character names?

Started by prophet, March 02, 2004, 02:54:56 PM

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prophet

how do you think of your character's first and last name? I like looking at movie and TV credits.
We gonna do a little Q&A Mr. Worley, and at the risk of sounding redundant please... make your answers Genuine...

kotte

Final Drafts Name Database... :)

SoNowThen

If at all possible, I use something that describes them. Like one person read a short of mine, and said the main character was a "shell of a man", hence his name became Sheldon Mann.

And so on...

Doesn't always work, but when it does you feel clever.
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

Raikus

I'm very big into finding the proper names for my characters. I always put some thought in it and come up with something that could be read into if you looked hard enough. Even if that means finding the definitions of names to reflect attributes towards the character.
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free, silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands, with all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves, let me forget about today until tomorrow.

kotte

I actually think it's one of the hardest things in writing.

prophet

mann is a jewish name isnt it?
We gonna do a little Q&A Mr. Worley, and at the risk of sounding redundant please... make your answers Genuine...

SoNowThen

Dunno.



Yeah, finding names is usually the last thing I do before doing a dialogue draft of a script. And even then I leave most names as The Mother, The Hot Chick, The Doctor, and so on.

One of my friends names everyone of his main characters Mike, in all planning stages. To simplify things, I guess... :roll:
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

prophet

i think of first names but not last names.
We gonna do a little Q&A Mr. Worley, and at the risk of sounding redundant please... make your answers Genuine...

The Perineum Falcon

I work at a Medical Billing place, so I get to see all these interesting names the patients in the hospitals have.  I usually see one that strikes my fancy, or maybe I'll combine two names.
We often went to the cinema, the screen would light up and we would tremble, but also, increasingly often, Madeleine and I were disappointed. The images had dated, they jittered, and Marilyn Monroe had gotten terribly old. We were sad, this wasn't the film we had dreamed of, this wasn't the total film that we all carried around inside us, this film that we would have wanted to make, or, more secretly, no doubt, that we would have wanted to live.

A Matter Of Chance

Sometimes a name just comes along with the character. Other times.... they don't.

MacGuffin

I have a book of baby names that lists their origin and meaning. I like to put a subconscious/hidden "message" in a character's name; whether it relates to the character or his/her story.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

grand theft sparrow

Things got hard for me once I stopped naming characters after characters from other movies as homage (i.e. "Eliza" and "Sabrina" after Audrey Hepburn characters).

Now I try to use common names (Bill, Bob, Mike, etc.) for minor characters and really pick apart phone books for less common names.  

But I have to pick wisely because otherwise, I'm liable to come up with something the likes of Clayton MacGillicuddy and only the Coens can pull off a name like that.

Pubrick

Quote from: kotteI actually think it's one of the hardest things in writing.
that's true. if u can make great character names (and not just gag ones), u are a genius.

wes anderson is untouchable in this regard.
under the paving stones.

ono

What makes a great character name in your opinion?

Pubrick

good question.

basically that the character looks like their name.. and that it sounds good. it's a fine art, with some basics: if a person is of foreign descent or ethnic appearance u can get away with stranger names, like Pagoda.

the real essence of a good name, the art of it, can probably be attributed to pleasant-sounding syllable combinations, alliteration is the most simple.. "Anthony Adams" "Dirk Diggler".  the tenenbaums were especially great, cos the parents names were softly magisterial "royal, etheliene", and the intrusion of a harsh consonant in the kids gives them a broken quality "Chas, Richie, Margot."

anyway, it's a real talent, also that they all mean sumthing in a poetic (linguistic) sort of way. herman blume, rosemary cross.. that is so what they do.
under the paving stones.