Developing you characters

1.  Think of an interesting character from a
movie.Who is the character?What makes the
character interesting?

2. Wolf: “Just because you are a character
doesn’t mean you have character.”
–QuentinTarantino and Roger Avary
Pulp Fiction

3.  A good character is unique as a person.
 A person is defined by what he does, not
what he says, it is his actions that determine
his character.

4.  Good characters are the heart and soul of
your screenplay.
 The story is told through your characters and
this engages the audience to experience the
universal emotions that transcend our
ordinary reality.
 The purpose of creating good characters is
to capture our unique sense of humanness,
to touch, move, and inspire (or even terrify)
the audience.

5. “All drama is conflict; without conflict, you
have no action; without action, you have no
character; without character you have no
story; and without story, you have no
screenplay.” –Syd Field

6. “All drama is conflict; without conflict, you
have no action; without action, you have no
character; without character you have no
story; and without story, you have no
screenplay.” –Syd Field

7. Take-aways:
 Drama is Conflict
 Physical or EmotionalViolence
 Conflict forces action which reveals character.
 Story is dramatic conflict in action
 Conflict = a “want” or “desire” plus an obstacle
 Great stories are about adversity.
 No conflict, no story

8.  You need to know your character inside and
out.
 You need to know their hopes and dreams
and fears, their likes and dislikes, their
background and mannerisms.
 You need to know their personal history.

9.  Your character must be an active force in
your screenplay, not a passive one.
 If your main character is too passive, then he
or she often disappears off the page and a
minor character will leap forward to draw
attention away from the main character.

10.  Have a strong dramatic need.
 Have an individual point of view.
 The character personifies an attitude.
 The character often goes through some kind
of change or transformation.

11.  Dramatic need is what your main character
wants to win, gain, get, or achieve during
the course of your screenplay.
 It is his purpose, his mission, his motivation,
the force that drives him through the
narrative action of the story line.
 The dramatic need of the character may
change during the course of the screenplay
based on events.

12.  “The world is as you see it.” –YogaVasistha
 Point of view is the way a person sees, or
views, the world.
 Every person has an individual point of view.
 Point of view is a belief system, and as we
know, what we believe to be true, is true for
us.

13.  Attitude is a manner or opinion and
encompasses a person’s behavior.
 Examples of attitude are being socially or
morally superior, being macho, always being
right.

14.  Does your character change during the
course of your screenplay?
 What is the change?
 Can you define it?
 What lesson did she learn?