6.  Choosing the Title Last

But you may decide to leave the naming of the story until after you have made the rough draft of both synopsis and scenario.  Your story is told; you know the motives that have prompted your different characters to do what they have done; you know the scene; and you understand the theme, or motif—­as the word would be used in music—­which underlies the whole action.  The question arises:  To what do you wish to have your title call particular attention?  If a woman, or a girl, has the leading part, and it is what she does in your play that really makes the story, it would be best to feature the girl and her deed of cleverness or daring in your title, as in “The Ranch Girl’s Heroism,” “A Daughter’s Diplomacy,” or “A Wife of the Hills.”  Or you may attach most importance to the locale of your story, the background against which the rest of your picture is painted, and call it, for instance, “A Tragedy of the Desert,” “In the North Woods,” “A Tale of Old Tahiti,” or one of the titles of Arizona stories, just cited.  Again, the interest in your story may be equally divided between two, or among three, people, as in “The Triangle,” “The Girl and the Inventor,” and “The Cobbler and the Financier.”  Note that every title here given is the actual title of a picture play which has already been released.  Bear in mind, too, that many photoplays are released bearing poor, commonplace, and inappropriate titles, and the foregoing are not so much named as models as for the purpose of illustrating the specific point now being discussed—­that the feature idea may often direct your choice after the story is worked out.

A great many comedies have titles which state a fact, or specifically make an announcement concerning what happens in the photoplay, as “Arabella Loves Her Master,” or “Billy Becomes Mentally Deranged.”  Photoplays with such titles are, as a rule, the product of the European makers.  Once in a while a dramatic picture will be given such a title, as “Tommy Saves His Little Sister”—­a picture made in France—­and “Annie Crawls Upstairs,” the last a beautiful and touching picture by the well-known writer of magazine stories and photoplays, James Oppenheim, produced by the Edison Company.  Again, there are more general titles exploiting the theme of the story, as “The Ways of Destiny,” “The God Within,” and “Intolerance.”  There are also symbolical titles, which have, naturally, a double meaning, playing upon an incident in the plot, as “A Pearl of Greater Price,” and “Written in the Sand.”

7.  The Editor and the Title