One of my favorite early morning rituals is waking up, making coffee, and listening to KFI-AM’s “Handel on the News,” a local radio staple here in Los Angeles. From 6:00-7:00 each morning, the irrepressable host and his crew give a humorous take on the headlines as we bleary-eyed early risers come to. Their raucous and un-pc jokes are jaw-dropping so early every morning. But what I really tune in for is the musical lead-ins to each news story. Why? Because the musical bumpers and bridges are witty counterpoint in itself.
A story about a priest abuse case is led into with Connie Francis singing “Where the Boys Are” and any item about Governor Schwarzenegger inevitably is trumpeted by “Springtime for Hitler” from The Producers.
It reminds me of the way Paul Schaeffer on David Letterman’s show can be scathingly funny in his walk-on music for guests. And in some cases, like the torreador march that still introduces comedian Don Rickles, it is a signature song that perfectly “says what it is” — Rickles is the matador, you are the bull.
The guy who used to have the job of picking these musical bullets on “Handel on the News” retired last month and the tryouts to replace him have been tough to listen to. Not everyone has the musical knowledge to pull from, plus the wit to be thoughtful and not ham-handed in their choices. It’s tempting to use “Leaving on a Jet Plane” for a story about airport delays, but not as funny as “Anticipation.”
The skill is in picking musical bumpers that don’t hit you over the head, but make you laugh as you realize “That was witty!”
I bring this up, believe it or not, as a means of discussing something screenwriters ask me about all the time, namely, how to come up with a title for your movie! Because word play is what it’s all about.
In my book, Save the Cat!, I talk about the importance of the title, and how a good one can increase your odds of success. I note that a good title isn’t blunt or “on the nose,” meaning if you have a movie that is about redemption, don’t call it Redemption. There is also the vague title, like 2005’s The Island which, I’m convinced, hurt ticket sales. (Are there castaways? Is Dr. Moreau involved?) And the curse of being too general in your title leads to my least favorite title of all time, For Love or Money, which has been used three times in movie history and I can’t tell you the story of any version. It’s so general, you could use it for any movie: Gone with the Wind = For Love or Money, The Godfather = For Love or Money.
See what I mean?
In my career, my favorite titles that I’ve come up with have been just… “off the nose.” Colby Carr and I found a great one for our “plumb and plumber” comedy, Drips, that we sold to Disney. I sometimes have even started with the title and built the story to match as we did with Nuclear Family that sold to Amblin. Like a good movie idea, often there is no rhyme or reason for how we know we got one! We just know.
What are your favorite titles from the movies or from your own career that show wit, le mot just, or just plain brilliance in figuring out what to call the damn thing? And what is your approach to The Title?
And if you have any musical lead-in picking skills, they’re still holding tryouts at KFI. Please do!
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A good title can definitely draw attention to a screenplay. Comedies are simple for me because you can be so creative with making the title funny, too. Basically with any other genre things get tricky. How to be just “off the nose” with a romantic drama or an action-packed sci-fi/fantasy without sounding cheesy or vague, that is the question. The word-play game becomes more complicated, unless anyone has a few unusual nifty tricks they’d like to share.
I have no hard-fast approach and sometimes it takes me months to come up with a title.
One of my favorite titles is “Things to do in Denver When You’re Dead.” Have no idea what the film is about, but love the title…
Coming up with titles is one of my favorite pasttimes. Okay, I don’t have many REAL friends, but my imaginary ones love to play along.
One of my favorite titles is “Withnail and I” – a little film from 1987 starring Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann – although the title doesn’t give you much more of an idea what the story is other than it’s a buddy love, probably, once you see the film you understand how important the relationship is between the two friends and how very sad it is at the end when one of them essentially outgrows the relationship and moves on. The movie has resonated with me since I first saw it. I own it, and screen it about every 6 months.
