Pretty Woman
dpgSingularity
After a street-wise prostitute agrees to provide a cold-hearted businessman with a week of ‘professional’ companionship, she must struggle to prevent their business relationship from turning into love.
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I’m not satisfied with the logline I posted. ?I could have just as well posted a version with the business man as the protagonist, like:
A cold-hearted businessman falls in love with a street-wise prostitute after hiring her for a week of ‘professional’ companionship.
(19 words)
It doesn’t exactly conform to the standard logline paradigm, but it gets the job done. ?Emotional complications ensue as a result of his original objective goal which?was a business arrangement; he?hires her for a week as his escort. An business affair turns into an affair of the heart.
Or I could write a logline with co-protagonists:
A strictly business deal between a street-wise prostitute and a cold-hearted businessman for a week of ‘professional’ companionship goes awry when their business relationship turns into love.
(27 words)
Their initial objective goal was to have strictly business arrangement; ?he pays her for a week of companionship (with all the benefits). ?Emotional complications ensue that threaten the objective goal.
While the reason the businessman is in town and employs her services– to close a big business deal– could be construed as the “A” story, the relationship between the businessman and the prostitute is the heart and soul of the story. ?It’s the story hook that got the movie made.
And movie viewers didn’t shell out nearly ?half a billion U.S. dollars world-wide to watch him struggle to close the business deal. ?Who cared if he succeeded or failed?
What everyone cared about was the outcome of the original objective goal in terms of their relationship. ?And everyone was rooting for them to “fail” totally, completely. ?And live happily ever after.
On the surface Pretty Woman is a simple boy meets girl story – an age old crowd favourite. However, I would argue that it is a complex multi?protagonist story?each with their own A plot and B plot.
Julia’s A plot goal was getting the money she earned as a result of her deal with Richard. Where as her B plot was getting the love interest that Richard became after the mid point of act 2, and the C plot was paying the rent with her party animal flat mate.
Richard’s A plot was to seal the big deal he was working on, whereas his B plot was getting Julia as part of the love story.
As both of their B plot’s shard the same goal, it provided a sort of compound effect, which in turn made it more prominent for most viewers.
Point is I think your instinct to write a logline for both of the characters is right. In multi protagonist stories the writer can and should write a logline for each protagonist.
I believe the love story is used to?comment?on class segregation, both characters tackle the differences between the classes from different points of view.
She stands out in the rich and snooty crowd like a sore thumb, and Richard needs to either accept her as she is or lose her:
After a cold-hearted businessman falls in love with a street-wise prostitute he must learn to accept her into his life warts and all or risk losing her forever.
For Julia the challenge is to fit in the new environment, yet still remain true to herself:
After a street-wise prostitute falls in love with a rich business man she must learn to shed her inferiority complex around his friends or risk losing him forever.
Nir Shelter,
Thanks for your input. ?I have a different pov, frankly a love-hate relationship with the movie.
On the one hand, I hate the movie because it is a sexist portrayal that perpetuates the fantasy near and dear to men’s hearts (and other organs) of the whore with the heart of gold. ?I know better having worked for the LAPD.
?In Hollywood.
Periodically the department does vice sweeps, vacuuming up prostitutes and johns. ?In the summer time, as many as a 100 a night. ?And not one of the women was anywhere near as classy, good looking and socially adept and psychologically sensible as the Julia Roberts character. Not one of the 100’s that I saw.??Street prostitutes are wretched women, damaged goods, the dregs of the sex trade.
On the other hand, I love the movie because it’s a cleverly crafted story. Especially given the fact that the original script was a grim drama, not a romance, with a downer ending: the prostitute is an addict who doesn’t win the businessman’s heart, overdoses and dies at the end.
But when Buena Vista — aka: Disney — picked up the option, they waved their magic wand and turned the pumpkin into a beautiful carriage, rats?into horses ?– they transformed it into a Cinderella story.?
Anyway, this is my Exhibit “A” for a logline where it seems the relationship should get the spotlight, not whatever else either character is striving for. ?Where, in practical terms of promoting the script, ?the “B” story subs for the “A” story. ?The hook is ?their relationship, not their objective goals.
