LABOR of love DAY
Hope you had a great Labor Day Weekend. Three days off from work — way not enough time off 
Spent most of Labor Day revising another script and coming up with a new title. Titles, I am finding out, are important when sending your material out to be read. The title has to grab your reader. Make them WANT to read your logline, then read your script. To illustrate my point I will share with you how I have changed my titles.
TURNABOUT is a thriller in the vein of Day of the Jackal. But, the title kind’a just sits there. Now TURNABOUT is BOOMSLANG. What’s a Boomslang? Ask for the script and find out.
Another example, another thriller. METAMORPHOSIS is in the vein of Falling Down. How an average guy turns into a lethal killer. Again, the title is not very interesting. Now METAMORPHOSIS is titled: SCORPIO CRUISE.
How do you handle your titles? Do they describe your story? Are they mysterious? Do they evoke curiosity? Let me know. Titles are important.
Keep Writing!
Good morning Mike, was a little bored this morning after working on fleshing three pages of a character roster for a sci-fi script I’m working on. Started “bumping arround the blogs”, read this post, checked out a lot of other stuff on your blogspot.
Good job writing 7 scripts. That’s quite an accomplishment. Hope you find tittles that you’re happy with. I’ve written 13 specs to date, and every title emerges differently. I TRY to write in a WIDE varriety of genres. Titles I’ve used to date:
“Give It Up for Chimpy”: my first script, a screwball comedy
“Beyond the Apes”: my 2nd script, a sci-fi. My own re-invisioning of (1968) “Planet ot the Apes.” Got a cease and desist letter from Fox about this…
“Revenge of the Fat Chicks”: 3rd script written, teen comedy
“Love, Music and Monkeys: Give It Up for Chimpy II”: 4th script
“Cowboy Alien Diaries”: 5th script, supernatural western thriller
“Cupid’s Helpers”: 6th script, romantic comedy
“The Judas Project”: 7th script, dark urban drama (low budget)
“Hometown Professional Football”: 8th script, sports comedy
“Indians of the Ancient Plains”: 9th script, supernatural western thriller
“An American Princess”: 10th script, romantic comedy
“A King for God’s People?”: 11th script, epic biblical adaptation of the Saul and David story
“The Rival Kings of Israel”: 12th script, epic biblical adaptation of the Saul and David story part II
“Cupid Got Stupid”: 13th script, romantic comedy
Anyway, great to hear from you when you visit outside your blogspot. Hope you have a good day!
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA
Hey Mike,
I’ve sometimes cringed upon reading the titles of some of Bill Martel’s scripts - very D2DVD, TNT-sounding.
But that’s what he writes. And bless him for it. I think he’s got the craft nailed.
I’ve always taken my titles seriously - like the cover of the book, so to speak. I’ve written a couple of novels and understood this early: ‘what title would make a browser pick-up your book?’
The title *is* your poster. Can you see a film in those one or two words?
My current script is titled MOTOR-PSYCHO. And guess what it’s about?
Mad Max on motorcycles.
Happy Writing! lol.
Thanks E.C. and Racicot for sharing. Your titles sound much better than my own — I’ll have to keep at it
Keep Writing!