The title of the wonderful film is not enough to attract attention, and more than enough to persuade the Beijing News reporter to interview the theater manager, box office expert and director to talk about the mystery of the film's name
Facing the dizzying number of new movies, the title becomes the first impression left by the movie and the audience when they meet each other for the first time, and it is also the first round of publicity in the promotion process of the movie. It plays an extremely important role in the promotion, advertisement, multiple sales and brand building of film products.
Since it is so important, what are the elements of a good movie title?
How receptive are movie titles to audiences and theaters?
How to come up with a precise and outstanding "good title"?
Are some seemingly "weird" titles "attractive" or "discouraging" to the audience?
The Beijing News reporter interviewed insiders such as theater managers, box-office experts, directors, and promoters, and asked them to summarize some practical experience based on their own experiences.
At the same time, the audience is also invited to express their most direct views on the title of the film.
Cinema
The title of the long film will not affect the printing of the ticket, and fans of the second dimension "eat" the title of the long film
A number of theater managers told the Beijing News reporter that as long as the movie can be approved, no matter how long the title is, it may appear.
Li Yulin has been working in theaters for more than ten years and has witnessed the release, promotion and release of several films. In his impression, the titles of films with high scores every year are mostly no more than four characters. Such titles are easy to read and understand. It sounds imposing, such as "Riding the Wind and Waves", "Above the Cliff", "Win the Championship" and "Eight Hundred" and other titles have improved the film's sales.
He said that why the titles of movies are getting longer and longer recently, many of which are related to the attributes of love and literary genres. Generally, movies with Japanese, pure love, and small and fresh styles are preferred, or the golden sentences extracted from the adapted original novels. The filmmakers believe that such a name can arouse the emotional resonance of the audience, so there will be a film title with a cross or more.
Tang Le, the film arrangement manager at Huayi Brothers Cinema Management Company headquarters, introduced to reporters that long film titles have little impact on the actual operation of the theater chain, and the film titles will definitely be fully displayed on the screen. Most of the film titles are displayed on the screen in a rolling manner. The ticket size and font size format are generally stipulated in the ticketing system. Fully display the title: "It is difficult for the cinema to adjust the printer because of a movie with a long title, so there may be a serial phenomenon on the ticket display, but the entry and dissemination of the movie title must be based on the release notice. These films with too long titles may be abbreviated in work exchanges, but the creators will be respected externally, and the release notice shall prevail.” He introduced that the relationship between the length of the title and the box office cannot be defined. , Relatively short titles will make the audience feel concise and to the point, but sometimes long titles will attract another part of the audience.
"Some young audiences who like pop culture such as two-dimensional, light novels, etc., are very 'eating' long film titles, "To the Youth that Will Die", "If the Voice Don't Remember" and so on. Another example is the anime "Steel Flying Dragon's Mystery" For fans like the Terman Rise series, it doesn't matter how long the title is."
expert
Functionality should be emphasized, but the pursuit of art forms should not be excessive
In the interview, many filmmakers have given similar opinions: it is very difficult to name a movie, sometimes it is necessary to choose from hundreds of thousands of titles, and sometimes even a single word is "hold back" If they don't come out, the difficulty is comparable to that of parents who name their newborns, and they need to be reconsidered and screened repeatedly.
In Luo Tianwen's view, film titles are not 100% perfect. After all, two or three hours of content must be expressed within a limited number of words. Therefore, the title should not be too harsh, but the functionality of these words should be emphasized. Let the audience find more information about the film, not an art form, and must work in harmony with the rest of the film to package the film together.
The reporter found that there are many tweets on the Internet asking for the opinions of netizens to name the movie. So, what is the significance of choosing the movie name?
As can be seen from the previous data, a good title should extract the most exciting part of the movie content.
Song Weicai, an associate professor at the School of Art and Media, Beijing Normal University, said that an excellent film title can immediately grab the audience's interest and attract the audience's attention, such as "My Motherland and Me" and "My Hometown and Me", which can intuitively feel When it comes to the novel expression of the main theme movie, you can see at a glance that what happened in the motherland and hometown is closely related to the real life of each audience, which will arouse the audience's patriotic feelings and enthusiasm for watching.
Second, the title of the film should arouse the audience's interest in the film, and the precise description of the film type will help attract the target audience. For example, "ancient", "immortal", "magic", and "xia" are related to fantasy and costume themes. For example, "Nezha's Devil Child Comes into the World", "Journey to the West: Conquering the Devil"; another example is the adaptation or remake of novels and online literature. The title of the film or the name of other literary forms is more attractive to the audience, such as "Notes on Tomb Raiders", "Wolf Totem", "Three Lives Three Worlds Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms", etc.
Luo Tianwen said that there are no hard requirements for the title of the film, and specific movies have specific operation methods for the title, but some experiences are general, such as the title should not appear too advanced and uncommon words, and not play too much and have nothing to do with the content. The text stalks, homophonic stalks of the film, and the title design must ensure that the audience can understand it, otherwise it will be counterproductive.
"Film titles evoke desire, evoke memory, and provide audiences with a reason to buy, for example, "Heroes on Fire" evokes tributes to firefighters, and "This Killer Is Not Too Calm" is The word 'quiet' is added to the back of the classic film "This Killer Is Not Too Cold" to make the audience interested in the film. The name "Shuimen Bridge of Changjin Lake" is derived from works that have been deeply impressed by the audience, which is highly recognizable to the audience and can also strengthen the brand of the series of films."
director
Hope the audience will feel the emotions in the film
"Tell Them I'm Riding the White Crane" is the first film with a long title directed by Li Ruijun. He recalled that there were not many films with long titles on the market at that time, and he did not do much about the length of the film titles. Considering that, because the film was adapted from the novel of the same name by writer Su Tong, during the adaptation of the script and the filming process, a more suitable title than this name was never found, so it was used.
