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How do you shape your character? Think of an application form, what are the questions your character would truthfully fill out about herself? What would she lie about? How do you, the psychologist, see your character differently from the way he sees himself? How would she react in a particular situation under pressuring circumstances?
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Screenwriting character is like screenwriting structure and plot or any other elements of movie writing. The more you build a solid foundation for your characters the more compelling the story. For me, it's all about asking questions. Starting with the basic questions, and then going beyond these.
The 'externals' - hair colour, build etc - can be helpful in visualizing the character of course. But the most important elements of screenwriting character are internal.
Most of the things on the following lists should not elicit Yes or No answers. Questions like 'Is your character extrovert?' may prompt you to say Yes at first, but don't stop there.
Think about times when he or she may not be behaving like an extrovert. So much about our characters change according to circumstancs. Maybe your 'extrovert' character is introvert at times. Explore when those times are, when does this happen? Who is your character with at these moments? Does he or she behave differently with different characters?
A good many of the things listed here will not end up in your written screenplay.
But they will help you to start exploring the possibilities of your characters to build on. The more you can inhabit your character's inner life the deeper will be their effect on the audience.Going deeper and deeper into your character like this will almost automatically help to create complexities.
Screenwriting character is as much about asking questions of your character as answering them.
And you shouldn't be able to answer all of them anyway!
What are your Character's Emotional Needs? If they don't have any, shouldn't they have some? Where will the all-important emotional plot be otherwise?
Following on from emotional needs:
What does your character want? Do we care?
And do they want it enough for the audience to want to find out how or whether they'll get it?
What is your Character's Passion? If they haven't got one, should they have one?
How does your character express emotions? Anger, pleasure, cynicism, joy, fear etc
How does your character register tension and stress? By a physical gesture/expression? Silence? Talking too much?
Temperament?
Attitude to life?
An optimist or pessimist? Both - it depends?
Extrovert? Introvert? Ambivert? - it depends who character is with? What does your character fear? Real or imagined?
What is the worst thing can happen to him/her?
What makes your character happy/sad?
Does your character get depressed? When? Why?
What makes your character laugh? Does he or she giggle? Show their teeth in a beam?Think of a joke that would have your character rolling around on the floor clutching their stomach.
What comedians does your character like?And not like?
What does your character worry about?
Ambitions? - Professional? Personal?
Complexes? - must be meaningful, not tacked on.
Is your character in denial about something?
Has your character got low or high self-esteem, or medium? - Does it depend on how he or she gets out of bed that morning? Is the self-belief fragile?
What elements in his/her character that he/she doesn’t accept?
Frustrations – big and small?
What does your character like about him/herself? External and Pyschological.
What does your character dislike/hate about him/herself? External and Psychological.
Screenwriting Character The Externals Age
Sex
Build
Hair, eyes, skin colour
Movement - How does your character walk? (Some actors say that when they first approach a character they work out how they walk before considering anything else, because this can say a great deal about the character’s take on life, their sense of identity etc)
Mannerisms - NO 'pegged on' character tics. They must be a natural expression of character.
Facial expressions
Voice
Speech patterns
How do they dress?conservative? Fashionable? Quirky?Do they care about their appearance or not?What does that say about their confidence? Sense of identity?
What is your character's back story?
Major and minor disappointments?
What is your character’s family like?
Sibings? What is the character's relationship with them like?
What's your character's birth order? Oldest, youngest? Middle?
What was their childhood like?
Parents divorced? Step-siblings?
Friends? - Why does he choose them? Do they make him feel good, unconfident or what?
Lovers?
Sexually innocent/experienced/promiscuous? If promiscuous - why? Where is this coming from?
What is his or her attitude to sex? Worth thinking about deeply.
How intelligent?
Cultural interests?
Abilities and skills?
Hobbies?
Birthplace/Education/Job?
Rich/poor or other? Attitude to material things - very important,
Environment? Where does your character feel most comfortable -city, country, what kind of city, what kind of country?
Does the character have ‘shadows’ – ie things in his/her past that influence their actions now? They should have.
Religious? Atheist? Other?
Life goals?
Major events in life? Anything traumatic?Where does your character feel uncomfortable? What situations?How much has your character travelled? Has he or she fallen in love with a foreign place?
These are just the basics of screenwriting character, as I say. You're sure to come up with your own questions to ask of your characters. As well as discovering who your character is, you will hopefully come to realise what should remain a mystery about them. And as I've mentioned, most of these elements and characteristics will not be written into the screenplay. They are only useful as a means of exploring the possibilities of your character.
I hope the basics for screenwriting character I've put together here will act as a springboard for your imagination to take flight and begin to shape your character into a unique and complex individual who will seduce, intrigue - and perplex the audience.
If you have "Movie Outline" it has a character builder with it... It ask you a series of 100 questions about your character and then tally's it all up in the end. It's a pretty useful tool. Albeit, a time consuming one too.
Can I just say that that little sentence right there is pretty much what every film is.
You have a character and then the worst possible thing happens to them. That's pretty much all there is.
Actually, it is not always the film itself, but the fear that the character has throughout the story. For example, in The Departed, Leonardo DiCaprio's fear was losing his identity, but it's not one of the main issues in the film at all.
