Counting appearances of Hannibal Lecter on screen

hannibal.py

import sys
import datetime
import json
from time import strftime
from termcolor import colored

print('Hannibal Lecter appearance counter')
title = input('Please enter the film title: ')

recording = False
capture_started_at = ''
occurrences = []

def title_to_filename(title):
    title = title.replace(' ', '_')
    date = datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%Y%m%d%H%M%S")
    filename = "%(title)s_%(date)s.txt" % locals()
    return filename

def save_occurrence():
    global recording
    recording = False
    time_total = (datetime.datetime.now() - capture_started_at).total_seconds()
    occurrences.append(time_total)

def finish():
    total = sum(occurrences)
    count = len(occurrences)
    print_to_file(total, count, occurrences)
    print('Tallying up the results!')
    print("Registered %(count)s occurrences, totalling %(total)s seconds." % locals())
    sys.exit()


def print_to_file(total, count, items):
    f = open(title_to_filename(title), 'a')
    json.dump({'total': total, 'count': count, 'items': items}, f, indent=2)
    f.close()

def start_recording():
    global recording, capture_started_at
    capture_started_at = datetime.datetime.now()
    recording = True
    print(colored('Hannibal is on! Press ENTER to mark when he disappears.', 'blue'))

def stop_recording():
    save_occurrence()
    print(colored('Hannibal occurrence captured!', 'green'))
    print('Press ENTER to record the next one, or type \'the end\' to finish.')

def error_message():
    print(colored('Sorry, I didn\'t understand that. Press ENTER or type \'the end\' to finish.', 'red'))

print('Press ENTER to record an occurrence.')
for line in sys.stdin:
    if line == '\n':
        if recording:
            stop_recording()
        else:
            start_recording()
    elif line == 'the end\n':
        if recording:
            stop_recording()
        finish()
    else:
        error_message()