A name is a very powerful entity. It can define who we are or what an object is. It is a label that attracts attention or deters attention. In some ways a name, is a pitch. If you are talking to someone about a film, as soon as you say the name, they are either interested or bored.

As a writer, creating a name for your work is one of the most important decisions you have to make. It gives the piece, meaning. Though it is extremely difficult to come up with the perfect name. A name should speak to the very soul of the piece it is representing. Some people are extremely talented and gifted in the “name-giving” department. I on the other hand sweat bullets trying to come up with the simplest of titles. Sometimes I will go for days not even writing because I need to know what it is I am going to write about.

Scouring the internet or seeing the latest films or TV shows, I have noticed that I am not alone, as some titles are horrendous; and I don't even understand how someone settled on them, while others are spot on and says everything it needs to say. Being a perfectionist I will sit for hours coming up with different titles. Dismissing them one after the other, being as harsh as I can. A title to me needs to sing. It needs to go into my very core and make me feel as if cupid has struck my heart with an arrow for this story, anything less is not worth the time.

When you think of titles, a few that come to mind are Only God Forgives (2013), No Country For Old Men (2007), Gone With The Wind (1939), and Casablanca (1942). Now of course there are millions of amazing titles but these titles come to my head because they are more than just titles. They are a statement longer than the letters that created them. They say exactly what the film is about, and are metaphors for the relationship between the film and life. There is subtext woven so deeply into the fabric of their nature that it screams out for attention.

In coming up with the title for my TV series, it came to me one day as I sat in my room thinking about my life and my career. I had just finished trying to convince a cop not to give me a ticket. It got me thinking about my career and how I will always have to be pitching and convincing people to, let me do this project or to do this camera move or to have this beat for a character. I then thought about my life and how often in life you always have to convince people. You have to convince your parents to buy you something as a kid. You have to convince a girl/ guy to go on a date with you. You have to convince your boss why you need a promotion. Just like that, I realized we are doomed to forever having to convince each other and pitch ideas to one another for the rest of our lives. I thought to myself "Damn, ain't life a bitch..." Wait a minute! That's it! The title to my TV Series should be... "Life’s A Pitch".

The show's character is constantly being put up against difficult times that grind him down. Non-stop he pitches why he is such a good guitar player and why some should give him a chance. It also plays on the word "Pitch". Pitch meaning in the business sense of pitching an idea to someone but also in the music sense such as, "that singer hit a really high pitch". It was after this discovery that I fell in love with this title. It fit perfectly with the world I am trying to create and to the character and to life outside of the show.

I can now only hope that the name becomes a name heard throughout the world as people watch the show falling in love with the characters and the style of the show. Nothing would make me happier than to have changed at least one life from the name of my work.

What's In A Name?

C.S. Chandler

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