Titles Matter: Consider “Snakes on a Plane”
By Michael Stelzner
Do titles really make a difference? Yes indeed they do.
By now you have heard the hype. Samuel L. Jackson stars in the thriller movie Snakes on a Plane. Do simple titles grab attention? Apparently in this case, the title is the reason the movie has drawn such widespread attention.
According to CopyBlogger:
Jackson himself has admitted that it was the title itself that convinced him to do this campy film. And when New Line toyed with the idea of changing the title to something completely pedestrian, that’s when the buzz started online one year ago yesterday, thanks to screenwriter Josh Friedman’s blog post. Those four words were the key to it all.
Apparently the screenwriter had to fight to prevent the film from being called PACIFIC AIR ONE-TWENTY.
Words from the screenwriter’s blog:
Holy s**t, I’m thinking. It’s a title. It’s a concept. It’s a poster and a logline and whatever else you need it to be. It’s perfect. Perfect. It’s the Everlasting Gobstopper of movie titles.
So let’s examine this. Why does such a simple title really grab people and stop them? A few thoughts:
- The title is short and easy to remember.
- Snakes and planes just don’t go together. Kinda like tea and wrestling. This creates a picture with words.
- The title creates an emotional response—fear!
What do you think?
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