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118 THE CAST OF CHARACTERS sons against and only one reason in favor of such identification and that the names sound pretty is no reason whatever. 10. Call your heroines by short but pleasant names as Amy. Bess, Betty, Marie. Get something that suggests intimacy. Not even an Editor can feel on good terms with a heroine who is called Miss Smith all through the script, nor will Tryphosa suggest a lovable, cuddlesome sort of young woman. Get a good name for her and call her by her first name. 11. For your hero.you will need a strong yet musical name. It is general to use a diminutive, if there is one. Jack suggests a dashing young man. John calls to mind an older and more sedate man, the "Jack" grown up. In the same way Jim sounds more youthful than James, and Harry more sprightly than Henry. 12. For your antagonists pick out names that have a slightly harsh sound. For a man it is better to use his last name and pick out an unmusical one. For a woman you are more likely to use the given name, but be certain that it is less musical than that of the heroine. 13. In general we call young people by their first names and their elders and servants by surnames. Servants scarcely need names if they do not figure importantly, but may be designated as the butler, the maid or the cook. Where these names are used in the script, you drop the article and instead of saying that "the butler enters," you use a capital and say: "Butler enters." It is the same way with others who do not figure in many scenes. If a detective is used, you call him a Detective, and not Hawkshaw. If he is one of the leads, however, it is better to use a name. Where one clerk is employed in an office scene, you say he is the clerk. If there are two and you want to differentiate them you call one the bookkeeper and the other the cashier rather than Jones and Smith. This makes it easier to follow the story in the script than if you had a given name and a surname for every character, no matter how slight their importance. Use names only for the few who possess real distinction and who require a really individual tag. Do not talk about Higginson when Higginson is merely the butler who brings on telegrams and wine glasses. No one in the studio will care what his name is and it will not show^ on the screen. 14. Much can be done with the skillful use of names in the script.. Offering a story in which hero and heroine are called Gwendolyn and Pete is like trying to sell a green hat with pink ribbons. You might do it, but the color scheme would not help much. Get the names to match the characters precisely as you match the action to the story. The Editor will appreciate it if no one else does and his is the ap- preciation that means much to you. 15. But above all other things, please understand that appropriate names does not mean calling a lawyer "Skinnem," a detective "Katch- em" or a ph^'sician "Killim." It may be tremendously clever, but it is not apt to impress the Editor that way. 16. For preliminary work it may help the student to employ a scheme devised by Lloyd Lonergan, of the Thanhouser Company. He has set