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logline Logline for a steampunk thriller

An assassin embroiled in a plot against Queen Victoria is psychically attacked by a mysterious cult, flooding her mind with memories from a madman and inflaming her to pursue the cult’s destruction.

Thanks in advance for feedback.
 
"Inflaming" should be replaced with inciting.
"to pursue ... destruction" can be shortened to "to destroy the cult."
The line might still have to be rewritten, maybe broken into two sentences.
Inflaming was bothering me. Inciting works much better. I'm trying "destroy the cult" which is perfectly workable, but I hate losing "destruction" as that is a delicious sounding word.
 
So, the Queen has PTSD and wants to eradicate the cult for triggering it? I think the movie needs more.
 
You said she wants to "pursue the cult's destruction." I said eradicate. Same thing.

e·rad·i·cate
/əˈradəˌkāt/
verb
destroy completely; put an end to.
 
... is psychically attacked ...

FWIW, I mis-read that three times as physically attacked. :deadhorse:

Regardless of that particular word, I'm a bit confused by what's going on - someone is trying to assassinate Queen Victoria, but is then indoctrinated by a cult that wants to wipe themselves out ... Huh? :huh: And where does Victoria fit into this - sounds like she's irrelevant? Or is it Victoria who has her mind hacked by the cult, so the assassin is actually trying to save her by seeking to destroy the cult?
 
someone is trying to assassinate Queen Victoria, but is then indoctrinated by a cult that wants to wipe themselves out ... Huh? :huh: And where does Victoria fit into this

How did you get indoctrinated from that? Or that the cult wants to wipe themselves out? Victoria is there because in earlier versions where I explicitly started the logline with "London 1887" people were confused by it. I think time and place matters when it's very different from our own, so losing in "London 1887" I needed another way to communicate the setting.
 
"psychically attacked ... flooding her mind with memories of a madman" - in the context of a cult, that comes across as indoctrination.

Perhaps I missed the earlier version, but "London 1887" is far more specific in terms of time and place than "trying to assassinate Queen Victoria" which could be any time in the span of 63 years (and then only if you know which 63 years) and any one of a number of countries across five continents.

It's still not clear to me, though, how the destruction of the cult - as a direct result of a "psychic attack" carried out by the same cult - relates to the assassination of an English monarch. They sound like two different storylines.
 
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The assassin is embroiled, flooded, and enflamed--a mixing of metaphors that leaves them all, for me, a little inert.

Just something, maybe, to think about in the next pass.
 
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I've got an alternative pitch for this whole thing, instead of writing a full script every week, and then trying to figure out a logline for each one, why not cleverly circumvent a huge amount of that work by simply posting one test logline at a time, gauging response under pretense of designing the logline for a finished script, and then only write the scripts corresponding to the loglines that seemed to get a positive reaction.

That way you don't have to actually write several hundred pages a month, like you've been doing, you only need to write and discuss loglines.

For this logline, I think I would have gone with something a bit more terse and clear-

An assassin that was planning to kill the queen of England decided to kill some cult members instead.

Personally I feel like your logline was missing the core factors that attract steampunk fans. There is no mention of of excessively tall black top hats with long feathers and superfluous monocles tucked into the band. At what point does the hero discover a futuristic steam powered laboratory with a gold plated telescope that is used to spy on a hot air balloon covered with clock gears? Does the assassin have a monocle, cane, double breasted coat with numerous rows of brass buttons like the Beatles wore on the cover of Sgt. Pepper? There is also no mention of an extremely significant old book on an expensive stained wood pedestal inside a maximalist library owned by an eccentric but energetic professor. I just think your tagline needs to promise more of the standard steampunk fare to capture this highly selective demographic.
 
I've got an alternative pitch for this whole thing, instead of writing a full script every week, and then trying to figure out a logline for each one, why not cleverly
I average about one script a month. I recently tried going logline first and it didn't work for me as I don't come up with stories that way.

That whole fashionista steampunk irks me. When I think of steampunk the first things that come to mind is the novels, The Difference Engine, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
 
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I average about one script a month. I recently tried going logline first and it didn't work for me as I don't come up with stories that way.

That whole fashionista steampunk irks me. When I think of steampunk the first things that come to mind is the novels, The Difference Engine, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
lol, I'm just amusing myself, no need to take it too seriously. I'm actually a big fan Verne's aesthetic. It's an archetype of fiction for a reason.
 
This is from AI... 😂

"When she is psychically attacked, queen victoria must steampunk in order to wipe out the cult."

mary poppins GIF
 
if the problem with the logline persists,
it could mean there is a problem with plot structure

maybe there is one element too many.
the main character is opposed to the queen and to the cult....?
 
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