As anyone who's visited www.2nd-unit.tv knows that we start production on a new docudrama with a working title of "El Papel". Many of those on the crew don't like the name but can't seem to come up with a better one. So, with that in mind, we're holding our first 2nd Unit contest calling it "Name That Production" A story was done on the production and is available on-line at 2nd Unit.TV. It'll remain there throughout the month of September. For being creative and coming up with a creative name, we thought it appropriate to give away a brnd new creative suite and we selected Adobe/Macromedia's Studio 8 which includes:


* Dreamweaver 8
Dreamweaver 8 is the industry-leading web development tool, enabling users to efficiently design, develop and maintain standards-based websites and applications. With Dreamweaver 8, web developers go from start to finish, creating and maintaining basic websites to advanced applications that support best practices and the latest technologies.

Get more done with Dreamweaver 8. New features and optimized workflows reduce the time required to complete common tasks.Integrate XML data with a powerful drag and drop workflow. Zoom in to get control over design and stay focused on the code with Code Collapse. Add Flash Video in five clicks of a mouse.

* Flash Professional 8
With Flash Professional 8, creative professionals design and author interactive content rich with video, graphics, and animation for truly unique, engaging websites, presentations or mobile content.

Flash Professional 8 has many brand new features including: amazing filter effects, integrated and stand-alone video encoding complete with support for alpha transparency, high-quality text rendering with advanced anti-aliasing control, improved text tools, and a new video plug-in to export Flash Video (FLV) files from professional video products.

* Fireworks 8
Create animated rollovers and pop-up menus with Fireworks 8's intuitive visual tools, and utilize round-trip editing capabilities with Dreamweaver 8 and Flash Professional 8 for greater efficiency.

Fireworks 8 has many new and improved features that make it a significant release. New features include effects like blends and shadows, more file formats supported for importing, pop-up menus in CSS format, and new image editing, autoshape properties and special characters panels for a better user experience.


* Contribute 3
With Contribute 3, websites stay fresh and resources become more focused by using a template-based, secure web publishing workflow that scales from small groups to full enterprises.

Contribute 3 offers flexibility and control for web content with features such as simple WYSIWYG browse -edit-and-publish capabilities, administrative controls for secured reviews before publishing, integration with Microsoft Office and Macromedia products, sharing of assets for efficiency and standardization, cross-platform and multi-browser support, and client- and server-side extensibility to support LDAP/ Active Directory connectivity and other custom systems integration.

* Flash Paper 2
FlashPaper 2 lets anyone easily convert documents, presentations, spreadsheet and other files into Macromedia Flash documents or PDF files with one click.

FlashPaper's tight integration with Microsoft Office products enable one-click generation of secure, compact Flash documents from within Office for use across websites, email, archiving and print.

So read the story on www.2nd-unit.tv and give us a name we can use. Yo'll be $500 richer in software if we pick you name and you'll get screen credit on the production.

Do you want to use this thread for our entries? Are we limited to one entry per person? Questions, questions, questions. :) Cause I've got several titles in mind already but I thought I'd get some clarification first. :)

Cheers!

i can't tell if this works with the story's current storyline, or if it's more a nod to its roots, but how 'bout "The Shirt Off My Back" or "The Shirts Off Our Backs"

ditto to greg's questions.

awesome show, y'all. me and my biz partner both enjoy it.

Let me answer these after I have a spot of dinner in about an hour so stay tuned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think you should submit through the board so everyone can see the caliber of your work. We'll keep a listing and go from there. So should we consider those your entries so far? And yes; enter as many times as you'd like. In the end, Sony, Apple, Adobe and we will be selecting the finalists with the winner selected by majority vote..

