I have just finished writing my new short film but I don't have names for the characters. How do you name your characters and where should I look for inspiration?
There are a few ways to name characters. One is for theme. Sometimes you've got a biblical theme in there somewhere so you might have a character named Adam for example. Or one character is angelic despite her appearance you can name her Angela.
Another way is to give off a bit of character (either of the character or their parent). Biff sounds like a bully. Tom Drake sounds like a tough but no nonsense fellow, perhaps a cop. Short sort of means no-nonsense or action. Longer can leave an impression of romantic or weak or elitist. Charles Emmerson Winchester III comes to mind.
I have seen names derived from other movies. Any Barbara appearing in a zombie movie for example is likely an homage to Night of the Living Dead (see Shaun of the Dead "We're coming to get you Barbara!" for an example there).
If a movie is a bit comic book in inspiration you might want the same letter sound for first and last name. Clark Kent. Lois Lane. Bruce Banner.
You can give a bit of ethnic identity with a name. YOu don't need to say a character is Irish if you name them Shamus McFly. YOu send a different signal if every detail about a character screams Irish but the name is Smith.
Lastly, it is best to avoid having multiple characters with similar names as this leads to reader confusion. Similar in initial character, or length or whatever. Write your names down in a list and read them back and see.
Lastly sometimes a characters name is just a name. Names are somewhat random.
RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA
RJSchwarz
look in a book eg.a-z on names or check out a website
quote:
quote:
quote:
Rob - UK