Another film he directed, "Home in a Place with Lush Water and Grass", the title of the film was inspired by a line in the script creation. Li Ruijun believes that this line is completely in line with the theme and temperament of the film. quite satisfied.
"For me, the number of characters in a movie title doesn't have to be long or short, it is mainly suitable for the movie, it can give the audience a general impression, fit the temperament of the movie itself, and of course I will think about it during the creation process. For some other titles, I will write them down, but in the end, I will be loyal to self-expression and choose the one that feels the most suitable." Li Ruijun said that he did not expect that there have been more and more long titles in recent years. The long title will make it difficult for the audience to remember, but so far, I have not encountered a propaganda and distributor requesting him to change the title because of the length. "The title of the movie should be decided according to the specific script plot and their own aesthetic preferences. I think the audience can Appreciating the temperament of a long film title, it is like many people commented that Li Ruijun rode a white crane to a place with lush water and grass to shoot the film (laughs)."
The Beijing News reporter learned from the inquiries of many directors that there is no special rule for the director of the number of movie titles, and most of them are determined according to the situation of the movie. Yao Tingting, the director who has directed many youth love movies, her Several of her works have long titles, such as "I'm Waiting for You at the End of Time" and "Whose Youth Is Not Confused". She said that these titles were not intentional, but because of the blessing of the original novel.
There are also some movie titles derived from song titles, such as "A Cloud Made of Rain in the Wind" (Meng Tingwei's song of the same name), "Will you still love me tomorrow" (Tong Ange's song of the same name) and so on.
The recently released movie "If One Day I'll Leave You" has 11 characters. Director Li Gen revealed that this is a lyric from "The Ending Without Words". The title reveals that the movie is a story about parting. , For parting, many people may think it is very cruel, but the movie is higher than life, it will be more romantic.
We don't care how many words it has, the audience will feel the emotions in the movie.
audience survey
The title is too long, will you remember it?
The title of a movie can be called the eyes of a movie. Usually, a few words in the title can describe the content of the movie and highlight its appeal to the audience.
The audience will go to the theater because of the precise title of the film. For example, they will buy tickets when they see the two key information of "On the Cliff" and Zhang Yimou. They will also be "dissuaded to quit" by some titles with a large number of words, which are difficult to read and have no memory. ".
Similar problems have occurred in several recently released love movies, "Can You Just Like Me", "Ten Years of Warm Ruyan", "I Really Want to Go to Your World and Love You", "Don't Forget I Love You" ”, all of which are more than 7 words, and are very easy to confuse. As expected, these feature films have very low Douban scores, and their box office performance is also very dismal.
In addition, some nonsensical titles, such as the 2014 love film "Where Are You When I Want to Get Married" starring Zhou Xiuna, although seeing the title will make people laugh and increase the popularity, but it did not bring high box office ...Will the audience care about the length of the title?
In this regard, reporters from the Beijing News sampled 200 viewers and asked them to tell the "indissoluble bond" between themselves and the movie title.
Audience sharing
Weird long film title, reject directly
During this investigation, a reporter from the Beijing News randomly interviewed several viewers. Before choosing a movie to watch, will the title of the movie affect the judgment?
And ask them to recall, which titles impressed them?
●Before what movie I want to watch every week, I usually open the Douban platform to watch the movie that is currently being shown. The title of the movie does not have much influence on my intuitive feeling, but a very good movie title will make me want to know more about it. Movies, such as "See Nara Again" which will be released in March 2021, I feel that the title is very literary and I want to watch it because I have a similar study abroad experience.
There are also very strange feature films that I directly reject, such as "Where Are You When I Want to Get Married", which not only sells the anxiety of being single, but when I listen to it, I think this movie is ridiculous. Sure enough, it only got 4 points on Douban.
Oral: Wang Yu (pseudonym)
●Some movie titles are too long and awkward, and I don't know what they mean. I think romance movies are the "hardest hit" for emotional expression. For example, the titles of several movies on Valentine's Day this year are not clear at all.
The one I remember most clearly is "There is a Place Only We Know" and "To Youth: So You Are Still Here", which are the most impressive feature films in my memory, but I didn't know the specifics of this movie when I first heard about it. What to express, it didn't interest me too much, unless it is a fan of the director or the main creator who will go to the cinema.
Oral: Li Jiang (pseudonym)
●I know a title, except for the director, probably no one knows how the title of this movie came about, although this movie failed to attract me to the cinema in the end, it is called "Drawing a Circle of Ferris Wheel", I don't know if this movie is naive or simple. In addition to turning into a Ferris wheel when drawing a circle, it can probably turn into a donut.
Oral: Li Xiaoming (pseudonym)
●The title of the movie is very important for me to watch this movie. Some movies I want to watch after hearing the name, such as the "Macau Wind and Cloud" series and the "Monster Hunt" series. Even if the titles of these titles become very long because of the sequels, I will watch them. fixed item.
Some of them feel that they are bad movies when they hear their names, such as "Find a Rich and Handsome", "Break Up, Don't Break Up", "My Boyfriend and a Dog", even if the title is not too long, it will make me feel that the three views are not right. I do not want to see.
The longest strange title in my memory is "The First Time Apprentice Police Officer Bai Yinan Arrives". I just want to ask, where is Bai Yinan sacred?
Oral: Wang Jie (pseudonym)