First up:

With Honors

"The Evermore Elusive American Dream" or "The Race for an American Dream" or "Chasing America" or "Chasing my American Dream"

We've had 3 submissions so far by people who think their ideas may be "stupid". I'm here to tell you there's no such thig. You shopuold hear some of the ones my wife and I came up with. Now those were "stupid". Anyway. Here are the ones from e-mail:

Making the Grade
New World Order
River Run
Border Wars
Class Action (rejected for previous name of MP)
Dream Chasers

Naming this production is a difficult thing to do because so much of the program's success hinges on a noteworthy name. That's why the wining prize for coming up with the right name is, we think, so great. $500 in software is appropriate where the competition is so important.

this one might be controversial but i think it gets at the duality of the subject since i've heard it used in both a subversive context and in a derogatory or sneering context, depending on who is speaking it:

"jose can you see"

Actualy that might just be a finalist. I can see your point and more so I appreciate your concern.
J

Jonathan, why is your working title "El Papel" or "The Paper. " What is that exactly an allusion to with respect to the theme or plot?

jonathan: i wouldn't have even mentioned it except that i think you have the intention to take care with the subject and are looking for even-handed representation. my daughter was born in mexico so i am completely biased in favor of open borders where we treat all of our "huddled masses yearning to be free" (ain't that who the Statue of Liberty is inviting across the waters??) with dignity and respect.

i spent two and a half months living in border towns, and i have to say that one thing omitted from this discussion is how many US ex-pats are living in Mexico, buying up cheap land and cheap labor in Mexico and building out little banana republics. entrepreneurs who can't afford the start-up costs in this country go into these poor, grinding towns and start up businesses. which isn't in itself a bad thing--it could be a good thing--if that segment wasn't populated by people who were treated badly in this country and then feel justified treating people even lower down the totem pole even more poorly...some rough goings-on in those border towns, i can tell you first-hand.

okay, this is getting more political than i know dvinfo wants or permits, but this is one of those issues which cuts at the heart of my family and is highly personal to me...the politics merely follow where my heart already lives.....my daughter is my daughter because her birth mother was born and raised in one of these towns....sorry jonathan, not trying to hijack your thread, just explaining my innards on offering you that title....

this one might be controversial but i think it gets at the duality of the subject since i've heard it used in both a subversive context and in a derogatory or sneering context, depending on who is speaking it:

"jose can you see"
Must be my Italian, I don't get it. What does the title mean and who is Jose?

Must be my Italian, I don't get it. What does the title mean and who is Jose?
Paolo, quella frase e una parodia o cio che si chiama "a play on words" in inglese. In questo caso "José can you see" e una parodia derivata dalle prime parole dell'inno nazionale degli Stati Uniti che dice "Oh say can you see..."

Sorry guys, I know Paolo speaks perfect English;I just couldn't resist practicing my italian with him. I was just explaining the play on words in "Jose can you see"

paolo: "oh, say can you see (by the dawn's early light, etc., etc)" is the opening line to the US national anthem. "jose" is used in this context as a generic stereotypical name representing a person of mexican descent. it doesn't refer to a specific person but rather to a stereotype which, like all stereotypes, can either be used as a weapon or reclaimed in defiance of its use as a weapon...

edit: what jaadgy said, i think!

paolo: "oh, say can you see (by the dawn's early light, etc., etc)" is the opening line to the US national anthem. "


Thanks! I didn't make the connection to the anthem.

Actually, Meryem, we're not that far apart as the purpose of all film is to spur discussion. These boards foster that creatiove thinking so I don't think you're hijacking the thread or going against policy. We all have viewpoints and that's why we have this forum. We want to hear your opinions because without them we'd have, well we'd have just Reality TV spoon-fed to us!

www.2nd-unit.tv has a story I think you'll find interesting relative. It ran in the trades here in LA on our production so you can see, as can everyone else who's reading and commenting or just lurking here like I know the dozens of you do that e-mail me do, why I elected to do this picture. Believe me, there are alot of other things I could spend the $500k I have budgeted for it on (and that's WITH sponsorships from companies like Sony, AbelCine, Tiffen, Steadicam, Fujinon, Studio Direct Cosmetic and, hopefully as we're supposed to hear back from them this week Apple) but with a daughter that was just denied admission to my alma mater, I'm pretty close to the situation. And, as the co-producer says in the article, I think I did a prety fair job on the working script keeping my opinion down and objectivity up. That's what we do in documentary film and if we're good enough at it, our results speaks to the very soul of the issue through the people who are touched by it. Yeah, I take somepretty zen-like looks at things like balloons but then again it's served me well in my years of making films. Nothing great. Nothing earth-shattering. Hecktelevision pays the bills, not my documentaries. But this one...this one's different which is why it's not a documentary but a docudrama the I've left objectively open-ended becuase after the last line's spoken ... after the smoke has cleared and the last bullet lies lodged...I can't tell yo where 'cuz that'd give up the ending..., there's still a story to tell. The family, their struggles still go on. The DREAM Act and 100 others like it go on; acts that affect in one way or another depending which side of the fence you're on, everyone who walks the face of this earth. And I think it'll make for compelling television. I've met wonderful people while researching this movie and I've learned so much about people like you...and ironically people like me. I've sat and spoken with people who are 7 and people who are 77. I've visited...we'll I just found and am starting to visit places like

