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Why Your Title Matters

28 Jan

I heard an interesting story on NPR today. Well duh, of course I did. Let me rephrase, I heard a relevant story to this blog and our profession on NPR today.  It was about titles, specifically movie titles and even why some adapted from books, didn’t maintain the source name.  Most know that E.T was once called A BOY’S LIFE, but who knew SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER was once called, Tribal Rights of the New Saturday Night.  Oy.

I’ve had this discussion with many a writer and wrote about how important titles are in the 6 keys series.  For me it’s simple, I can’t write a story until I know the title, and many of my stories stem from a title alone, it’s your story’s brand.  Now, that’s not to say it can’t be changed for something more effective later, but for me it comes down to my marketing genes, and for you it should too because you do want to sell your story someday right?

Here’s the list on NPR, and for fun I’m throwing in a link to 8 movies made by people you’d never suspect...

Best Screenplay and Other Award Contenders for DOWNLOAD

18 Jan

These days I’m so busy, I am very thankful when anyone makes my life easier. So, thank you CBS NEWS for collecting the links to some of the year’s most admired screenplays. It’s not exhaustive, but here you can find the studio supplied/and/or/approved for consideration scripts for:

“Anonymous” by John Orloff (Sony)

“The Artist” by Michel Hazanavicius (The Weinstein Company)

“Beginners” by Mike Mills (Focus Features)

“Bridesmaids” by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig (Universal)

“Cars 2″ by Ben Queen; Story by John Lasseter, Brad Lewis and Dan Fogelman (Disney)

“Coriolanus” by John Logan, from the play by William Shakespeare (The Weinstein Company)

“The Debt” by Matthew Vaughn & Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan (Focus Features)

“The Descendants” by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash, based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings (Fox Searchlight)

“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” by Steven Zaillian, based on the novel by Stieg Larsson (Sony)

“Hanna” by Seth Lochhead and David Farr; Story by Seth Lochhead (Focus Features)

“The Help” by Tate Taylor, based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett (Dreamworks)

“The Ides of March” by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Williman (Sony)

“The Iron Lady” by Abi Morgan (The Weinstein Company)

“Jane Eyre” by Moira Buffini, based on the novel by Charlotte Bronte (Focus Features)

“Machine Gun Preacher” by Jason Keller (Relativity Media)

“Margaret” by Kenneth Lonergan (Fox Searchlight)

“Margin Call” by J.C. Chandor (Rope of silicon website)

“Martha Marcy May Marlene” by Sean Durkin (Fox Searchlight)

“Moneyball” by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin; Story by Stan Chervin, based on the book by Michael Lewis (Sony)

“My Week With Marilyn” by Adrian Hodges, from the book by Colin Clark (The Weinstein Company)

“Pariah” by Dee Rees (Focus Features)

“Shame” by Steve McQueen and Abi Morgan (Fox Searchlight)

“Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” by Bridget O’Cconnor & Peter Straughan, based on the novel by John le Carre (Focus Features)

“War Horse” by Lee Hall and Richard Curtis, based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo (Dreamworks)

“Warrior” by Gavin O’Connor and Anthony Tambakis & Cliff Dorfman (Lionsgate)

“Win Win” by Tom McCarthy; Story by Tom McCarthy & Joe Tiboni (Fox Searchlight)

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