Where other people get satisfaction from cryptic crosswords or Sudoku, I derive pleasure from coming up with straplines.  I’ve been doing that this afternoon, while at what would otherwise be a rare loose end, and have set my sights on coming up with straplines for the projects that a producer colleague will be taking out with her to Cannes.

She initiated the first of those concepts, that I’m doing a good job at working into a treatment.  The story concerns an a remote island where an unusual presence amplifies emotions with unfortunate consequences, the idea being to create a low budget sci fi/horror tale.  And I’m very pleased with what I’ve developed from that basic premise, and the title I’ve come up with for it.

Contagion, it’s called, and that has a pleasing feel to it, with its implicit notion of a virus and other unpleasantness appropriate to the genre.  But, what about the strapline?  It took a little while and some false starts to realise that the heart of the story is very much about that unique element of emotions being toyed with.  And from there it wasn’t far to CONTAGION: your emotions will be the death of you.

In nine words, that line captures pretty succinctly what audiences are in for.  No indication of how feelings create doom, but hopefully the concept that the two are linked is one that would appeal to both genders with a yen for a Friday night shocker at the cinema.  Which, bottom line, is what we’re aiming at here: a decent British horror that can turn a profit on a low budget.

Then there’s another project, a very different one.  It’s a personal drama masquerading as a psychological thriller, and it’s a story that means a lot to me.  It’s very much the sort of film that would appeal to fans of Memento and Insomnia.  Only, I never had a title for it until earlier today.  It had been lumbered with the working title Fallen Angel, but even to me that sounds like a dismal AOR ballad, the sort of trite stadium pleaser that Guns ‘n’ Roses would crank out before their big rocking encore.

Anyway, I now have a title for it.  State of Mind. Which, yes, may well owe something to State of Play.  But why ever not?  Works for me anyway.  Takes you straight to the heart of things, which I want the strapline to tease out some more.  Hmm.

The strapline then…well, straplines in this case.  I’ve come up with a few, variations on a theme, and I’m leaving it to the producer to filter through and decide which she thinks works best.  Or maybe one in particular will start to stand out for me, and I’ll propose that one.  Whatever.

Anyway, here are the contenders…

STATE OF MIND: sanity is just a choice.

STATE OF MIND: sanity is overrated

STATE OF MIND: sanity isn’t always the sane choice.

STATE OF MIND: why be limited by sanity?

All of these, I believe — as of 17.36 on Tuesday April 28 — have something going for them.  They’re all striking propositions that would provoke at least some people to want to know more, and that’s exactly what you want a  strapline to do.  Simple as.  And difficult as.

We shall see.  One version of events is that we now have enough raw stuff to do mock-up posters, but I don’t know whether the producer considers that a useful route.  At any rate, I certainly feel I’ve given her some lines which trip off the tongue with ease, and hopefully leave people intrigued.  And if those people happen to be potential production partners or financiers, so much the better.

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