’ve learned over the last three pitch weekends – the more vague your logline is, the less effective it is. Every time a writer has tried to hide the cool things from their logline, that logline has failed. So, in almost every situation, if you’re debating whether to include the cool part in your logline, you should definitely choose to put it in your logline. It actually shocks me that writers would choose the opposite. A logline’s job is to sell the script. Obviously, then, you want to put your best, most detailed, most comprehensive logline forward!
Hopefully, this has charged a few of you up. If you have a logline that you think is on the “twist” fence and want professional advice, I can give you a logline consultation. They’re 25 bucks. E-mail me at carsonreeves1@gmail.com if you’re interested.
And speaking of twists, everyone should go watch “Unknown Number: The High School Catfish” on Netflix. It’s got a whopper of a twist (what I would call a “holy shit twist”). Don’t look anything up online. Lots of spoilers out there. Just go watch it.
