Friday, 2 December 2011

Where will it all stop - The Title


This summary post was originally written for a practical exercise undertaken in the Planning and Making a Film module I undertook in the penultimate year of my BA (Hons). The module's practice was undertaken between October 2011 to June 2012 and it provided me with a hugely enriching experience. For a more detailed overview of the module and the projects I undertook as a part of it, see Planning and Making a Film: The student filmmaking experience.


When we were given the script for Where will it all stop we were told that, if we didn’t like this title, we would be able to come up with our own title for the final cut. With my groups version of Where will it all stop we have elected to keep the original title (minus the question mark), purely, because we couldn’t think of anything better! 


Initially, I didn’t think the title was that strong; I also thought it was too long. On the script (above) the title is Where will it all stop? but we were not sure whether to keep the question mark or not. It's all very well as a piece of dialogue but the moment you put a question mark in a title, I think, it runs the risk of looking a bit clumsy. Personally, I also think that it works better as an exclamation opposed to a question. 

Where will it all stop

Where will it all stop?

Another annoying factor was whether to capitalise the first letter of each word, or just the first word, or just some of the words.

Where Will It All Stop

Where will it all stop

Where will it all Stop

Remembering exactly what the title was  also proved to be somewhat problematic and for the longest time I had been calling it When will it all stop. But I have heard others call it:

Will it ever stop

Why won’t it stop

Where will it end

Where will it all end

When will it all end

However, this all said, I think the title quite unintentionally does work for the film. Especially, when it comes to the central character of Chuck who is a very enigmatic figure and who you are never quite sure about. Even more so in our version as we made chuck a supernatural being who, much like the title, is forever changing his appearance!

Initially, while I may not have liked Where will it all stop as a title I do now think that it Is the best title we could give this project. As it not only fits the subject matter of the script, but…



…it also sums up the whole experience of making the film!

Next: Where will it all stop - Our Final Cut

No comments: