Really Long Film Titles: Are They a Bad Idea or Not?

moonshieldmedia

moonshieldmedia

Originally I was going to title my feature the first name of my main character, but I was forced to change the character name, and using the new name as the title won't work.

I'm thinking about using a more abstract title and the one I came up with is 11 words long.

Some examples of titles that have worked in the past:

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar

My film is an indie that I will be submitting to festivals. Do you think a long title will kill it, or could it help make it stand out?
 
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It's probably better to judge on a case by case basis. That said, a longer title that will catch someone's attention is better than one or two words that provide no distinction.

For example:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is going to catch someone's attention much more than 'Traffic' or 'Crash', at least in an indie fillm festival sense.
 
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An eleven word title is really long.

A couple of things to consider. Of the five titles you mentioned three
were the title of the book. One was the much anticipated film from a
very “hot” director. And there was a lot of controversy about the title
Columbia Pictures thought was too long.

Don’t forget “The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and
Became Mixed-Up Zombies” and Polanski’s “The Fearless Vampire Killers
or: Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck”

Often a long title is seen as more of a gimmick than a "real" title.
 
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