Shorter Is Better?

Number one movie this weekend? The movie with the least interesting title I've ever heard. I always have a hard time with titles for my stories, but even I do better than this. It's like they didn't even try at all. And the utter crappiness of the title makes me want to see the movie less. That's right, Spy is the number one movie this weekend.

Once, when I was in film school, I gave a script to my screenwriting teacher to ask for his advice. He looked at the title page and read it out loud.

"The Hunter and the Hunted."

He looked at me. Then back down at the title page.

Then looked up and said, "I'd like it a lot better if it was just called 'The Hunted'."

I was admittedly a little put off by this suggestion. I had a lot of respect for this guy, and the suggestion was stupid. He hadn't even read it, and had no idea what it was about, but he already wanted to change the title. 

I guess the point was that a short title is better. Five words was too long. Needed to be only two. If he'd read the script, he would have seen that "Hunter" would have been the better half of that title to use, and it would have been even shorter! But anyways, this was all the way back in 1997 or 1998. I guess things have progressed since then.