http://boards.immigrationportal.com/forumdisplay.php?f=230

http://dreamact.info/forum/viewforum.php?f=3

and I've listened and learned. So don't think you're the only one who risks hijacking threads or running afoul of the moderators. That's what free speech is all about and its why we make movies...to have our voices heard. I have another show in the works right now relative to the only true Americans we have here, the American Indians. And, with the DREAM Act at a critical point before Congress in November, I had to hold that one to make El Papel. So there's lots more where this came from and I for one am glad you shared your views and I welcome you to our forum. Again, the peoples' voices is what this industry is all about and if it wasn't for people like Jarred and Chris creating and maintaining these boards, the world would be a lot quieter place, like the old USSR. Remember, movie making and the discussions surrounding it are not simply technical in nature. It's personal. It's real. Perhaps the most personal and real profession left on the fact of this earth. So there you have it. Welcome. I'm truly, truly happy you're here with us. We have much left to discuss you and I and the rest of 2nd Unit. Welcome

Jonathan, why is your working title "El Papel" or "The Paper. " What is that exactly an allusion with respect to the theme or plot?
El Papel is The Paper, in English, without which you have no life...no identity...no future. And it is the pursuit of El Papel or that Paper that this story reviolves around. I won't give away the whole storyline but think about having to beg, borrow or steal your way into a country and giving every ounce of yourself to two things; working a low paying, menaial job and making sure you don't get caught and deported. Now add to that the riggors of wanting and working for a better life through education to the point that you spend every waking hour studying to make it into a college. That means, as I found out last year, that your GPA needs, prior to admission, to be somewhere around 4.6, to make it into UCLA where I went. The bottom line is, if I thought I had it hard getting into college and making it through, try doing it the undocumented way. Now that's beating the odds. "El Papel" or "The Paper" is the story of a family whose partiarch was killed getting his family to America and now the mother is raising two teenagers; one about to graduate college knowing that because he is undocumented he can't make use of his hard-won diploma and the other 14 and being drawn to the gang and violence of the streets instead of the education his brother won. It's an eductional piece about the DREAM Act which is a bill in Congress right now as told through the eyes of a television drama and it's meant to educate as much as it is to entertain, a mixture I believe to be the next logical step in television. The production is close to me and again I urge you to read the story that's reprinted on our website 2nd-Unit.tv and the crew members we select for this venture are going to be involved in a film that's meant to be considered for an Emmy and submitted for consideration to the various film festivals with our supporter Sony entertainment. I wanted to mane it Paper Chase or something like that but that name was already used a decade ago for a tv series that chronicalled the pursuit of a lw degree.

"Brains & Borders"

Bob

jonathan, as a person who has sat on university selection committees, i can tell you first-hand that it can be a strange and arbitrary process and not one to be taken personally at all, any more than a rejection from a publisher or film festival is necessarily a reflection of the quality of the work. more like a reflection of biases, tastes, market forces, and hidden agendas....and i was personally responsible for rejecting applicants who were way (and i mean way!) more qualified than i was at the time i applied....the times are different in higher ed than when we were at that place in life...

but that's a whole 'nother documentary!

thanks fer the warm welcome to your neck of the dvinfo woods! (i'm a bit of a wildlife forum geek myself....)

The Esoteric:

Rainbows At Midnight

Thematic:

Dreams and Diplomas
Dreams of Diplomas
Some variation therein.

You guys are putting us to shame...and making us proud. These are great titles!

"Illegal, But Stacked With Honors"

"Diploma Diplomacy"

Bob

"Higher Education for Illegal Dreamers" or "An Illegal Existence In Higher Education"

How about "Educated Am I?"

