Titles

I looked at some of the most successfull romantic comedies to see how they structured their title and came up with this list.

Valentine's Day (2010, dir. Garry Marshall)
When Harry Met Sally (1989, dir. Rob Reiner)
Pretty Woman (1990, Garry Marshall)
Confessions of a Shopaholic (2008, dir. PJ Hogan)
Knocked Up (2008, dir. Judd Apatow)
No Strings Attached (2011, dir. Ivan Reitman)
Leap Year (2010, dir. Anand Tucker)
Shallow Hal (2001, dir. Bobby and Peter Farrelly)
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008, dir. Nicholas Stoller)
Easy A (2010, dir. Will Gluck)
Rumor Has It... (2005, dir. Rob Reiner)
50 First Dates (2004, dir. Peter Segal)
4 Weddings and a Funeral (1999, dir. Mike Newell)
Love Actually (2003 dir. Richard Curtis)
Bridget Jones's Diary (2001, dir. Sharon Maguire)
(500) Days of Summer (2009, dir. Mark Webb)

• The majority of these titles contain 2 or 3 words
• Mainly focused on women
• Holidays mentioned in titles
• If a holiday is in the title, it takes up the majority of the title (4 Weddings and a Funeral, Leap Year, Valentine's Day, (500) Days of Summer )
• Few actually mention love (Love Actually, 50 First Dates, Valentines Day)

Most make reference to an aspect of relationships:

• Paying attention to looks- Shallow Hal / Pretty Woman
• First Meeting- When Harry Met Sally
• Dating- 50 First Dates
• Getting over an ex- Forgetting Sarah Marshall
• 'Friends with Benefits' - No Strings Attached
• Getting pregnant- Knocked Up

However, all the titles mentioned (perhaps with the exception of Valentine's Day and Love Actually) could be any genre, it is only the context it is put in that allows the romantic aspect to be recognised. Still, the most obscure titles which, are those with a prominent theme in the film:

• Easy A- the word 'easy' related to relationships can mean a girl is promiscuous but 'Easy A' can be connoted to school life. However in this film the main theme is related to both, however mentions Hester Prynne's 'Scarlett Letter'; where a girl is made to wear a red 'A' to stand for adulterer
• Leap Year- The film shows the run up to 29th February and the main theme is the folklore that allows women to propose on this day
• Confessions of a Shopaholic- although 'Shopaholics' are something more connoted with women, purely from the title alone we can only be sure that the main theme is shopping.
• 4 Weddings and a Funeral- From the title alone, this film could be about any aspect of weddings or funerals, and although weddings are associated with weddings a lot; funerals not so much. This film actually looks at the dynamic relationships between friends during these five events.

My film's main themes are being stuck with someone you don't like, and the males broken leg- working with this idea I came up with

Stuck With You
Being Stuck With You
Broken Journey
Broken Promotion

Broken Journey I think has too many negative connotations; although could be plausible for a romantic comedy, it sounds more like a thriller, or perhaps a parody as the two words are not normally used with each other

Broken Promotion has some of the same problems as the previous title, although does sound more like a romantic comedy, but the connotation of that suggests a 'broken heart' in result of the promotion, opposed to the actual leg. Although this allows this would surprise the audience when viewing the film, as it is purposely misleading the audience, it may put some viewers off when they realise the storyline is not as they expected.

Being Stuck with You is a better title and it highlights the main theme without drawing on the broken leg, which would be elaborated on in the trailer/film. However I think it is too wordy and my research showed that titles were on average 2 or 3 words.

 I removed the 'Being' leaving me with 'Stuck With You'. This line is almost said in the trailer as the male says 'You're the one stuck with me' yet the film is portrayed from the females point of view, leaving the phrase to become 'Stuck With You'. It is a short title, and I think fits all the conventions of the titles I researched.

I did some audience feedback and the results are as followed for the title they thought was best for a romantic comedy and the results matched my reasoning.