Shane Stanley, Filmmaker/Author/Instructor: Titles were so important. I learned that
titles have to translate globally. We can come up with the greatest title in
the world. If that doesn't translate into 14 different languages, it's not a good title.
Film Courage: We understand your strategy is to develop a log line and a synopsis
and will you try to pitch investors first or the distributors?
Shane: You're asking me personally? I often will come up for me a title is important I
get stuck in a mud without a cool title my movies may suck but our titles are cool and
I need that that gives me some fuel we know the stories we want to tell
and synopsises we come up with a with an idea what what's what's our idea what's the story
and that inspires it and we just start who who are the players who are the
protagonists antagonists who are the what's the hero's journey what are their what are their
pitfalls and hurdles gonna be what's what's the ticking time bomb what's gnawing at them
and then we we go through it and break it down and start doing our development notes and
and when I get excited about it I call our investors and I say we're ready we're ready to go
and we know the story we want to tell and usually it's just a paragraph that they want from us
that that's at least in our situation that's what we do we we get to do what we want to
do we're very fortunate so we there's it's it's pretty much coming up with the story we want to
tell and going and doing it and and let ships fall where they may it kind of comes back to
doing things the way you want to do them and not not allowing people to tell you how to
do things or why do you think we're open to suggestions and stuff but we tell the stories
we want to tell and we cast the people we want to cast and we make the movies we want to make
and we don't ask for permission so if the title is very important to you
how much back and forth and disagreements have you had over titles and has that
put the kibosh on the beginning sorry to cut you off titles have never been a problem that's
that's one thing that I often come up with the film that we're starting in September we
we we had about a five second clash on a title there were two titles that we both liked
and we're going with the other one and the more I think about it the more cool I am with it but
titles it's never been a problem I just when I was writing I needed a title I
needed a title to get excited if I didn't have I couldn't be I couldn't get excited about it
I needed to get excited about blowing smoke I need to get excited about Double Threat I need to get
excited about break even I needed once I had a title I can just that's all I need and I can just
I'm all in give me that title and I'm all in at least in my world it's so important
to me it's everything it's everything and it doesn't mean my titles are great but
at least to me they are right I mean we all love our children so the untitled Shane Stanley project
is not going to work for you no you can't no get out of bed at 2 a.m to start typing for that
no no does not there are there are no untitled Shane Stanley scripts or projects I promise you
it has to have a title if it's going to get the time of day for me yeah it's really important
and you seem to like shorter titles or no I think they're easier for people to remember
I mean I'm not saying all the titles that i've had are are winners at the end of the
day but I learned early I did a couple of films with Avi Lerner back in the day and
because he sold globally titles were so important I learned that titles have to translate globally
we can come up with the greatest title in the world if that doesn't translate into
14 different languages it's not a good title and that's really important and something that
people can remember something that people say often people say I break even they're a
Double Threat oh he's just blowing smoke those are the kind of titles that that appeal to me
a lot that's just me personally but I remember that I remember when when I was working with
Avi Lerner when blockbuster and Hollywood video were still a thing he used to say when you come
up with a title it's important to remember people are going to start at new releases at
a and they're going to work their way to z most people are done choosing by the time we get to m
which is funny our most successful film was with an No Code of Conduct with Avi
but that was just kind of his model in coming up with titles so I never forgot that and people
laugh at me when I throw that out because they're like blockbuster or what and it's different now
because everything's on a thumbnail everybody's checking stuff online or gets promoted and doesn't
matter but that was Avi's mentality and you think about the success Avi Lerner has had
over the last 30 or 40 years as being one of the most prolific independent filmmakers in history
okay that's some advice I learned from Avi Lerner that's one thing I'll take
away from that relationship yeah so titles are important something catchy quick simple
what is the Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Montana [sic - Missouri]. I mean but that worked
it worked but what did everybody call it I don't know three billboards okay yeah do you see throw
both three that's a tongue twister right had you seen billboards yet that's what I remember yeah
do you always go to a distributor first with your idea I run it by them I'll run it by them I have a
good relationship with a distributor that that we have and I just tell them this is what we're doing
I mean I don't mean that I just I we go make the films we want to make people can catch it or they
they don't have to we're we're at a point where I don't care if it's it's going in the dirt with 50
grand and a couple of stolen cameras and we're going to shoot our movie fortunately we haven't
had to do that yet but I would that's what we were going to do with Double Threat during covet
we literally had 50 grand offered to us to do something during covet and we were we were all
in and we got fortunate and one of our backers was excited to hear we wanted to do something
and said no let's let's do it right but that's our mentality we just want to make movies they'll find
a home they'll find a home so it takes time to get to that point and it's it's it's just being able
to do the things you want with the people you love and the people that are behind you whether they're
writing to check or putting the film out get what you do and they know what they're going to they
know what to expect with us they know what they're going to get so it's I talked to a distributor the
other day and it was oh you're making a movie when do you start September 28th oh would you
do you want to tell us what this one is oh I can't sure that was a discussion we're making it anyway
hope you enjoy it will you ever have a full screenplay written when you pitch
distributors or only the idea I'm not going to talk to a distributor until I'm financed
so I mean that's just me personally I I'm not going to waste anybody's time I'm not going
to call an actor I'm not going to call anybody until we're at this point where it's like okay
yeah we can make a movie often who reads scripts anymore I mean you can't get agents to read them
lord knows they don't do that or distributors really going to read a script no they want to
see a dumb movie they want to know what you're doing they're just going to throw it to somebody
for coverage and if you're making your movies based on coverage I think that's a bad thing
some of the greatest movies in history got covered so poorly some of the worst moves in history
were some of the greatest coverage films I mean it's it's it's who's reading and who's covering
sometimes coverage is done out of respect while somebody will say well we want to take this out
we'd like to take a look at it and get some coverage on it okay and they usually call back
so you checked all the boxes it's it's fine go go have fun go do it but that's it's not how we make
movies it's it's not about committee it's it takes a team but we our job is to make the film and it's
not our job to distribute or sell it and we have a mutual respect where what you're going to get
when we do something and I know what to expect from you when you're going to put it out and I
won't tell you how do you do your job let me do mine and that's the relationships that we like to
have with our distributors and sales agents and it's just it's just it comes from time
time and time it's been beaten a bag for producing films for over 30 years you
you can get to a situation with some people that are willing to trust you and it's about trust it's
about doing films and another reason I'm an indie rat is I like I don't I don't put our investors at
risk make the movie for what it can get made for so the the the stakes are low so people aren't
you're not ending up wearing cement shoes in two years because couldn't give something away that
cost millions of dollars I mean it happens all the time that's not how we make our movies we make our
movies we punch way above our weight class we we weigh our kick our punk coverage on these things
we get great cast great crew we make them look as good as we can it's a Roger Corman idea it's
the same mentality I mean how many films did Roger Corman kick out it's it's just about doing what we
love and getting them done and and having fun and giving giving people content that's our job and
I don't like to over complicate it I will never go to a distributor without a script I mean
there's nothing to talk about if there's no money I don't talk to them until it's it's where finance
we're ready to go and then we're making it that's just that's just the timeline of what we do now.
How important is a movie title?