Without a comma, it makes it sound like a failure of the Amercian Education system, or does it?

Dang grammer and spelling, always getting in the way of free speach.

"Daydreaming in School - hope for a better education."
"Daydream Believer - A better education."
"ESL - Education's Secret Learners."

Just send me the package, no need to go on.

"Wet Diplomas"

Bob

I smell a faux pas approaching...lol

Pardon the ignorance, whats a faux pas?

Bob

Pardon the ignorance, whats a faux pas?

Bob
A faux pas is a slip or blunder in etiquette or the utterance of something that might be considered offensive.

No offense intended. If it seems offensive, I apologize and perhaps a moderator could delete it.

Bob

Nope. No offense taken or meant. Great names. Keep up the great work.

Cold War Classroom
Educational Embargo
Guerilla Guidance

They kinda sound political or like a war, but these people are fighting for their education in a subtle way.

"THE PAPER MARATHON" or "RUNNING IN A PAPER MARATHON" or "IN CHASE OF THE PRECIOUS PAPER" or "THE NEVERENDING PAPER CHASE"

"In Pursuit of El Papel"

Bob

"The Thirst For Knowlege"

Could have tie-ins with potential desert scences of dehydrated characters.

Bob

Liking these names!

Los Angeles - means city of angels.

How about Los Estudiante!

El estudiante ilegal - The illegal student.

Dreaming in English


Tip McPartland

in keeping with my idea about a double entendre patriotic-ironic theme:

"the new colossus"
maybe the reference is too obscure, but it's the name of the poem on the statue of liberty, "huddled masses yearning to be free" etc., also a reference to the size of the issue of fluid borders....

or "the border of education" too much of a pun?

i sort of like "el papel" personally, but understand that it is a bit obscure when a title should reveal more to the broadest possible audience...

"BETTING IT ALL FOR THE PAPER" or "LEGAL PAPERS: THE NEW EL DORADO" or
"FORGING AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE ACROSS THE BORDER"

"BETTING IT ALL FOR THE PAPER" or "LEGAL PAPERS: THE NEW EL DORADO" or
"FORGING AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE ACROSS THE BORDER"
Are you a fan of Lina Wertmuller ;)?

I leave for a couple of weeks and come back to see how life is accelerating at 2nd Unit!

Okay, here are some of my thoughts:

Grading America
This could be interpreted to have at least three apropo meanings--the socioeconomic grading of America, the inequities of the grading system for college admissions, and the grading of our nation in terms of immigrants, U.S. citizens, and education rights.

Rio de Papeles
In reference to your original working title, this refers to the many documents (papers) an immigrant must fill out to obtain the papers (documents) that will grant them a secure future in America. They must successfully navigate this river of papers. If they are undocumented, illegal immigrants, then the river of papers is a whitewater torrent that endangers their future in America.

Paper borders
Although undocumented immigrants face real border fences and other hazardous obstacles, the biggest obstacle they face is getting their papers--be it green card, drivers license, or diploma.

Diploma Diplomacy
Self describing

Are you a fan of Lina Wertmuller ;)?
hahaha why do you say that? you mean because the titles are too long?

"Paper Chasers"

"The Great Paper Chase"

"Diplomacy"

oooo, jeff, i like "rio de papeles" but i think bob schneider already scooped you on "diploma diplomacy"...

how about "a matter of degree"

"it's not easy getting green"--or "it's not easy being green"

too cartoonish?

"greener pastures"--

"the grass is greener in the U.S.A." or some derivation of?

"this side, that side, which side are you on?"

barfing up titles left and right....

hahaha why do you say that? you mean because the titles are too long?
Yeah, I was almost expecting something like "Summer night with passionate search for the immigration papers" ;)

oooo, jeff, i like "rio de papeles" but i think bob schneider already scooped you on "diploma diplomacy"...

...

barfing up titles left and right....

Thanks, Meryem!

I guess I forgot about Bob's suggestion after reading the three pages of posts--or maybe it is such a good title that it stuck in my mind.

Hey, I like the title "barfing up titles." It might not be relevant to the subject at hand, but it sure would be a good title for something.

"American Dreams Are Paper Thin" or "My American Dream Is Paper Thin" or "Paper Thin Hopes"

Gettin there, guys.