Climax This is the biggest scene in the film. Good vs. Evil comes to a head and all the loose ends in the story are tied up. Your main character must fight their last battle, whether it be physically or emotionally. Resolution The final scene of the movie. Everything is right in the story world, your main character has a grown as a person and now “rides off into the sunset” to live a rich, fulfilling life. Character Development Wednesday, January 30, 2013 It’s been said that a truly great character can save an otherwise poor script. In a perfect world every script would tell a great story and be chock full of interesting characters, however this isn’t a perfect world. Some people are great storytellers who provide a fantastical narrative to their script but the characters feel lifeless and more like props to tell the story when, in fact, in should be a cast of scintillating character moving the script along. In this section of the site filmscriptwriting will offer techniques, guides, and quizzes to help the aspiring scriptwriter develop intriguing characters with m Character Research Wednesday, January 30, 2013 You’ve got a great idea for a script. Your main character is a hotel manager who, with sheer will and determination, wants to become the owner of the biggest chain of hotels in the world. Okay, so that’s not a great idea but you get my point. Every script needs a main character to drive the story along. The main character should be, in general, the deepest and most interesting character. When you finally get to sitting down and starting the scriptwriting process you realise that you don’t know the first thing about running a hotel. Bit of a stumbling block, don’t you think? This is where character research comes in. You need to find what drives these characters, what their concerns are, how they keep going, what their goals are. It is only in getting to grips with your character that they will light up your script rather than dragging it along with them. General Character Research The one great thing about general character research is that you’ve always got something to fall back on. Remember how your grandma would always say goodbye to her cat before leaving her house? Or how your friend would always sit on certain seat on the bus if it was available? These are all general character traits which can be noticed while people watching. Most writers are people watchers. Every little quirk you see in people you know, or people you don’t, can’t be used to flesh out the characters in your script. I assume that more or less everyone who’s reading this went to a school of some sort. If you’re writing a script with a couple of schoolchildren in then you can draw on your personal experience and memories and create a couple of solid characters with fun tails of pranks and mischief. Everything you experience in life can be taken as general character research for scriptwriting. Every emotion you’ve felt, every relationship, every job provides with a broad background of character knowledge you can draw upon. Specific Character Research I’ve heard a few times that you should “write what you know” and while there is merit in that, part of the fun for many scriptwriters is immersing themselves in a new environment. Using my opening idea of a hotel manager I’ll highlight what specific character research is. I don’t personally know any hotel managers but that does not need be a stumbling block. Information is easier than ever to access. I’m sure if you were to search the internet they’d be a blog of a hotel manager, a myspace or facebook page or maybe even a forum full of hotel managers…which is a scary thought. You could strike up an online rapport with one of these hotel managers and have a wealth of information at your fingertips. Go down to you local library (if you want to be a scriptwriter try to avoid ever paying for anything!) and read a book on business management. Depending on how good the library is they may even have one specifically on hotel management. My favorite approach though is the personal one. Treat yourself to a short break and stop in a small hotel. Get talking to the manager and let him know you’re a scriptwriter, you’d be surprised how open people will be with you especially if you offer to take them for a meal or a coffee. When people hear you’re a writing a script and they can help you the lure of their having some portion of their life on the big screen is just too much for most people to resist. I hope you’ve enjoyed this piece on character research. Stay tuned because there’ll be more to come. Character Background Wednesday, January 30, 2013 When you are developing a character for your script you need to be aware that they do not live in a vacuum. Their environment and upbringing will shape them greatly. A 40 year old man from 18th century England will be vastly different from a 40 year old man from present day England. If you want to understand a character you need to understand the context of the character. Think of context as the jug and the character as water. As the water is poured into the jug the shape it takes depends on the shape of the jug. Cultural Background There are many cultural influences you have to consider when planning out your character. Ethnic - How would Irish American differ from an Italian American? Think about their speech, how they express themselves, mannerisms, attitudes and life philosophy. Social - Is your character from an well-to-do Washington family or a dirt poor Detroit family? How would this affect them? Religious - Your character will have a religious philosophy. They could be Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Agnostic or Atheist? How would this change their attitudes to people of other religions? Or how they deal with moral situations? Education - How long did your character go to school? Did they enjoy it? Were they popular? What did they study? The Time Period Most scriptwriters choose to write in the current period. This is because the audience of the time can relate to cultural references and a lot less research is required. Setting a script in the future is no problem as you can choose to take the world in any direction you wish but the past is a lot more tricky. You need to take into account that the way characters talk will be quite different. The vocabulary, rhythm, obscenities and meanings of words will not be the same as today’s speech pattern. Similarly the clothes, amenities and buildings were vastly different. This all needs to be researched thoroughly if you want the world your script is in to be realistic. Location A script set in New York will undoubtedly have a much different flavor to one set in Rhode Island. It is a lot easier to write about the place you live than somewhere you have never even seen before. This cuts down on the amount of research needed as you know a lot more about the area you’ve lived in for the last 20 years than somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit but never got round to. It is unwise to write about a location that you’ve never been to before but it can be done. It just requires a lot of specific research. The location affects clothing, attitudes, pace of life, accents, etc. Occupation The occupation of a character and how it affects them is often overlooked in film and can be downright ignored in a TV series. A farmer is going to have a much different pace of life than a stockbroker. A model is going to dress more stylishly than a postal worker. Depending on the occupation the character may have a unique set of skills. A negotiator is going to be very good at working people around to his way of thinking. Also the occupation and cultural background can prove to be closely related. That well-to-do Washington man is a much more likely to be the CEO of a company than the dirt-poor Detroit man. Interview Your Character You might find it helpful to write out an interview with your character to find out their background. Imagine they are someone you’ve just met for the first time and you want to find out more about them. Perhaps the best question you can ever ask a character is “what would you do if…?”
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:55:44 +0000
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