“A businessman falls in love with a prostitute whom he has hired for a week to be his escort” — that’s the elevator pitch.
Despite my “feminist fury” I know I’m howling in the wind. ?The fantasy of the prostitute with the heart of gold seems to be primal in the male psyche, perhaps archetypal. ?As long as it sells tickets, ?the fantasy will continue to be perpetuated in cinema.
As an exercise?in dissecting the hook of the story, I agree it’s the question; will they end up together? That grabbed the audiences.
So perhaps you’re right, and the logline should be structured around their relationship as appose to the theme or other goals.
As for its “real world” authenticity, it may have rubbed you the wrong way due to your own life experiences much in the same way as I react to many military or martial arts films.
Alas, sometimes we need?a zen like approach to be able to disengage the?critical part of our minds if we want to enjoy watching a film for the first time.
Your original logline did need some work.I haven’t seen the film so this might add a fresh perspective as I don’t understand why she?must prevent falling in love or why it would make things go awry? It seems like a great bonus!
Moses99:
My logline is based on the specifically stated objective goals? and expectations of the characters at the end of the Act 1. (About 36 minutes into the film)
Edward: Vivian, I have a business proposition for you… I’m going to be in ?town until Sunday, I’d like you to spend the week with me.
Vivian: ?Me?
Edward: Yes, I’d like to hire you as an employee… I will pay you to be at my beck and call.
Vivian: ?I’d love to be your beck and call girl, but you’re a rich and good looking guy. ?You could get a million girls free.
Edward: I want a professional. ?I don’t need any romantic hassles this week. [Emphasis mine]
This comes after : 1]The movie opening with Edward having a romantic hassle: ?he breaks up with his current live-in girl over the phone. 2] ?A chat with a woman at the party who married some one else because she got tired of waiting for him. 3] And later, he ?tells Vivian [and the audience] that his wife divorced him.
The movie has clearly established that Edward is a failure at personal relationships with women because business, making money, ?always comes first. So its credible that he has no romantic intentions when he makes the business proposition to Vivian.
Which is reinforced a couple of minutes later after they’ve negotiated the money. ?Clearly there’s chemistry between them. ?He has to like her enough to want to employ her services for a week.
Vivian: ?Baby I’m going to treat you so nice you’re never gonna want to let me go.
Edward: Three thousand (dollars) for six days. And, Vivian, I will let you go.
This is a story about a character who has the wrong objective goal. Edward needs to fail and the audience hopes he does.
And Vivian’s exclamation that she’s going to treat him so well he won’t let her go is more wishful thinking than a realistic ?expectation.
And, of course, at the end of the movie, he does not want to let her go. ?He wants to keep her — and the terms of their relationship. ?But she won’t accept those terms, that kind of relationship any more. ?That’s her character arc. ?As Nir Shelter observed, she’s grown enough in self-respect to give up being a prostitute.
Vivian: I want more… I want the fairy tale.
And by this point in the story the audience wants the fairy tale ending, too. Which is a testament to how well the story was crafted.
The theme of the movie is about going for the dream instead of settling for the harsh reality. ?It’s set in Hollywood, the town where cinema dreams are manufactured. ?Lest anyone miss the symbolism, the opening of the movie ?includes a vagrant walking along Hollywood Boulevard saying: ?”Welcome to Hollywood. ?Everybody who comes to Hollywood has a dream. ?What’s your dream? What’s your dream?”
Which he repeats at the end of the movie: ?”Welcome to Hollywood. ?What’s your dream? ?Everybody comes here. ?This is Hollywood, the land of dreams.”
What dreams are we trying to fulfill in our scripts? ?What’s the dream hook in our loglines? ?What dreams do our loglines appeal to that would induce producers to make the film and audiences want to view it?
Hey guys, interesting discussions. Thank you! Here’s a different take:
When a cold-hearted businessman transforms a street-wise prostitute into a classy lady, both must confront whether they can stay together and live the romantic fairy tale.
(26 words)
When a corporate raider rents a whore for a week, they must fight their growing feelings for each other