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3 reviews
Strengths Active protagonist Filmable incident Causality and coherence Action, not decision Concision No hedging
Needs work Well-defined POV Clear, difficult goal Specificity
I'd put the moment when the photographer discovers that the police officer -or whoever he/she is reporting to- is the murderer as a plot twist, not as a logline.
Strengths Active protagonist Filmable incident Stakes and urgency Specificity Causality and coherence
Needs work Clear, difficult goal Action, not decision Concision
The logline presents an interesting situation. And an interesting situation is a vital ingredient for a compelling logline, one that makes the logline reader want to read the script. Although it is a necessary ingredient in an effective logline--it is not sufficient.
An effective logline also requires a specific, clearly stated objective goal. This logline only goes as far as presenting a dramatic dilemma--an interesting one, to be sure. But what the logline lacks is a clearly defined objective goal. Given the discovery and consequent dilemma, what does the protagonist DO?
As explained under the menu topic "What the pros look for" at the top of screen, an effective logline should not merely posit a decision that will (later or sooner) have to be made, it should state what the decision is, what action, what objective goal the protagonist pursues to resolve the dramatic dilemma and plot problem.
One other concern:
The use of they/them instead of gender pronouns may be a politically correct thing for you, but it is not (yet) a universally accepted practice. For the purpose of a logline, it lacks clarity, specificity. Movie makers want to know up front the gender of the protagonist before they read a script. They don't want to have to guess. (Would you order off a menu that only said "meat and vegetables" not knowing specifically what kind of meat and what variety of vegetables you would be getting? Same principle.)
My takeaway is that a logline should be a concise and unambiguous statement of all the major plot ingredients.
very long, but cool.