When a lab accident makes him lose his sense of touch, a morally ambiguous top scientist must create a serum before he loses his other senses.
Hutchy13Penpusher
When a lab accident makes him lose his sense of touch, a morally ambiguous top scientist must create a serum before he loses his other senses.
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When a character loses the ability to do something in the inciting incident, usually it’s only because of this loss that they’re able to succeed later. Effectively, their weakness becomes their strength at the beginning of the final act.
I didn’t see the stakes in the same way BLIO did. His condition is not life threatening, and nothing in the logline suggests his life is in danger, so his survival is not at stake. Only his senses. Admittedly, losing your senses… what kind of life would that be?
My biggest issue with this logline is I can’t see anything interesting in Act II other than the scientist sitting in a lab working on a serum to save himself. That’s not interesting for an audience. Visually, it’s pretty flat. That’s not to say that other things won’t be happening but all I have to base it on is what’s in this logline.
You describe the character as “morally ambiguous”. The protagonist’s flaw usually suggests their arc through the story but I think, if we’re talking about morality (which I’m guessing is a potential theme) then we need some sort of interaction with the wider world to understand morality in the world of the movie. He is only morally ambiguous when compared to the highly moral, or the highly immoral. Since his story (as I can glean from this logline) is just him in a lab working on a serum to save himself, I’m not sure how his morality comes into play. Morality is a social construct, so there must be a social element.
With all of this in mind, why not introduce a second person. Someone moral (or immoral), who, through our protagonist’s morally ambiguous activities, should never have been there in the first place and they are the one who loses their senses. Now, being morally ambiguous has negative connotations and saving someone is moral, but also have it so the method with which he has to save the other can only be a highly moral one. I’m just throwing stuff out there, but I feel like this protagonist desperately needs to socialise for this to work.
I think the loss of senses is interesting. Is there a reason why you chose touch to be the first to go?
Hope some of this helps in some way.
Agree with savinh0 and Mike Pedley.
And suggest the logline should include a ticking clock to amp up the urgency. Like he has only 24 hours to develop a remedy before he loses all his senses and dies.
A very creative, interesting logline.
I can see the directions in which this story can go and potential challenges he might face along the way; raising questions of how will he try to survive? Will he survive? What will he learn? which is a good sign as it incites imagination, seems cohesive in the journey the character must go on, and generates interest as it gets you to question what will happen to the protagonist.
Now you’ve got me hooked!
Agree with Mike.
Working on a serum inside the lab all day is not going to be really interesting for an audience.
You have to expand your story beyond that.