Our TBD Title is no longer TBD

    For the longest time, our short film went without a title. Even I who made the pitch and screenplay had trouble making a title that fit the story perfectly. I knew I didn't want the title to be too long and starting with the phrase "The murder of" or "The killings of" as it seemed too cliche. I only knew I wanted the title to reflect the genre of crime-thriller. 

    For the thriller genre, typical titles could either be one-word long such as "Parasite" and "Reptile", or longer titles such as "Silence of the Lambs" and "The Girl on the Train." Overall, the words in the titles are short even if they have more than one seen in "Get Out" and "Gone Girl." For the Crime genre, typical titles are almost always short and not as long as some of the thriller ones. Examples include "The Guilty", "The Unforgivable", and "Glass." With these titles in mind, I am leaning towards a single word title or no more than three-word title. With these rules, I began brainstorming. 

    At first, I felt it better to brainstorm words I could use in the titles, rather than a full title. Unlucky, Suspicion, Murder, Killing, Deception, and Doubt were words that reflected the story well. I also thought it would be smart if the titles reflect reoccurring themes in the film such as the deception of Hoffman, Hoffman's numbering of people, 13 being unlucky, lying, the snake ring, and Hoffman's devil may care attitude. 

Me and my group members brainstormed quite a bit about possible titles and came up with the options following:
14 Unlucky Men
Deception
Don't Worry
Unlucky 
Mirage Murders
The Hunt for Vipers
Suspicion
On The Surface


Presenting, our short films official title, Suspicion.

I feel that the title perfectly captures the plot and pathos of the film. It is short and simple, like a thriller title, and creates suspense in the story. It also illudes to the plot twist of Hoffman being the killer and the doubt that Reynolds holds against him when he realizes the snake ring on Hoffmans finger. I also have a personal bias towards the title "Suspicion" as it is an emotion that crawls into you and infects your brain, much like the movie title "Doubt" which I really liked. Overall, my group partners Zayn, Jason, Zeyn, and I really like the title and can't wait to start filming. 



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