Naming Rites

Finding the right name for a film often takes months and months - we didn't settle on "Journeyman" until we were nearly done editing the film, nearly three years into the process - and many of the names along the way make me cringe in retrospect...

"The Power of Boys"
"Double-Edged Sword"
"The Path to Manhood"
"Circle of Men"

... ugh. They're not all terrible, but not one of them is good. At least in my opinion - not one, if I saw it in the TV Guide channel scrolling by, would inspire me to check out the program.

And, with Journeyman, there was the issue of a current NBC show with the same title - but the name was right enough to justify the potential for confusion, in my opinion. I was happy to note that the show lasted less than one season - a victim of the writer's strike, I believe - and I imagine it'll be mostly forgotten in a few years.

Dain mentioned that he didn't like "Masculine Myth" as a name - sounds clinical, to him - and he perked up when I mentioned an alternative, "A Man's World" - which has some cultural caché already because of the James Brown song.

I also kind of like "Man Alive" - it's something that my grandfather would say, as a kind of G-rated exclamation, similar to how one might use "Hot Damn!"...

But who knows where the real title of the film will come from - it could be uttered by one of our interview subjects eighteen months from now.

Suggestions welcome.