Jay Fingers, Author/Screenwriter/Youtuber: Sent to 

a remote island to bury the dead, a wisecracking  

young inmate soon finds his life in danger when 

the island is overrun by hordes of the undead  

who had been killed by prison guards.

Film Courage: Are there different screenwriting  

rules for established screenwriters 

versus those that are new writers?

Jay: I think so. I think that there are unwritten 

rules. Again I think a lot of it basically boils  

down to formatting, how your script looks, how 

you present your script. Newbies can't do what  

established writers can do. I mentioned the Robert 

Towne thing or I feel a lot of screenwriters don't  

use slug lines at all. For me that's a big thing. 

I think that that's insane but I know that William  

Goldman for instance doesn't use slug lines and of 

course he Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid right  

but I feel like a William Goldman can 

get away with that, Jay Fingers cannot.  

So I’m very careful in how I format and 

present my work so that one day if I do decide  

that I want to break a rule here or there I can.

Film Courage: Do you have 

an opinion about log lines?

Jay: Yes, I do not like log 

lines. I think log lines suck.

Film Courage: Why, what's wrong with them?

Jay: They're just difficult, they're difficult. 

Everyone's just like Oh if you can't,  

if you're unable to distill your story into 

one sentence, if you can't tell me in one  

(maybe two sentences) what your script is about  

then already I know that your script is terrible 
and I'm like no that's not true. I do understand  

the importance of log lines. It's just crafting 

them is a pain. I just don't like doing it.  

My log line for Potter's Field I worked on for 

weeks before I finally got one that I thought was  

decent. I can't even say that I was truly pleased 

with the final log line but at a certain point I  

was just like okay I've got to stop this is 

this is where we're at and I'm going to see  

if this works and it's got me some requests so 

obviously I did something right with that so the  

log line for this film which is Potter's Field 

feel okay it took you how long several weeks  

several weeks several weeks it took me several 

weeks to craft this one but then that's also  

based on just working on it previously just 

coming up with log lines that just absolutely  

didn't work and just me giving up or like whatever 

so what I when I finally came back to it because  

I knew that I wanted to start submitting start 

getting the script out there I sat down with with  

this version of the log line and yeah it took 

it took several weeks for me to craft it and and  

get it into the shape where where I'm finally 

getting some some hits from it oh may we hear it  

yeah sure sent to a remote island to bury the dead 

a wisecracking young inmate soon finds his life in  

danger when the island is overrun by hordes of 

the undead who had been by prison guards okay  

okay so and that what parts did you struggle 

with like where did you find you well first  

like mentioning the protagonist I didn't know how 

I wanted to describe him there were some drafts  
where I used the character's name his name is 
Amir Addison but then I realized no one cares  

that's not what they're looking for in a log line 

the characters they'll get to the character's name  

when they read the script so in in trying to 

describe who he was succinctly that was that  

was difficult for me but then I just thought about 

the most striking parts of his personality I mean  

we already know that he's in prison he's an inmate 

and he has this kind of uh caustic sense of humor  

like he's he's always just saying something smart 

and not really insulting people but you kind of go  

in there and so I thought wisecracking would be 

a good way to describe him and I also wanted to  

kind of bring the mind like a young Eddie Murphy 

we all kind of remember what Eddie Murphy was  

like in his early career with like 48 hours and 

beverly hills cop and trading places and I wanted  

my character to be reminiscent of that so I 

thought that wisecracking was a great way to  

kind of describe him just also just the 

structure just what should I mention first  

should I lead off with a wisecracking young inmate 

and I did that for a while but that didn't seem to  

work so then I led off with assigned to bury the 

dead on this island just it sets up the the place  

you know where the script is taking place and 

what's supposed to happen and then after I set  

it up we mentioned the protagonist wisecracking 

young inmate but I think the thing that really  

made the log line work was at the end I added 

a little tidbit about the undead who had been  

murdered by prison guards that was missing and 

everyone when I asked for feedback on the log line  
they're just like ah this is cool I guess but how 
about but when I added that one part toward the  

end response was it was just like oh wow this is 

now I get it now I want to read this now this is  

it hooks me so that's the log line that I decided 

to go out with and yeah once I started querying  

I started getting hits I started getting requests 

for the for the split for for the script so you  

were sending it out before you had this particular 

log line no I wasn't sending it out no no just  

working on the log line so that I could send 

it out I see okay so you weren't able to weigh  

whether this was was an improved version but 

you knew from the reaction that this tidbit at  

the end where we know like why why these people 

had died and right okay exactly interesting wow  

and did anyone say it was too long 

it was too short of a long time  

no no I don't know how many words it is exactly 

but I know I tried to keep it kind of within the  

recommended limit like 35 words 35 to 40 words 

I think is what they say your log line should be  

so I tried to keep it within that now for your 

books the description I know on amazon when I  

looked at it it's much longer oh yeah it's 

like a paragraph or so is there something  

with books where there's the same type of 

rules for the log line no it's different okay  

yeah yeah I mean they expect a much much longer 

in-depth kind of blurb so that they can put on  

on the back of books on amazon and barnes noble 

press releases what have you yeah there's log  

lines are not really not really a thing at 

least in my experience yeah in the publishing  
kind of like world right so with scripts short 
log line and then a lot of white on the page  

kind of like get to the point and don't race 

waste the reader's attention sounds like okay.

What do you like about this video?

LOGLINE
Sent to a remote island to bury the dead, a wisecracking young inmate soon finds his
life in danger when the island is overrun by hordes of the undead who had been
killed by the prison guards.