Titles are your audience’s first impression of what your screenplay is about.
Every movie needs a title. The title you pick can set the tone for your screenplay and give people a reason to see (or avoid) it. A good title hints what the movie is about and makes you want to see it. A bad title just leaves you scratching your head, wondering whether the movie is a western, a chick flick, an action movie, or a science fiction thriller. If you don’t know what you’re going to get, you probably aren’t going to bother trying it.
Think of the supermarket where cans, boxes, and bottles clearly label what’s inside. Now imagine a box that’;s completely blank, written in a foreign language, or just labeled “Stuff.” The chances of you taking the time to open it is minimal, and the same holds true for a movie title.
The simplest movie title just describes the character’s names like “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “Thelma and Louise,” “Harold and Maude,” “Rocky,” or “Forrest Gump.” These titles tell you who the movie is about, but doesn’t necessarily tell you what it’s about. Generally the movie ads have to give you a clue whether the story is an action thriller or a western. A movie title about a person is usually meaningless unless that person is somebody famous like “Ghandi,” “Nixon,” or “JFK.”
Rather than naming specific characters, a title might just give a label to your main characters such as “The Warriors,” “The Wild Bunch,” or “Gladiator.” The title alone might not tell you exactly what the story is about, but you get a hint what type of story you’re about to watch. “The Warriors” is probably going to involve fighting and a movie like “The Wild Bunch” probably involves some action.
“The Shawshank Redemption” was probably one of the worst titled movies, but that’s only because it came from a Stephen King story called “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.”
Coming up with the perfect title is half the battle with writing a screenplay. It’s usually a good idea to have a title nailed down before you start writing or developing your story because a title can give your writing a focal point. Writing a script titled “The Perfect Storm” helps keep your mind focused on the main elements of your story than if you had titled it something vague.
When creating a title, experiment with:
- Character names
- Descriptions of character types
- Places
- Times
- Theme
- Irony
- Story summaries
Some of the best movies in history have had poor names while some of the worst movies in history have had great titles. A title alone won’t guarantee your movie will be good, but a great title can help get your script read and that’s the first step to getting it produced, which is the whole goal of screenwriting.
