What’s your logline?

What’s your logline?

Logline: A brief (usually one-sentence) summary of a story that states the central conflict of the story, often providing both a synopsis of the story’s plot, and an emotional “hook” to stimulate interest.

This weekend I sat in on a Festival Strategies and Creative/Business Development Master Class with Kathleen McInnis. It’s something special she hosted for us as part of her Emerging Filmmaker’s Facebook group. We discussed the business aspect of branding our creative selves and our creative work to better fit how the industry and our audience could market us. 

It’s very similar to the work we’ve done on Pioneers in Skirts. When we first started making this film, there were so many assumptions of what the film was about, that we had to quickly hone in and fine tune our marketing to make sure people knew our goals with the film. Yes, people still assumed what they wanted to assume – but my gosh we tried. It also helps that my mom, the producer of Pioneers in Skirts, is a global activation marketer. I mean, no big deal. So she really spear-headed making sure we were on point with our materials – our logline, our synopsis, our tone in social media, our photos and articles shared – everything. This also means we had to have big conversations about the film to decide these things – another important part of the filmmaking process. You must make decisions on these elements. Yes, they will change and evolve. That’s okay. But you have to start somewhere.

Which brings me back to Kathleen’s class, which was a nice refresher that you MUST be this way in your life as well.

You have to watch how you market yourself – your logline – how do you tell people about yourself? are you assured? or are you floundering, wishy-washy? Your synopsis – what defines you as a filmmaker? what aspects of your life make you uniquely qualified? what makes up your voice? Finally, your tone in social media, photos & articles shared – are you keeping in tone with your goals and your voice? are you adding value? showing people what you can do?

These are a lot of questions to ask yourself, so I’ll share with you some of my conclusions as you ponder your own. 

In the class, I workshopped our logline for Pioneers in Skirts: As ambitious women are forced to maneuver a work-world built for company men, Ashley wastes no time planning her escape while clearing a path for the women coming up fast behind her.

In that moment, I decided THIS would also be the logline for my life right​ now! I got lucky – I made a movie about my experiences so I could very easily take its logline and apply it to my every day. But I’m also defined by where I come from (North Carolina), my humor (weird), my experiences (wild), my outlook on life (everything is random / honesty). So, the idea is to have this all ready to go at the tip of your tongue. Practice it. Make sure the content you share relates to this somehow. Make sure people understand who you are right away! 

​I think we are all striving for authenticity right now and connection. So, if I could give you one suggestion for your logline – make it unequivocally you. ​

Now your turn – What’s your logline? ​

And, remember – you can watch Pioneers in Skirts right now!