How to Write a Film Synopsis

1. Step 1

   Type your name, complete contact information (address, phone and email), the title of the project, the genre, and the target market in the upper left hand corner. If you are submitting a query via an agent or production company's website, this information will be entered in designated fields on a standardized form. If you are submitting via email, all of your content will be directly pasted into the body of the email rather than sent as a separate attachment. If you are submitting via snail mail, all of the information should be confined to a one page, single-spaced letter typed in Courier or Times New Roman 12 pt. font and one-inch margins all around. The genre designation and target audience for this story are critical. The reason is that the reader may be looking for a specific type of project and/or is already inundated with certain themes. The easier you make his job of determining what should warrant his attention, the more favorable notice you will attract. Identify your genre or sub-genre with only one tag (i.e., Drama, Romantic Comedy, Science Fiction, Animation). Likewise, be as specific as possible in identifying your target audience; i.e., Teens, Family, WWII Veterans, Chick Flick.

2. Step 2

   Summarize the premise of your film in one sentence. This is known in industry terms as a "logline". A logline is 25 words or less and should be a teaser that hints of what this movie is going to be about. It can be something as simple as "An extraterrestrial gets left behind by his peers and must fend for himself in suburbia" or something clever that marries the elements of two prior films; i.e. "Forrest Gump Meets The Terminator". The logline is written on a separate line by itself and is identified as:Logline: blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda.

3. Step 3

   Identify the main character and the core conflict that will drive the story. Act 1 will be the first paragraph beneath the logline and will divulge the major plot points that transpire in the first act of your film. If you are brand new to writing screenplay synopses, the easiest way to identify the contents of each act is to evenly divide your full script into thirds. If your script is 120 pages, for instance, the first paragraph of your synopsis will briefly reveal what transpires in the first 40 pages. Major characters, when first introduced in the plot, have their names typed in UPPER CASE but will be upper and lower case thereafter. The purpose of this is to give the reader a quick overview of how many significant characters are in this story. Only focus on major plot points in each act as opposed to writing passages such as, "Bill gets up in the morning and has oatmeal for breakfast and tries to decide if he wants to go to work. It is a nice day and he decides to call in sick and go to the beach but then he can't find his bathing suit and the phone rings and it's his mother who wants to know if he remembered to write to his aunt in Baltimore about whether he's going to go to her 90th birthday party and ..." Cut to the chase. If you only have one page to tell us your entire plot, you don't have time to ramble. Your first paragraph should also include any necessary foreshadowing of what's to come. In "Back to the Future", for example, we learn about the date that lightning struck the clock tower in the town square; this will later figure prominently when Marty McFly and Doc Brown are trying to figure out how to power the DeLorean. In "Beauty and the Beast", the arrogant prince's rude behavior to the enchantress sets in motion a spell that can only be broken if someone falls in love with him before the last petal falls off the magic rose.

4. Step 4

   Escalate the suspense and risks in your second paragraph which represents Act 2. As with Act 1, only tell us the key scenes and turning points that influence the lead character's actions. We don't need to know what any of the peripheral players are doing or every single stop the protagonist makes between Point A and Point B unless it factors into complicating the problem or contributing to its solution.

5. Step 5

   Escalate the suspense and risks yet again in your third paragraph which represents Act 3. Even in a comedy, a character's life needs to go from bad to worse to downright horrible in order for us to empathize and want to root for her eventual success. Act 3 not only resolves all of the problems that have been introduced in Acts 1 and 2 but also flirts with that bit of foreshadowing you alluded to in Act 1. In "The Hunt for Red October", for example, most everyone in the audience will have forgotten by Act 3 that there was a brief mention of a second submarine very early in the story. Just when everything finally seems to have been resolved as we edge toward the final scene, that second submarine suddenly makes a menacing appearance. Another good example of how foreshadowing works can be found in virtually any episode of the old TV series "Murder, She Wrote". (A seemingly innocuous reference to lemon chiffon pie or a lost earring invariably turns out to be the key to solving the entire mystery.) It's elements such as this that give your synopsis (and your entire screenplay, for that matter) a level of sharp cohesion that will impress a prospective buyer. It is also critical that you divulge the ending of your script in this third paragraph. Too many writers treat the synopsis exercise as if it were a third-grade book report and include cutesy comments such as, "If you want to find out what Farmer McGregor did to the bunnies after they stole his vegetables, you will have to read it yourself." An agent or production company wants to know that YOU know how to finish the story and that it is a satisying one that ties up all of the loose ends.

6. Step 6

   Mention any notable contest awards or additional information that you feel might sell the merits of this screenplay in a fourth paragraph. If your screenplay is adapted from an existing work such as a stage play or novel, this is the place to include it along with the verification that you have acquired the legal rights to adapt it to a different medium. Likewise, if you have a specialized background or unique experience that led you to write this work, include it here. If you do not have any of these elements to add, there is no need for a fourth paragraph at all.

• Synopses are always written in the present tense.
• A synopsis does not include any excerpted lines of dialogue. If one of the characters has a signature phrase, however, this can be included. Examples: "Make my day," "Show me the money".
• Do not query an agent or production company about a script that you have not yet written or not completed. This is a fast-moving business. If someone gets excited about your premise and wants to read it for consideration, she isn't going to wait around for six months for you to write it.
• Do not invent your own genres. Example: "This is an action/adventure romantic comedy science fiction thriller mystery." Think of it this way: when your film is made, what shelf is the DVD going to be found on in your neighborhood video store? They are only going to put it in one spot, not all over the store.
• Always register your work with Writers Guild of America or the U.S. Copyright Office before you send out any inquiries to prospective buyers. Do not, however, put this registration anywhere in your inquiry letter or on your script. To do so is the sign of a paranoid amateur. The exception is if you are entering a screenplay competition or submitting via a standardized form and this information is specifically requested.