Thread: Screenplay synopsis question

If you were asked to provide a synopsis of a screenplay to a prospective director and you had hopes of selling him on the idea of buying it, how would you frame your words, what would you include, what would you leave out, would you make it a hundred words or a thousand, what in short would you do to make him think that here is something bigger than Ben Hur?

Deep subject frought with arguments and contradictions.
First of all, they don't really use the term "synopsis" (they do that kind of shit a lot)

Your first tool is the "logline" This is like a single or two sentence statement of what your movie is about. To me, the best way to see what a logline is, is to look at a TV guide of the little cable schedule channel. There they are:
"Archaeologist must save Ark of the Covenant from Nazis"
"A lawyer suddenly finds he can't tell a lie."
etc.

But what people end up writing is like, "When amorus, curvy Melinda Sitton encounters down and out giggolo by running into his car while putting on her false eyelashes, it's hate at first sight and hijinx ensue."

Anyway...start out with a logline.

Next, I'd suggest an "elevator pitch": a short paragraph to pitch your film to a guy to important to give you more than 8 seconds of his divided attention. "A rom-com with appeal to working women: a secretary's merger idea is stolen by her barracuda boss, but she salvages the deal with the help of the boss's fiance... while also winning his heart." OR some such shit. This is on the fly, gimme a break.

Next would be a "treatment". This is basically telling the story of the whole film. You get heated arguments on how long it must be. Well as script is like 90-120 pages, so if the idea it so save time.... I'd recommend googling this. "film treatment tutorial" or something like that.

This stuff is a science in itself, a pain in the ass, and subject to the trendy whims of the most fickle industy on earth.

Good luck


(Avoid use of things like "It's Flintstones meet Jetsons in Sin City". Do your own pitch.)

"Wallmaker" would be good to get input from on this. There isn't a whole lot of script expertise on this site.