March 9 at 9:03am

Should Movie Poster Tag Lines Be Transformed

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“Earth.  It Was Fun While It Lasted.”  Armegeddon’s tag line sticks with me, because I instinctively substitute “Earth” for “Indie Film” when I read it.

In these days of RampantFilmBizChange,  everything is ripe for reconsideration.  MCN hipped me to AdWeek’s collection of “66 Great Movie Taglines“.  Sure the list gets a smile regularly from me, but I walk away deadened and jaded.  The sell is obvious.  The dominant clever factor feels like a child beauty pagents’ related icky. “Look at me!  Look at me!  Give me a trophy!  Now!!!”.  Get me outta there.

Can’t we do better?  Or at least do different? What once was called “Indie” has never been proud enough of it’s differences.  Isn’t now the time — this the age of absolutely no acquisition market that makes much sense for the majority of work — to stop the sell and instead embrace the collaboration?  Or the participation.  Or something else entirely different.

A good number of “Indies” show up on Adweek’s list.  For me it is clear articulation of the past.  We have moved on.  That is not our culture anymore.  Okay, it’s not the only culture anymore.  Yet it feels to me, the creative community is still living in the past.  We have to move forward.  Move further.  And soon.

What thoughts do you have on how we could innovate this process?  How can we bring taglines inside the narrative?  How do we make them about the experience, about the process, about something more than sounding clever and hip?

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  • Radar
    Spelling counts too - "relatable" ;)
  • Radar
    Good taglines should be used to introduce your type of story to the audience and/or offer some relatedable idea/question to chew on. Yes, I've gone to see a movie because of its tagline. Although, the poster art/image should say it all.
  • @Ryan I could say so, taken into account that titles are sometimes absolutely abstract > explanatory tagline on a poster helps understand what the heck the whole thing is about and decide to investigate further or not

    @Jean D Agreed. I guess, it's short information about what the film is, especially good if you don't have a huge campaign and the little time you get with potential viewer (radio spot, poster that they pass by etc) you have to use wisely.
  • In our case, I feel our tag line represents the conversation we'd like our audience to have with us and each other upon visiting our site and after seeing our (eventual movie): "Is this where you thought you'd be?" At best, a tag line can launch a notion about the film's theme and/or pique your target audience's awareness and interest. At best, it's not slapped on as merely a sales gimmick; but, it's something the film's creators have contemplated and decided to use or not use, based on their vision for their movie.
  • Whether a tagline or a dolly shot, it doesn't matter - if it is gratuitous and inauthentic, it is cheap and senseless. Independent Cinema will never be more than Hollywood's impressionable little brother unless it lets go of the audience and embraces form, expression and vulnerability.
  • Ryan
    Serious question for you guys (and gals) - have any of you ever gone to see a movie based on a tag line?

    I myself never have and thought they were just something that go in the way of a good poster (if I liked the poster). Interested to see if I am alone in that.
  • Jean Dodge
    Stranger Than Paradise - A New American Film
    Do The Right Thing - A Spike Lee Joint
    Slacker - no tag line
    Sex, Lies and Videotape - no tag line
    Blue Velvet - no tag line
    Return of the Seacaucus Seven - no tag line

    Festival Laurels, critic's raves and a cool poster seemed to be enough once upon a time. It's worth noting that even though Spike Lee took a possessory credit, he did so in a way that reinforced the idea that is was a new kind of movie being marketed. (It was also his second feature) Stranger Than Paradise was also sold as a new type of movie since no one really knew what independent cinema was at the time.

    Sometimes a tag line is needed to explain the title/ subject more fully, as in the case of a film like Go Fish, which doesn't exactly say "lesbian coming out story" without some help. I guess a comedy such as CLERKS needed a tagline because the title isn't funny, it's more ironic or something. There are no hard and fast rules, but in my opinion taglines belittle the movie's serious intent since they are seldom created by the film maker, and the story of a director waking up one day after years of work to find something like "see it with a bud" affixed to a poster he or she hates the concept of is more common than not.

    There's always the exception. "In space no one can hear you scream" is a million dollar tagline, I guess and who can resist that?
  • I don't know that we can (or should) innovate the process. A tagline is, by virtue of the need for it, an advertisement. In some sense every film -- and every filmmaker -- has turned to the public with peacock feathers blooming high and screamed, "Look at [me]!" Here you can substitute "me" with my film, my production, my script, etc. It's a must.

    Taglines are akin to a damned "necessary evil." Without it, a film (or poster) isn't quite as noticeable. With it, a film (or poster) takes its place in an endless line of waiting-to-be-discovered films.

    Are taglines tacky, corny and self-serving? Of course they are. But the true art is in the film, not the advertisement.
  • "That is not our culture anymore. Okay, it’s not the only culture anymore."
    holly hell, thanks! Finally some one.
    I'm all in on moving on. I recently wrote a post explaining to my friends why to me, these days, Quentin Tarantino is NOT independent film - i.e. this is still a subject to explain.
    But if I'm jaded of something it's the whole discourse of 'having to change the way we think about film', of this being 'a revolution', of us 'needing to move on'. no practical examples...

    The taglines, like other promotional materials, are still very much the business of dressing up in colorful feathers, sticking your bum in the air and shouting 'notice me!' - notice me in the sea of other posters and taglines and films, because there's so many of them. indies, no-indies. it comes down to the competition for some one's saturday night.

    for a project i'm developing now, I came up with 3 things: one tacky tagline (witty word play), one boring tagline (descriptive) and one something different - graphic depiction of the title and some concepts.

    filmmakers i asked went for boring, others went for tacky, no one went for different. Perhaps it just wasn't a good idea..
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