Recommended Screenwriters
Creating Killer Titles!
- June 13, 2011
- Posted by: HalCroasmun
- Category: Articles
How important is a title to your success? Sometimes, it can make a huge difference. If the first thing a producer hears is a great logline and that is followed by a great title, you will be seen as a professional.
Once again, a great title means EASY MARKETING and that translates into potential box office success. To a producer, you've just become their new best friend.
WHAT TITLES WORK:
1. Same title as the best selling book that the movie is based on. I include this because many of the worst movie titles have been successes because the book sold 5 million copies.
- Example: Cold Mountain.
2. Intriguing titles. These titles somehow communicate to us that there is something lurking underneath the surface.
- Example: Indecent Proposal, Crying Game, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, and others.
3. Titles that instantly give us the story/environment, etc. These titles have us quickly get the essence of the movie. You have an idea what it is about and it is very easy for a Studio to promote because they aren't fighting an uphill battle trying to explain the movie.
- Example: Gettysburg, Stakeout, Clueless, GI Jane, etc.
WHAT DOESN'T WORK?
While there are exceptions to every rule, these types of titles don't normally work for Hollywood movies:
1. A long title without a reason for it being long.
In movie titles, short is better. One or two word titles work best. Long titles must deliver twice the punch to be used.
Here are two titles sent to me: "How I spent seven years as a police informant." And. "The night 7,400 people died at the hands of a dictator."
2. A title that you have to watch the movie to understand it. Usually, these titles come from some small detail in the story. It might be a line a character says or something in the background that holds meaning only after you see the movie.
These titles work fine for novels, but not usually for movies. Why? Because they are hard to promote. How will a 30 second commercial provide the profound meaning that only shows up after watching 86 minutes of the movie? 3. A title that confuses or causes a person to think it is another genre or type of movie.
If you go see a movie called "Pearl Harbor" and it is a comedy about three guys who want to go to Hawaii, it is a bad surprise. You're probably expecting something more along the lines of a war movie.
3. A title that confuses or causes a person to think it is another genre or type of movie.
If you go see a movie called "Pearl Harbor" and it is a comedy about three guys who want to go to Hawaii, it is a bad surprise. You're probably expecting something more along the lines of a war movie.
Before anyone emails me telling me all the exceptions, keep in mind that these are general guidelines for Hollywood movies. Art house movies often violate these guidelines and get away with it for their small market. But if you hope to promote to a worldwide audience, the key words are "clarity and simplicity."
HOW DO YOU CREATE TITLES?
But knowing all of that only gets you so far. Now, the question is "How do you create titles?" I'm sure there are many ways. Here are a few that may make the process a little easier.
1. Brainstorm the easy titles.
Just think of your story and make a list of works and title ideas that come up. Many times, just searching for titles will bring up some pretty good ones.
2. List info from the script that could trigger title ideas.
Your script is full of information that could assist you in creating a great title. Your job is to mine it in order to dig up potential treasure. To do that, list anything that is important in this story.
List:
- Key concepts
- Main issue
- Conflicts
- Character goals
- Jargon and technical terms used
- And other parts with potential
Once you have that list, you'll run them through the formats in the next step.
3. Run that information through the Title Formats.
There are 16 different Title Formats. For this article, I'll list five of them. In each case, you go through the information from Step 2 and see how each piece might fit into the formats.
A. Opposite Words: Back to the Future, Crying Game, Bad Santa
B. Main Character's Internal State: Bedazzled, Delirious, Unforgiven, Clueless
C. Key Location: Gettysburg, Moulin Rouge, Air Force One
D. Cliche from the story: You've got Mail, A few Good Men, Friday the 13th
E. Twist on a cliche: G.I. Jane Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, The Man Who Knew Too Little, Natural Born Killers
It is just a matter of testing out a variety of different formats and allowing your creativity to flow from there. Many times, a bad idea will spark a good idea.
Without a doubt, the title is the most important set of words of your entire script. It either instantly engages people or it lets them down. Make sure your title knocks 'em dead.
Before you settle on a title, though, make sure your script is where you want it to be. Take a look at our Free Rewrite Teleconference if you think it could use some polish.