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Your Challenge Part One: The Pitch Create a sales pitch for an imaginary film consisting of: a logline (a one or two sentence summary of your film’s narrative) brief reference to the film's genre, stars, narrative and audience.

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Your Challenge

Part One: The PitchCreate a sales pitch for an imaginary film consisting of:

• a logline (a one or two sentence summary of your film’s narrative)

• brief reference to the film's genre, stars, narrative and audience.

Slide One

On this slide you should include the name of your film, its genre and a tagline.

Taglines (often called slogans) are catchy, enticing short phrases used by marketers and film studios to advertise and sell a movie (create "buzz"), and to sum up the plot, tone or themes of a film.

What is the difference between a logline and a tagline?

• A “logline” is a movie’s concept boiled down to one or two sentences:

• On his deathbed, a father tells the story of his life the way he remembers it: full of wild, impossible exaggerations. His grown son tries to separate the truth from the fantasy before it’s too late. [Big Fish, 2005]

• A “tagline” is a short, clever one-off slogan found on a movie’s poster:

• An adventure as big as life itself.

• A logline can be thought of as the shortest possible pitch of a movie — what a writer could use to sell an idea to a buyer in just a sentence or two. Taglines are used by marketing departments to sell movies to audiences.

Tagline

• 10 Things I Hate About You: How do I loathe theee? Let me count the ways.

• Alien: In space no one can hear you scream

• Braveheart: Every man dies. Not every man really lives.

• Catch Me If You Can: The true story of a real fake

• Final Destination: Death doesn’t take no for an answer

Slide Two : Logline

• This slide will only contain your logline.

Remember, a good logline usually covers three bases and it should be clear from your logline what genre your film is:

1. It gives us the main character,

2. the main character’s goal,

3. and the central conflict in the story (what’s preventing them from getting that goal).

What makes a great logline?

A good logline usually covers three bases.

1. It gives us the main character, 2. the main character’s goal, 3. and the central conflict in the story (what’s preventing

them from getting that goal).

The logline for Black Swan might be:

“A sheltered ballerina must train for the most important role of her career while fighting off fierce competition from her talented and dangerous understudy.”

We have the main character (the ballerina), the goal (training for her role) and the central conflict (the other ballerina trying to steal the role from her). Bonus points if you can give or allude to the hero’s defining characteristic. This is usually done with an adjective. “A sheltered ballerina must train…” gives us a lot more information than “A ballerina must train.” And there it is. That’s your logline template.

On the eve of World War 2, an adventurous archeology professor tries to find the mythical Ark Of The Covenant before the Germans, who plan on using the powerful relic to take over the world. (Raiders Of The Lost Ark)

In a future where criminals are arrested before the crime occurs, a drug addicted cop struggles on the lam to prove his innocence for a murder he has not yet committed. (Minority Report)

After a thirteen year old outcast accidentally destroys a mixtape belonging to her deceased parents, she struggles through an impossible journey to re-find each rare track in hopes of finally connecting with the parents she never knew. (Mixtape)

A precocious and selfish high school playwright whose life revolves around his unique private school, finds himself in a dangerous competition with its most famous and successful alumnus for the affection of a first grade teacher. (Rushmore)

A reclusive sociopath must fight his way across the wasteland of a dangerous postapocalyptic America to protect a sacred and mysterious book that holds the key to saving the future of humanity. (The Book Of Eli)

Examples of Effective Loglines

Slide Three: Narrative

• An overview of the full story of the film – the beginning, middle and end of the film’s narrative including key plot points.

• (Make sure your full narrative includes key features of your chosen genre)

• This should be written as a clear paragraph, not as bullet points.

Slide Four: Key Characters

• An overview of the main character and any significant characters.

• Who are they? What is their motivation? What type of film stars would you choose to play the character and why would they be appropriate?

Slide Five: Costume and Make-Up

• On this slide you should include any information on key items of costume and make-up that will be important to your narrative and to establishing who your characters are.

Slide Six: Target Audience

• Use the BBFC website to identify which certification your film should be given: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/guidelines

• On this slide you should clearly explain the aspects of your film that have contributed to the classification you decided on.

Slide Seven: Similar Films

• This information in a pitch helps film producers to get an idea of the kind of films and, more importantly, show that there is an established audience for this sort of film

• Write about two films you know that are from the same genre as your film and have inspired your film idea.