Logline, Pegline and Tagline?
I often encounter this question… what is a logline? A logline and a premise are two different things. The premise refers to the technical structure of the content. Let say, ” a grumpy old waitress who is about to retire finds a series of love letters in her tip jar”, the said sentence is a premise. There is an action, subject and conflict. In a logline, the writer indicates the genre of the content. And so, transforming the premise into ” A romantic tragedy about a grumpy waitress who is about to retire finds a series of love letters in her tip jar”.
You may also encounter two concepts called taglines and peglines. A pegline is relatively easy to construct. You just put together two movies or more. In our case, we write the pegline as As Good As It Gets meets Joe Black.
The tagline is a promotional line. For example, a movie about a father who shields his son from the terror of the Nazis. Or better yet, Roberto Benini as the comic father who shields his son from the horrors of a Nazi Death Camp. This is usually done when you have an actor or actress in mind. Like, Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft. Knowing the inherent utilities of the said devices helps you find a better angle in making sure that your content will have the adequate chance to survive a pitching session.
By: MELCHOR DF. ESCARCHA