We did in fact get to a logline a mere two hours into our endeavor, keeping us on track for a screenplay in 57 hours.  Here it is:

When their plane goes down over Prohibition-era Kentucky, a sharp-tongued adventurer and her reluctant biographer are forced to set aside their animosity and work together to get back to New York.

In order to write a logline, you need to know character, setting and obstacle, which does require some really rudimentary plotting.   I have to say, rudimentary plot was surprisingly easy to hammer out with two points of the  triangle chosen by fate: the period and character(s).  Even though period comedy is not exactly a formulaic genre (we already owned up to our mistake, no need to harp…) the comedies of early Hollywood are so iconic, that we actually were able to cobble a formula of a  prohibition era comedy relatively easily.  The unconventional and witty female, doing tasks generally reserved for men is such a recognizable trope of the time –  and the curmudgeonly man who begrudgingly loves her sets up easy complications.

So, the first steps are wrapping up.  Now to actually plot it…

-a