Constructing my film title

To create my own film title, I need to research into existing film titles to help me decide and think of my own. As my film is a psychological thriller, I need to look at existing psychological thriller film titles.

Existing titlesThe title for Black Swan could mean a few different things.

The film’s plot revolves around a young woman who has to play the role of the Swan Queen in a ballet, which is considered a big and important role as that includes the white swan and the black swan. The white swan represents innocence and purity, while the black swan represents evil and pain. Throughout the film the woman goes from being a naïve and innocent woman to her physical and psychological metamorphosis into the black swan. Therefore, the character represents the Black Swan, which could be the title of the film.

Similarly, Black Swan is like an oxymoron, because swans are usually seen as elegant, beautiful birds but the word black represents darkness, evil and sometimes even death. The plot of Black Swan is like this as it is about an elegant, beautiful ballet dancer but with dark underlying themes and an instant of death.

There is a famous theory called the Black Swan Theory by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, which is a ‘metaphor that describes an event that is a surprise (to the observer), has a major effect, and after the fact is often inappropriately rationalized with the benefit of hindsight.’ This could be seen as similar to the plot of the film, as well as the fact that the show in Black Swan is Swan Lake, and therefore the character has to play the black swan.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory

Existing titlesThe film title of Donnie Darko is a character title, as the main character of the film is a teenage boy named Donnie Darko. It seems pretty simple, but there are many different English techniques used to create the name Donnie Darko which is why it works very well as a title for a psychological thriller.

Not only are psychological thrillers quite dark in appearance and themes, the actual film Donnie Darko is very dark and the titled character has hidden emotions which are dark. Therefore, it seems fitting that the title of the film should be Darko and that his name is this.

The DD effect is alliteration, which makes the run of the title being said quite quick and smooth, as well as being a memorable film title (ie. Geoffrey Peterson,, Donald Worthington, Leonard Spencer is less memorable than Donnie Darko, Billy Blood, Charlie Choo)

Existing titlesThe Machinist title stands out quite well, as it is about a singular thing. This thing is a ‘machinist’ which is someone who works with machines. Because the title is of someone, it shows that the film will be centred around someone who falls under this category, which is a machinist.

Despite the fact that the it could be hinting that the main character is this said machinist, there are other links that could mean it is about another machinist, not the main character and therefore he has something else to discover.

Machinst’s obviously work with machines, which are dangerous, dark and people often have accidents with them. The connotations of machinist are dirty, dark and altogether not very happy or bright, which links with the genre of the film of a psychological thriller.

My titleMy film is a psychological thriller, so I want the title to reflect the genre while also seeming mysterious and intriguing for audiences.

Looking at what is involved in my trailer that could stand out for my title (like ballet, swans for Black Swan, dark demons, futuristic events in Donnie Darko and a machinist in The Machinst), I had to think of something that was an obvious relation that people would pick up on and notice as iconography from my film.

-young girl haunting older girl-murder-masks-blood, painting in blood

The one that sticks out for me is the use of masks in my film, as it represents the young female’s identity and mind as she is not who she thinks she is.Masks also connote being trapped, anonymous and without a personality, which are reasons it is used in my film, but it also represents psychological thriller codes and conventions. Therefore, I like the use of Masks and think I could use it as a title

Creating my titleMaskI like this title, as it’s simply, straight to the point and memorable for audiences. However, I don’t think it represents psychological thrillers fully.

The MaskWhen I hear this title, I think of the comedy The Mask starring Jim Carrey. Not only that, the title assumes there is only one mask and I know that not to be true within my film.

MaskedI very much like this title as I think it relates to my film as a girl sees herself wearing a mask and is haunted by this mask. Being ‘masked’ removes a person’s identity, makes them feel trapped and alone as well as hinting that there is something more to them. This relates fully to my film trailer.

MasksThis assumes there are more than one mask in the film, which is true, however it sounds more like a cult or a group of people in masks, which is not part of my storyline.

My titleI have decided that I will call my film Masked.

Masked removes a person's identity which relates to psychological thrillers.It could show that someone is trapped or burdened by something which is why they are in the mask.Being masked could link the young girl to other characters, because she has lost her identity.

These are all part of my film plot.

When audiences hear the title ‘Masked’, I hope they will feel the trapped, claustrophobic and scared feelings it represses, making them feel targeted which is what psychological thrillers do.