Your Script Title: A Critical Marketing Decision
In the past, I used to ONLY focus on the writing.
I took a FIELD OF DREAMS approach and figured, “If I write it, they will come.”
Guess what?
They didn’t.
I took the same approach when I went to film school, assuming simply graduating with my MA in Film Studies entitled me to find out what was on the other side of Hollywood’s “Closed Doors” that everyone kept talking about.
Nope. That wasn’t enough either.
Upon graduation, I didn’t receive any sort of “nod” or invitation into the industry just for being awesome.
Scorsese didn’t call. Neither did Tarantino or the Cohen Brothers. Nor Wes Anderson.
Bastards.
Guess I was going to have to find another way into the industry. I’m stubborn and competitive, so come hell or high water, I’d find a solution.
That’s when I happened upon ScreenwritingU and their amazing writing classes. That’s where I learned the critical importance of each and every marketing and business decisions that must be built into every single script you write … if you want to sell it (and make it in the industry).
This was the first time I’d heard a screenwriting teacher talk about things like “hooks” and “marketing decisions” as it pertained to screenwriting.
Luckily for me, I also speak “marketing” talk, as my background is in marketing, branding, and advertising.
ScreenwritingU builds 13 different Active Marketing Hooks into their trainings, and if you want to learn them all–and I highly suggest you do–I would go over and check out some of their classes.
But for now, I want to speak about just one of the Marketing Hook they teach about, which is your project’s ‘Marketable Title’.
Here are some examples to help you understand what some great titles that do a good job marketing look like:
- FRIDAY THE 13TH (Horror)
- 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN (Comedy)
- TOMBSTONE (Western)
- SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (Romance)
- THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS (Action)
- THE MATRIX (Science Fiction)
Intuitively, you probably understand these are all strong titles.
But have you ever stopped to think about what really goes into a marketable title? Because make no mistake about it, your title is 100% a marketing decision.
You need one-to-four words (maybe five if they are short words) that fit the genre and delivers the concept.
THE HANGOVER — Three groomsmen lose their about-to-be-wed buddy during their drunken misadventures in Vegas, and must retrace their steps in order to find him
AMERICAN BEAUTY — A depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after becoming infatuated with his daughter’s attractive friend.
THE GODFATHER — The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.
MR. & MRS. SMITH — When man and wife assassins discover they are working for rival agencies they have to decide whether to put love ahead of business.
SPIES LIKE US — US intelligence send two incompetents to draw attention away from real spies. But when the real spies are killed, the hapless dupes must carry out the mission for real.
I just finished doing a marketing push for my latest pilot, and I learned first-hand how important a show’s title (or feature film’s title) actually is. So much so, that I felt the lesson was worth passing along.
At a recent Career Launch event I attended, I was told by some of the “behind-the-scenes” folks that I had one of the strongest project titles there, given my genre and subject matter.
Here is my 1-hour dramatic comedy show’s logline:
At the dawn of the Bitcoin boom, an inept programming geek who’s funded by the mafia inadvertently launches a new cryptocurrency aimed at solving global warming. Together, they might just save the planet.
The show’s title is TOKEN IDIOTS.
While I’ve gotten a fair number compliments on it, I have also received some mixed reviews as well:
I’ve giggled quite a few times over this comment. Even though my title might not have been this particular producer’s bag of blowfish, it did grab her attention. It disrupted her normal browsing pattern and inspired her to let me know her opinion.
Momentarily it made me wonder if I had made a mistake. But then I quickly realized that the ratio of script requests to negative comments was 63 to 1.
So I remain confident this title is doing its job.
But the truth is, it wasn’t my first choice, or my second, or even my eighth! I’m not really a huge fan of it, but it does it’s job and I can’t argue with the results.
Because as I learned from Hal Croasmun, President of ScreenwritingU and–as my East Coast family would say–wicked smaht guy*, your title is one of 13 really important ACTIVE marketing hooks when you’re shopping your script.
So for now, I am going to stick with the title that’s doing its job, which is to grab the producers by the scruff, get them to stop and understand the genre and what the show is about in an instant.
To date, because of that script, I have received 63 script requests from Producers and Executive Producers, set up 5 different exploratory meetings about the project (one of which led to me getting two other development deals with The Cross Border Company), and have received the following honors and awards:
- Winner – First 10 Pages Script Contest (April, 2020)
- Winner – Rocaberti Writers Retreat Scholarship (2020)
- Finalist – WeScreenplay TV Contest (December, 2020)
- Semifinalist – Filmmatic Comedy Screenplay Awards (September, 2020)
- Semifinalist – The Script Lab 2020 Screenplay Contest (September, 2020)
- Quarterfinalist – Script Pipeline 2020 TV Writing Contest (June, 2020)
- Quarterfinalist – 5th Annual Stage 32 Comedy Writing Contest (May, 2020)
And all of these success milestones started by me leading with the words “Token Idiots”.
So hater parade aside, I’d say my title was a good hook and marketing decision.
