The Art of the One-Sheet
How to Condense Your Complex Idea Into a Single Page
You’re a filmmaker with a great story idea and want to consult with a writer so you can turn it into a script. Or maybe you’re a writer who wants to pitch a producer or filmmaker without having to throw a 90-plus-page script in their face.
Regardless of your role in the movie-making process and whether you’re at the top of the food chain or the bottom of the barrel, if you’re trying to create a story big or small, you have to tell someone at some point because movies can’t be made without a team. But how do you convince people that your idea is worth pursuing when everyone is too busy to read your story?
Well, part of the process involves condensing your screenplay into a clear, organized one-page document and sending that to people you’re trying to convince. This is called a One-Sheet and it’s insanely helpful when engaging with someone who's busy because literally, all they have to do is read one page that, if crafted well, can tell them whether or not your script is worth reading.
So here’s how I build my one-sheets. Yes, this may not be “industry standard” because truthfully, there isn’t any real standard way of doing it. But you’ll land in the right ballpark if you convey the most crucial information about your story in as few words as possible. So treat this more as a guide rather than a rule book. And, yes, you can go over a page. This isn’t school. Just don’t make it crazy like 10 pages.
Okay, now onto the first part…
Title, Genre, Run-time Length
First, start with the basics: Title, genre, and run-time length. This is pretty straightforward and you may not have the answers yet, but for the sake of the person you’re trying to paint a picture for, put something down. With genre and run-time length, you don’t have to think too deeply about them. But when it comes to a title, you may want to put some thought into this because having a great title that speaks to the story can go a long way. It’s a kind of first impression. Just do your best with it and don’t overthink it because titles don’t make or break a story and they almost always change by the time the movie is shown to an audience (if you're lucky enough!)
Logline, Central Message, & Synopsis
After you get the basics down, go a little deeper with a logline, central message, and synopsis. A logline is something most are familiar with. But for those who aren’t, it’s just a one-sentence description of your story, which accurately paints the dramatic narrative in a way that hooks people into wanting to read it. Simple enough, right? Well, how the hell do you write your entire story in one sentence, particularly in a way that hooks the readers?
It’s actually pretty easy. Just break the sentence down into its anatomical structure. Most loglines, though arranged differently, have the same elements:
The main character
The world they live in (setting and setup of your story)
The inciting incident (the moment that sets them on a journey drawn out in Act II and concluded in III)
The major conflict or goal they must face or achieve.
Example:
A bank loan officer [the main character] who is withdrawn from his life [the World] attends a motivational seminar [inciting incident], which convinces him that saying "Yes" to everything will lead to a better life [major conflict].
Now, one thing I also like to do is to break the logline down even further into specific questions that I ask myself:
Who is my story about? (Main character & The World They Live In)
What do they have to do? (Inciting Incident and goal)
Who are they up against? (Major conflict)
What is at stake? (Major conflict)
Answer these questions and then combine them into a single sentence. That’s it. Another way of looking at it is that you’re writing your first act and the beginning of the second act in one sentence while leaving the rest out so the reader will want to learn how it gets resolved. That’s how you write a logline.
Now, what’s the central message? In this previous post, I go deeper into what it is, but essentially it's a one-sentence statement that expresses an arguable truth about your story. Doesn’t sound all that important, but your central message is the heart of your entire story.
Every creative choice you make goes back to the central message, so expressing this in your one-sheet is a great way to get a trained reader to grasp the essence of what this story will explore. Take your time with this and make it simple, but strong.
Then, there’s the synopsis, which most of us know well. It’s basically an extended version of your logline where you can add in a little more of the finer details while still keeping it pretty short.
Example:
David, the cherished son of a locally famous conservative family, desires to follow in his father’s footsteps and make him proud. But when he meets Joseph, a new kid from a big city, they fall in love, forcing David to lead a double life. Joseph, who is much more idealistic and comfortable with his sexuality, tries to get David to come out. This challenges David’s obsession with maintaining his family image, which leads him to impulsively push Joseph off a cliff during a heated fight on an afternoon hike. However, Joseph survives the fall but is paralyzed and loses all memory of the incident, giving David a free pass on attempted murder. Now, twenty years later, after running away and hitting rock bottom, he seeks to reconnect with his old lover and finally confess his crime.
The Tagline, Similar Movies, and Themes:
Tagline. This is the one thing that just isn’t all that important. But wow, does it help you paint a picture. A tagline is a catchy/clever line that encapsulates your story's tone and overall feeling. So, the famous one from Alien is, “In Space, no one can hear you scream.”
This doesn’t explain anything about the movie, other than taking place in space and implying danger for the characters. But it’s catchy, can be slapped onto a movie cover, and evokes this sense of horror and doom while not revealing anything specific, leaving one’s imagination to fill in the gaps. These are the properties of a good tagline, and if you can come up with one, definitely add it to the one-sheet.
Another way to paint a picture for your story is to write out a list of movies that are similar to yours. I know. The story you’re working on is so unique that there aren’t any movies to compare it to. Well, sorry, but it’s probably not as unique as you think. Yes, your story ideally has a different flair, but the overall idea was probably expressed in other movies. So list the ones with a similar tone, genre, or plot.
Maybe your story is about a vigilante, but you want to convey a serious dark indie psychological thriller, not a dorky comedy like Kick-ass. So, you might list, Joker, Iceman, or You Were Never Really Here to convey a sense of intimacy with the main character and a kind of grittiness and moral confusion in the tone. That’s really why listing out similar movies can be helpful. Just know that it’s not so much about matching plots as it is about matching key elements you want your reader to pick up on.