There’s a little game I like to play when looking for titles. And I think you can totally look for a good title first, and then be inspired to write the story, just like Blake and Colby did with “Nuclear Family”. I like to look through lists of old standard songs. Songs from the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s in particular, because they used a slightly more romantic and whimsical version of English back then, and it lends itself well to finding a title that has style. Just as an example, I’m looking through a website I randomly found right now that lists tons and tons of song titles from those years, and I’m going to pick a few out that I think could possibly be titles for films. (Sometimes I just take a section of a title, not the whole title, or I turn the phrase to make it sound more cinematic.) Then I’ll add an idea for a story based on that title.
For instance:
Afraid of Falling (parachute instructor falls (pun intended) for a student)
All Aboard! (high-seas hijinks aboard a cruise ship)
All Washed Up (rich owner of a soap company loses everything in hostile takeover)
Love and War (what happens when the Secretary of Defense has an affair with the President’s wife)
At Your Service (faithful butler must defend his master’s estate from vulture relatives)
Down South in Heaven (rich man ends up in Red-Neck section of Heaven by accident)
A Little Love to Spare (bowling buddies find love on the lanes)
So, these are just what 30 seconds of looking at song titles and seeing what inspiration comes from them. Sure, they may suck, but if you did it for an hour or two, you might get some really good ideas to start out with.
My thought for the day. Now, it’s back to sleep.
:)
jw
Paul’s witty musical selections is my favorite reason to watch Letterman.
Great timing on this topic, Blake. There are a number of pitches/loglines on the forum right now where the task at hand is choosing the right title.
Another fun post Blake.
Brooke is right about comedy titles. They are easier because a good title sometimes has that nudge nudge “get it? get it?” quality to it which you don’t really want for a drama. I’m usually good at coming up with titles for my comedies but have a really hard time for my dramas. I’m stuck on a title right now for the last script I wrote.
“Raising Arizona” is a title that I’ve always liked. “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” is another. “American Beauty” is a good title for a drama, since it has multiple meanings in the film (it’s the name of a rose, ect.). “Crimes and Misdemeanors” I’ve always liked, it has a nice flow to it.
“Bruce Almighty” is funny. It’s amazing those guys came up with a great title without having to use the word “God”. “Stuck On You” for the Farrelly Brothers conjoined twins comedy. “Being John Malkovich” is good to.
Joe, some of your titles and ideas in your list are actually pretty good! I might have to use that method myself.
Of course great ideas are only great if they’re well-executed and turned into great scripts.
A great example is “The Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford.” Just that choice of “simple elaboration” in the title immediately turns a film that could have been seen as overlong, pretentious and boring, into one that an audience will see as “epic.”
I have a pretty clever title (if I do say so myself): A young couple takes over a deconsecrated priory to create a bed and breakfast, not knowing the entire community has been covering up a decades-old series of murders there.
The title: “Prior Sins.”
Ok, I don’t have enough to do taday. I have another good one (actually belongs to a friend’s script). Because she got ticked off at her boy friend during a costume party, our heroine grabbed the first costumed guy she could and gave him a big wet smooch, leading to many romantic complications thereafter.
It’s called “Kissing Quasimodo.”
Generally a story idea comes to me before a title. For coming up with a title, I use the brute force method: once I feel I have a pretty good idea what the story is about (see Blake’s wonderfully helpful entry on “spine,” Beginning/Ending/MidPoint!) I set out to write 25 titles for it. I put no quality filter on this list, because often stink-o ideas are SO repellent that they inspire the good title. The right title seems to come out of the crowd and land in your mind with a nice solid “that’s the one” thunk. If none of the 25 do that for me, I go for a second 25 titles. I can rarely finish the second set because it becomes obvious that I’m wandering off the theme. But see? Through the process, I know more about what the theme is!
Brute forcing it — in other words, trying every possible title — works for me.
Brute force it is! I like your 25 titles idea, Scott. And I’m glad you guys emphasized avoiding the “on the nose” approach, as I was about to do it!
My husband and I think it’s funny that we met while I was working in the Office for Academic Affairs. He was a student (in med school – get your minds out of the gutter!) and we always joke the he walked into the right office to find a wife.
Anyway, I think the title could be great for a comedy.
Heather