While cleaning out his attic, Michael Street stumbles across a journal left by his dying dad years earlier. As far back as Michael can remember his dad was tormented by bad dreams. Michael will soon discover that those bad dreams are not that far behind.

Just a quick shout out to all those pushing the green plus button..working hard at it.

When a son's distant psychotic father is placed in hospice care, two tragic deaths within the family spurs a renewed connection when he realizes his father's old paintings are precognitive visions of his murder and try's to save himself.

When an ill father's paintings become precognitive visions of murder, a son must use whats left of his mind to prevent being killed and save his family.

After a son's long lost mentally ill father (famous painter) is placed in hospice care, both his children tragically drown which spurs a renewed connection between them in which he realizes his father's paintings are precognitive visions of his murder and must use whats left of his fathers mind to prevent being killed and enact revenge for his children.

Hi don, you can use 9/11 as the reason why the father descended into madness. He could see what was coming, but could not convince anybody before. The vision of all those people dying caused him to finally break down. Everybody assume that it was due to one of his son dying during the attack, when it was the other way around.
When a meek architect discovers that his committed father has the ability to paint future, he must race to stop and elucidate the next murder depicted in the painting: him killing his wife and children.

Hi Don Curbow --

Whilst I find elements to this intriguing, overall I am left pretty clueless as to what actually happens in this story.. 'distant psychotic father...' ?? -- does this mean his father is psychotic, but lives on the other side of the world, or is just emotionally distant (due to him being psychotic?)... 'spurs a renewed connection...' -- a connection to who? His father?.. and why is it renewed? Were they estranged?...
"...visions of his murder" -- who's murder? The protag or his father??

In all, there's just too many questions that go begging at the moment.

There are many rules that go along with creating a logline; some are there for good reason, some are worth breaking -- but for mine, the most important rule, one than cannot afford to be broken is: it has to make sense...

Below is just my spin, taking obvious liberties etc...:

'A disgraced ex-cop seeks redemption over his children's deaths after discovering his father's paintings are precognitive depictions of unsolved murders, including the murder of his children by his estranged wife.'

When a son's distant psychotic father is placed in hospice care, two tragic deaths within the family spurs a renewed connection when he realizes his father's old paintings are precognitive visions of his murder.

DPG is right - the guy's profession doesn't matter for the logline. It would only matter if it made a difference in the outline of the plot, and it doesn't.

I think the second one you have there is stronger. Drowning deaths of children are horribly tragic, so from a dramatic standpoint, it's very powerful. Keep that, and the precognitive dreams.

Now by 'wife' - is this an ex, an estranged wife, or what? Are they together at the time?

If you write the logline right, you can imply getting revenge on his wife, saving himself and delivering justice to his kid without having to lay it out like that.

You're on the right track with that last one but it's still way too long and could be made a lot simpler. Delete drowning too - all that's probably needed is that the deaths were unexplained.

Logline

When an engineer's distant father is placed in hospice care, two tragic deaths within the family spurs a renewed connection when he realizes his psychotic father's old paintings are precognitive visions of his murder and try's to save himself.

Plot

An architectural engineer try's to comprehend the unexplained drowning deaths of his children by finding paintings his father secretly held which hold precognitive dreams about his own future which he then unravels to solve the betrayal of his wife and co-workers murderous love triangle in a non-stop thriller to prevent his own death, enact revenge against his wife, and deliver justice for his children.