James Harbeck analyzes some of the common annoying sounds in [teenage speech](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY2R_K3NFPo&feature=player_embedded).
What’s interesting to me is how difficult many of them are to write in dialogue. I often find myself placing them in scene description or another character’s parenthetical.
MARY
You’ll get another 4S. You don’t need a 5.
(off Caleb’s whiny gasp)
Yeah -- next time, don’t try to Snapchat your junk in a hot tub.
Andrew Lippa and I did an interview for Big Fish about our collaboration. We recorded it in the lobby of the Oriental Theater while the show was playing, so in the background you can hear Kate Baldwin singing “I Don’t Need a Roof” from the second act.
The 22-year old twins at the center of my 1999 TV show D.C. were named Mason and Finley. I picked those names because they sounded like a brother and sister who came from some money — or at least the kids of English professors. I pictured them solving mysteries as teenagers.
I also picked those names because they were rare. I’d never encountered any actual people with those names.
Now the country is lousy with Masons. For 2012, it’s the [#2 name in America](http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/), steadily climbing from #64 in 2000.
And while Finley isn’t exactly common, it has grown quite a bit. In 2005, it was the #986 name. For 2012, it’s #349. (Still, the only Finley I’ve met in real life is an eight-year old boy in my daughter’s French class.)
D.C. lasted only seven low-rated episodes, so I can’t take any credit for these names rising in popularity. But it’s interesting to realize that names chosen for their relative obscurity may not stay that way.
For the hero of Chosen, I picked Asha. Right now, it’s ranked #978, but in a world full of Emmas and Ellas, it feels like the kind of name that has room to grow.
(The scripts for D.C. are available in the [Library](http://johnaugust.com/library).)
IndieWire [lists the cameras](http://www.indiewire.com/article/what-cameras-did-the-2013-tribeca-filmmakers-use) used by filmmakers at the 2013 Tribeca Festival. The ARRI Alexa is, unsurprisingly, a popular choice, as is the Canon 5D.
But what I find heartening is just how many different types of rigs are in use, from SLRs to older videocams to iPhones. There’s no one “right” camera, so fetishizing pixels and dynamic range is often detrimental.
If you’re making a movie, the best camera is the one that works for your style, story and budget.