A logline is a one or two sentence (maximum) description of a movie that hooks the reader through efficient and careful wording.
It’s a tool that’s used across the film industry, covering all genres of scripts. It can be used by screenwriters succinctly pitching their idea to potential producers, producers pitching to investors, directors pitching to actors, or marketing teams eventually advertising the film to audiences.
A logline’s purpose is not solely the brief summation of a movie. The real intention of a logline is to hook your audience (whether that audience is an agent, executive, producer, actor, or box-office patron). A logline needs to grab your audience’s attention through dynamic wording and engaging ideas. It needs to accurately capture the movie’s narrative while also pithily including language that will emotionally involve the listener.
The highwire act to walk here is to reveal the premise of the movie while not revealing too much of the plot – that’s the job of a synopsis, not a logline. The key is creating a mystery or question your audience wants to know more about.