Listing a set of themes can also be very helpful because it can give your readers a sense of what kinds of conflicts they might experience when diving into your story. So, let's say you have a story about two people surviving in the woods. The obvious theme is humans versus nature, but you can delve deeper and list other themes, such as fate and free will, female roles, and the heartbreak of betrayal, which implies that this isn’t just about two people surviving out in the woods. It’s also about a deep conflict unraveling between two people.
Moral Dialectic
Finally, the most important element for your story after your central message and logline: The moral dialectic. This gives your reader a stronger sense of the deeper meaning behind your story. Your central message is the meaning, but the moral dialectic is the blueprint for how the story can unpack that meaning.
This is also better known as the Hegelian Dialectic, a philosophical exercise created in ancient Greece whereby two opposite ends of an argument are laid out, examined, and discussed impartially so that eventually a synthesis between the two arguments can form, creating a “higher truth” or a more refined and nuanced view of the entire argument.
How does any of this relate to story-telling? Well, when you write a story, you’re not just writing about things that happen. You’re also expressing things that happen in a way that lets an audience sense a deeper meaning behind those things. That’s why many writers will work out a central message and moral dialectic that can be woven into the story before they start writing since they want to ensure that their narrative choices relate to those two things.
So this is how you make one:
Develop the Thesis
First, I write my thesis. Your thesis is the deep belief about the world your main character expresses at the beginning of your story. Typically they’re not aware of this belief because they lie to themselves to justify their acts and thus hide from that deeper belief that if understood, would allow them to grow and become a better person. That’s at least the general formula, but you could always create a fanatic who understands what they believe and remain consistent throughout the entire film. Anything goes.
Develop the Antithesis
Then, I write my antithesis. This is the opposite of your thesis and the belief about the world that your antagonist expresses, either at the beginning or throughout the entire story. And just like your main character, who embodies the thesis, they may not be aware of this deep belief because they might lie to themselves as a justification for their actions, only to have this deeper understanding reveal itself to them later in the story.
Synthesize the Thesis and Antithesis
Finally, I wrap it up with a synthesis. If the thesis is a belief your main character embodies at the beginning of the story and if your antithesis is a belief that your antagonist embodies at the beginning of the story, then the synthesis is a merging between these two belief systems, which is often expressed by the main character at the end of the piece.
That’s exactly how you create character change and how to work your central message into the story. In fact, the synthesis itself is the central message of your story. That is the key takeaway you want your audience to walk away with. Your characters and the actions they take are allegorical, representing various parts of the moral dialectic, which takes two opposite ideas and synthesizes them into a more refined one.
To further illustrate the moral dialectic, here’s an example of one I wrote for a story:
Thesis: Public scrutiny and defending against it matters over everything else.
Antithesis: Public scrutiny doesn’t matter. Only achieving what you set out to accomplish matters.
Synthesis of Thesis and Antithesis (the central message): Public scrutiny matters as long as you use it to better your beliefs and not let it blind you from achieving your goals.
Conclusion
That’s the brass tacks of one-sheets. They’re very easy to make, and while you can write one after you’ve written your story to convey it more effectively for prospective readers, I like to write them before I write my story to better understand it before diving in. It’s a lot less pressure than writing 120 pages. Plus, it’s a good way to force you to answer the primary questions every writer needs to consider before making any choices about their story.
So, for those who need a template, below is an example of how I write my one-sheets. Feel free to adapt it in any way you wish. Okay, that’s it for now. I hope you enjoyed this, and as always, best of luck in your writing endeavors!
Sample One-Sheet:
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Title: Down and Out in Bethlehem (Working Title)
Genre: 80s Inspired Dark Rom-Com
Run-time length: 90-120 minutes
Logline: The jaded niece of a tyrannical King reluctantly teams up with a reckless con artist to escape her uncle’s attempt to kill her baby; The King of Jews.
Central Message: Progress can only happen through action and sacrifice.
Synopsis: Mary is the intellectually talented, but jaded and unappreciated niece of King Herod, the tyrannical ruler of Judea in 4 B.C., a rotting kingdom full of decadence and corruption. A long time ago, King Herod learned about a prophecy from his mushroom dealer that the King of Jews would be born from a virgin and overthrow him. One day Mary becomes pregnant from a secret affair and to avoid punishment, she tells her uncle that it’s an immaculate conception. Believing that this is the prophecy, he jails her with the plans to end her life.
Joseph, a traveling loudmouth con artist who is the last remaining descendant of a once-great lineage, gets a job as a carpenter to steal the King’s prized purple dye. But upon discovery, Joseph is jailed where he meets Mary who gets him to help her escape by promising him a fortune. Now with the rumors about the immaculate conception spreading, a rebellion sparks as the two desperately travel to a safe house in Bethlehem in the hopes of giving birth to sweet baby Jesus.
Tagline: The unholy story behind the holiest mission in history.
Movies That are Similar:
Pirates of the Caribbean
History of the World Part I
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Princess Bride
Your Highness
Year One
Themes
Good versus evil
Faith in the face of mystery
Female roles
Heroism – real and perceived
Individual versus society
Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice
Rebirth
Spirituality
Rebellion against norms
Taking responsibility
Finding a purpose and meaning
Moving on from one's past
Value of friendship
Freedom vs imprisonment
Moral Dialectic
Thesis: Progress can never happen, so there’s no point in doing anything at all.
Antithesis: Progress can only happen by maintaining what has worked before.
Synthesis (premise): Progress can only happen through action and sacrifice.
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Story Prism,