What’s In A Name?

As we get closer to having a finished film, we’ve started to focus increasingly on our plans for it. While strategizing about distribution, we are also thinking about presentation. The most important aspect of presentation is the name. For at least a year we have been working with the title “Battle of Brooklyn.” However, we have become increasingly dissatisfied with this title for a number of reasons.

We want a title that keys in on the themes of the film, but one that is open enough to allow people to have a broad set of expectations. The idea of “home” is important, but so is the idea of standing up for principles. Here are a few that we have tossed around:

No Place Like Home
Home Game
Home
A Home
We Live Here

In terms of distribution, we have to think of a broader set of problems. Films with names that begin with “A” do much better on VOD than others because they are the first ones that people scroll through. We also have to think of other projects with similar names; “Home Movie\” might have been a great title if there wasn’t an awesome doc with this title already. Web site availability is another big factor. As we brainstormed this morning we got a very rude awakening after typing in weliverhere.com – WARNING- it’s a porn site without a splash page. This actually makes it hard for us to consider this name. It would be terrible if the film began to get some press and people started searching for it and ended up on this page.

We look forward to your ideas and votes on the ones that we have come up with- as well as those that you suggest.

16 Comments
  • Toby Barlow
    Posted at 11:45h, 03 August Reply

    Home Front
    A Broken Home
    Breaking and Entering
    Homage
    Stealing Home
    Home Base
    Broken Homes
    Not At Home
    We Were Here
    Where We Were
    The Last Place We Called Home

  • diana2mo
    Posted at 11:57h, 03 August Reply

    Some ideas:
    – We Live Here: The Battle Against Destructive Development
    – We Live Here: The Devastation of Downtown Brooklyn
    – Heartbroken in Brooklyn
    – Home is Where the Heart Broke
    – No Longer Home: The Devastation of Downtown Brooklyn

  • Sherry Beilinson
    Posted at 14:45h, 03 August Reply

    A HOUSE IS NOT A HOME( AS IN THE HOUSE THAT FORREST RATNER BUILT)

    A SHATTERED HOME

  • Matteo
    Posted at 16:55h, 03 August Reply

    Hello,
    No matter what your title will be, it has to have the word “Brooklyn” in it. The community fight over the AY project was much more than just the right to retain your place from the abusive hands of eminent domain and involved people from the whole borough, not just those in the proximity of the project footprint.

    As a matter of fact, George F Will chose exactly the words “”Battle of Brooklyn” to start his article:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/01/AR2010010101367.html

    However, your observation about the name that do well on VOD is interesting, for this reason I would call it “A battle in Brooklyn”
    or “A battle in Brooklyn: enter the Arena”
    or “A battle in Brooklyn: David vs the avid hands of power”

    Hope this helps,
    Matteo

  • LUCY KOTEEN
    Posted at 17:38h, 03 August Reply

    HOME RULE
    DISPLACEMENT
    A BATTLE WELL FOUGHT
    COMMUNITY VS CORPORATION
    WE WON’T GO QUIETLY
    BROOKLYN SOLD (NAME OF A SONG BY MAURICIO ALEXANDER)
    HYPE VS HOME
    BULLDOZED

  • Mindy Fullilove
    Posted at 18:21h, 03 August Reply

    Around the corner, Sean and Alexa, friends of my daughter Molly, had painted a beautiful “home” on their building. I like that for the title. The graphic was splendid. Everything’s a porn site, I think, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that.

  • Matteo
    Posted at 19:00h, 03 August Reply

    At a second thought, the name that I’d choose is definitely:

    “A Battle of Brooklyn: Enter the Arena”

  • Lawrence C. Starr
    Posted at 19:34h, 03 August Reply

    How about:

    A Home Lost
    A Home, A Tragedy
    A Home and a Hole In The Ground
    Stealing Home – A Modern Fable
    Just a few off the top of my head.

  • Andreas Horvath
    Posted at 02:00h, 04 August Reply

    Hey Michael,

    this comes from Salzburg, Austria, so I am not sure I qualify or you even give a shit, but yeah: “Battle of Brooklyn”, definately! Without any amendments. Especially when you think of intl. fests and audiences. Btw, how about “Battle for Brooklyn”?

    Anyway, looks like the end of a real longtime project. I remember you were talking about this when I visited you in 2004. Good luck with it, curious to see the film!

    Andreas

    • Michael
      Posted at 10:26h, 04 August Reply

      Thanks andreas
      great to hear from you .
      new trailer up soon

  • The Doors Spin Wildly - NEWS
    Posted at 10:11h, 04 August Reply

    […] exist in the armed services and financial fields. A lot of the issues at play in our film, “A Battle in Brooklyn” (click on link to see discussion of title) have to do with the revolving door between developers […]

  • Eric McClure
    Posted at 15:11h, 04 August Reply

    Here are a few thoughts:

    Brooklyn Dodge
    Holdout
    Not for Sale
    Hands Off Our Home
    The People vs. Bruce C. Ratner

    Unfortunately already taken: Home Alone

  • David Thayer
    Posted at 03:03h, 05 August Reply

    How about —

    RAILROADED

    — in reference to the railyards … although I admit that I also like BROOKLYN DODGE and BULLDOZED above as well —

  • Chad Claussen
    Posted at 09:03h, 06 August Reply

    Home: Ratner’s Domain
    No Place Like Arena: Especially in Brooklyn
    No Place Like Home: Expect in Brooklyn

    Here are a few of the ones I came up with. I know they are not very good, but I hope you have some good inspiration coming up with a name and finishing it up.

  • David Goldstein
    Posted at 14:32h, 08 August Reply

    A Separate Piece of Brooklyn
    A Home Grows in Brooklyn
    The Artful Brooklyn Dodger
    Broke-lyn
    We Lived There
    We Live…Where?
    The Butcher, The Mayor and the Neighborhood-Breaker
    Apocalypse Brown
    Apocalypse Row
    Apocalypse How
    Apocalypse Cash Cow
    Home and Dearth
    We Can’t Go Home Again

    Marty: Tale of a Big Fat Fucking Douchebag

  • David Goldstein
    Posted at 14:42h, 08 August Reply

    Broken Homes
    Last Exit for Brooklyn
    A Fast Exit for Brooklyn

    Please stop me…I can go on all day.

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