John Polson and Robert Connolly among Screen Australia funding recipients

I know it’s hard to tell a lot about a film from a Synopsis and a Title, but am I alone in feeling that most of these films seem uninspired, unoriginal and – worst of all – boring?

Sorry for being a negative nancy, but here are my first thoughts on each film, starting at the bottom of the list.

Sentido – A coming of age story. Seemingly the favourite theme of Screen Australia, since there’s always at least one coming of age film a year. The problem with these movie’s is that unless the acting, directing, casting or scriptwriting brings us something totally new and fresh there is no point watching the film. We’ve seen it all before.

Salvation Creek – “Sometimes salvation turns out to be a place of unexpected beauty.” If you waste half of your logline with a meaningless quote such as that, I have absolutely no faith in the film holding my attention for 90+ minutes. Yuck.

Paper Planes – Aussie’s love good local family movie’s. Seems to be the only thing that’ll draw a crowd (other than gore/horror) – see Red Dog. Hope it’s good, and not just a slightly higher budget telemovie.

One White Crow – The logline is good on this one, as it draws me in. However I’ve got no idea what sort of journey the protagonist is going to go on. Makes it impossible to tell the theme of the movie – especially when the genre is apparently thriller….yet the film is about an Atheist Academic. Hrm.

Metamorphosis – Considering the logline gave the whole plot away, I’ll assume this is a low budget contained thriller. Probably for the best.

Kingdom Come – Hostages need to be saved by an emotionally imbalanced cop. That could describe about 10% of all films ever made. What a waste of money Screen Aus (I hope the script is A++++)

Defiant – Seems to be an Indian/Australian co-production? Would like to know more before making a judgment on this one, although the ‘thriller’ tag does not instil confidence.

Aussie Gals – I did this list in reverse order because this film seems to be the worst of the bunch. It’s the kind of logline you’d see in a script writing contest for high school kids. It better have absolutely rip-snorting gags (it won’t) because the premise just sounds… no.

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Brian, I agree and like your comments a lot! The loglines are horribly written and that’s why most of it sounds boring. Hoping for all that it’s the opposite.

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That said, I’m looking forward to John Polson’s Sydney Project and lucky John Ratchford!

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No you’re not alone Brian, I got half way down the list and stopped reading, I was getting whiplash from shaking my head so much..just when you think things might be improving, which they are..we get this review for A FEW BEST MEN http://www.theage.com.au/enter.....1qhgw.html
Basically Jim Schembri has said the film “should never have been released”!! Google around the reviews are pretty similar and consistent. Comedy..why do we suck at it? Now and then we pull it off, most of the time we bomb woefully. I just want to ask..how can a film be so consistently reviewed as being woeful and unfunny right across the board and still get developed? I suppose nobody knew anything..especially about comedy.

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Paper Planes is for me.! I remember at school we had these, and it was amazing how competitive they can be, casting my mind back, one guys planes stayed in the air for approx 35 odd seconds, (outside in a breeze) i caught myself looking at the faces around me, those faces along with mine were willing the plane to stay aloft, all great fun.

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Look..the loglines aren’t killer, but as we all know there’s a lot more to a logline than meets the eye, and some some loglines that sound amazing are poorly executed films, so who knows? Ross Grayson Bell has been the head of screenwriting at AFTRS , produced Fight Club, you’d expect the script would be highly considered, I’m looking forward to seeing what his script and creative team produces. @ Jim..yeah A FEW BEST MEN..WTF went wrong there?

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I ve developed a script over 8 years and its the strongest its ever been. But Im stuffed if I could sell it to you in a one liner. Its about …………………………..zing! I’ve got it. Batman vs predator! Nah wait.

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@Joshua – log lines are absolutely essential in order for your script to ever be read. But the good news is that it’s a craft that can be learned, and there are many resources on the web. As much as you think you can’t boil it down to a one liner – you can (and you will have to!). And then you need to do it again in a pitch – normally 2 paragraphs. Again, this is a learned craft, but essential to your business as a writer.

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Here are some loglines for films you may have seen Brian. See if you can guess which ones they are:

The king of Rushmore prep school is put on academic probation.

– An innocent and naive girl in Paris with her own sense of justice decides to help people around her and in the process discovers love.

– A young man is rocked by two announcements from his elderly father: that he has terminal cancer and that he has a young male lover.

– A cop has to talk down a bank robber after the criminal’s perfect heist spirals into a hostage situation.

– Two men reaching middle age with not much to show but disappointment, embark on a week long road trip through California’s wine country, just as one is about to take a trip down the aisle.

When distilled down to loglines, Rushmore, Amelie, Beginners, Inside Man and Sideways all sound generic. So judging a story by its logline is about as effective as trying to hang yourself with red vines candy.

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