Your Business Logline

Today, I have been listening to the audiobook Save the Cat by Blake Snyder. This is a screenwriting book focused on selling your film script, and I was keen to read it to see how it can help with some films I am producing this year.

But I was very impressed by his take on loglines and realised that there is a lot there that translates directly into business.

Before I get into the lessons learned, I need to quickly explain what a logline is for those who are not conversant with filmmaking.

The Log Line

A logline is a short one or two-sentence statement that explains what your film is about. It is possibly the hardest thing to write. Taking a big idea and distilling it into a meaningful, engaging sentence that fires your imagination and rouses your curiosity is extremely difficult.

But your logline is what sells your pitch. Without a good logline, you probably won’t even be invited to pitch. Your logline is used to sell your talent and crew on the project, and at the end of the day, after the movie is made, your logline sells the audience into buying a ticket to see it.

To give you a few examples of loglines from films:

1. Forrest Gump: Several historical events from the 20th Century unfold from the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75, whose only real desire is to reunite with his childhood sweetheart.

2. The Godfather: The ageing patriarch of an organised crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.

3. Titanic: A seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.

4. Legally Blonde: A fashionable sorority queen is dumped by her boyfriend and so decides to follow him to law school, where she figures out that there is more to her than just looks.

5. Back to the Future: A young man is transported to the past, where he must reunite with his parents before he and his future cease to exist.

6. The Matrix: A computer hacker is led by a stranger to a forbidding underworld, where he discovers the shocking truth – the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber intelligence.

What is it?

Ultimately, the question that the log line answers first is, “What is it?”

Answering that question in an effective way allows everything else to build on it. It is the same with your business or project. If you can create a logline for what you are trying to achieve, it will help you to build momentum.

The key to a good logline is that it says what it is in a way that leaves people wanting more or imagining more from what you have just told them. It makes a promise but leaves room for interpretation and imagination.

The opposite of having a good logline is that when someone is trying to explain what you are doing, they start to explain what it is not. As soon as people explain what you don’t do, you have lost them.

Another common shortcut, in both movies and in business, is to say what it is like. E.g. It’s like Point Break, but for street racers = it’s The Fast and the Furious. This is easy to do and can feel useful, but I would suggest you avoid this.

Because when you are talking about what it is like, then people are immediately transferring an experience they had over to your business. And you have no control over that. Also, if it is like x, then why shouldn’t they just go with x?

Using what it is like is an easy shortcut that offers poor results. I urge you to put in the work, push past easy, and get to effective.

The Who

A logline also has to answer who it is about.

• A jaded cop,

• an underestimated pretty girl,

• a fiercely protective mother, etc.

The use of adjectives is important because it tells us something about the person and allows our imagination to go to work. If those bullets just had a cop, girl, and mother, they would not be compelling.

For your business, you must explain who it is for. Use adjectives that your ideal client can recognise themselves in.

• Ambitious entrepreneurs who want to change the world,

• Older experienced executives transitioning to entrepreneurship,

• Harried business owners looking to simplify and execute.

You know your audience, so try a few different options. Even if your audience is varied, there will be certain characteristics that they have in common that you can speak to. It might be that they are creative, or they value time above other things. Find that common denominator, and it will impact how you speak about your business.

Your Logline is a Tool

Writing a logline for your business is hard. But I think it is worth it. With a powerful logline, you have a seed that can be used for any copywriting, any talk and any collateral that you create. Your logline is the distillation of what you are about and what you are doing, which allows you to expand it and keep on track.

Your logline is a tool that can be used in many ways with many of the people who will interact with your business, whether it is used in prospecting, to attract talent to work with you, to entice collaboration or to use in networking situations.

I am interested in exploring this further. Let me know if it is something that you would like to see more about.

Snippets is a section where I take some interesting text I have come across in the previous week and comment on it.

Clarity beats Clever every time!

This last week there was a great post by Miriam Chancellor, an excellent speaker coach worth following, who explained that:

“Being clever never beats being clear”.

She goes on to note that all of us have a tendency to change the way we speak in certain circumstances, as if we need to use bigger words to meet the occasion. But often, all this does is get in the way of our message being misunderstood.

This is important to remember.

I have a tendency to use a wider vocabulary when I am communicating. I have been an avid reader for most of my life, and I seem to pick up words fairly easily and remember them. But this is something I am aware of and try to avoid, particularly when speaking to groups.

Equally, some of the phrases we use in our own country or community may not translate well when we are talking to others outside of that group.

I also added a thought to the discussion on Miriam’s post about how the simplicity of your message makes it repeatable.

Virality comes from Clarity. When people can repeat what you say, then there is far more chance it will become viral. If they struggle to repeat your point, then you are limited to your own personal reach.

Unpacking Wisdom is a weekly section where I dive into a famous (or not so famous) quote and explore how this can apply to the Compelling Communicator.

We easily get frustrated or even resentful when others cannot see our vision for something.

It is tempting to rail against their inability to ‘get it’ rather than to work on our ability to communicate that vision better or bring it to life so that it is evident.

Often, those initial rejections force us to rethink, rewrite or rework our project, leading to a stronger offering than we had initially. Far worse than a ”no” or an “I don’t get it” is a polite non-committal “sounds good”. Because that can often trick us into believing we are on the right track. I encourage you to find people who will be honest with you when it is not quite right. When it simply doesn’t make sense to them.

That is the feedback you need. And it is often surprisingly hard to get. -Particularly if you are looking for positive feedback.

This past weekend, I decided I would re-brand this newsletter to align better with the overall online brand that I have been working on. I shared what I had with my friend Sam this morning. He immediately pointed out the things that he didn’t like. Things that weren’t quite right.

To be honest, these were things I didn’t really like, but I had done the best I could in the time I had. Sam kept me honest. ‘Good enough’ is not always the answer. Holding to a higher standard can make a big difference.

So, when you get a rejection or a critical comment on a project you are working on, I encourage you to get curious rather than defensive. Ask why it doesn’t work for them.

This does two things. It shows you how you can improve your work. But just as importantly, you are communicating to someone that you value their honest feedback. And they can then become a valuable resource for you in future. Whereas if you had argued with them, they would be reluctant to tell you what they think next time it comes up.

What I am up to this week…

Professionally:

Is anyone else struggling to get into the work frame of mind early in the year?
I have some contract work to complete which is challenging, and I have been doing some branding and planning work for my own business.

Recreationally:

I have been doing very little and have been a bit of a hermit, to be honest. I am currently working on a national filmmaking competition, which I hope to announce soon.

What I am reading:

Save the Cat by Blake Snyder.
And in the hot evenings when I have trouble sleeping I have continued to work through my collection of John Milton novels by Mark Dawson.

What I am watching:

Currently watching the second season of The Righteous Gemstones