Also, the worst thing that can happen to the character is sometimes used as his motive throughout the film (like protecting his family) and you may even find movies when it doesn't matters, and it's not even mentioned (specially in plots where the protagonist is unwillingly involved in something and just wants to get out of the situation).
Actually, it is not always the film itself, but the fear that the character has throughout the story. For example, in The Departed, Leonardo DiCaprio's fear was losing his identity, but it's not one of the main issues in the film at all.
Also, the worst thing that can happen to the character is sometimes used as his motive throughout the film (like protecting his family) and you may even find movies when it doesn't matters, and it's not even mentioned (specially in plots where the protagonist is unwillingly involved in something and just wants to get out of the situation).
Obviously I'm oversimplyfying matters, nevertheless you can still make it work for the Departed. The stories just about a guy who really wants to be a cop and it ends up with him losing his identity as a cop and it's only by dying that he is restored to that position. Both his worst fears are realised at one point in the film.
Your second paragraph to me is just an extended version of what I'm saying. It doesn't have to come true, but the worst thing is the driving point of the film. So a staunch family guy ends up in a situation where his family is at risk or some other variant.
In the second situation it seems even more explicit. Someone gets put in the worst possible situation and then tries to get out of it.
I guess you are right. From that point of view, the whole idea of the film is to make it real hard to the protagonist, and take him to the extreme in terms of both emotion and action, and in every possible way the story can allow.
Didn't McKee write something like that in his book, anyway?
Probably. It's a fairly elementary part of storytelling. If nothing particularly bad is happening from the characters point of view, there's not much of a story.
I nearly chuckled when I read Decadence Films' above example of "not very riveting" dialogue. Virtually every novice script I've critiqued in the last handful of years has had vast amounts of such dialogue. Truly dreadful stuff. People just don't seem to understand what constitutes interesting, compelling, necessary dialogue. I'm a firm believer that you either know how to write good dialogue or you don't. Sadly, most budding scribes don't have a clue.
I think great dialogue comes with knowing your characters very well.
I'm kind of weary of Mckee's opinions, just because I have his book "STORY". In one part on page 375 he says: "A character is no more a human being than the Venus de Milo is a real woman. A character is a work of art, a metaphor for human nature. We relate to characters as if they were real, but they're superior to reality. Their aspects are designed to be clear and knowable; whereas our fellow humans are difficult to understand..." Now is there any wonder why characters are often so one dimensional and unrelateable? This guy is the "guru" for crying out loud...
It may be just me, but I think most of these things are kind of useless. Yeah, it's great knowing all about the character, but when it comes down to it, we only know the 100 or so pages of the script. The other stuff doesn't really matter.
I think the problem I have with it is that it's almost like your setting this character in stone. Screenplays have a pulse about them. They should be able to evolve over time. I don't know how many earlier scripts became great scripts because I changed one or two things during rewrite, things I thought were firm in the beginning stages.
In my humble opinion, characters should only represent dramatic action. Character A is only what it wants. I give that character depth by giving it a secondary goal (or dramatic action) that completely contradicts its main goal. Something like, "A man wants to save his marriage, but really he wants to bone his secretary".
Indiana Jones is deathly afraid of snakes, but he somehow always ends up in a snake pit. Go figure!
To be fair, Indy doesn't go looking for Snake Pits to play in... Humans always go looking for the next best thing. In your scenario, the secretary.
I kidd... I do.
Characters are only as strong as the story and situations you put them in. If you have a character who lays in bed all day and just says "10 more minuets. Give me 10 more minuets" that's probably not going to be a very deep character.
However, if you have a character who gets off of work one day, stops in to cash his check at the bank and winds up in the middle of a hold up... One he could have prevented earlier that day had he not given the bank robbers a ride into town. Well, then you have something to work with.
He then becomes a man of action and that's what drives a story. Action and situations. In the end, those are the same elements that will make your character who he/she is in the end.
Well, when I'm stuck, I tend to go back and find out where I went wrong. I've made it a little too easy. I have to steer my character into a harder situation.
I think great dialogue comes with knowing your characters very well.
I'm kind of weary of Mckee's opinions, just because I have his book "STORY". In one part on page 375 he says: "A character is no more a human being than the Venus de Milo is a real woman. A character is a work of art, a metaphor for human nature. We relate to characters as if they were real, but they're superior to reality. Their aspects are designed to be clear and knowable; whereas our fellow humans are difficult to understand..." Now is there any wonder why characters are often so one dimensional and unrelateable? This guy is the "guru" for crying out loud...
I am not really sure what the issue is here, I happen to think that he has hit the nail firmly on the head with that sentence. He is saying that characters are not real people and never should be seen as real people, I for one think that exactly right.
It is the same as all the people who keep saying that dialogue should be realistic, that the best way to learn good dialogue is to listen to real people talk etc.. Sorry but that is clearly not true, has anyone ever listened to real people talk? Have you ever stopped to take in your own conversations with friends? My God what a boring movie! Great characters are way above real people, they say things in ways that real people cannot. In movies conversations are had that last fleeting moments and yet say so much more than any of us could manage in a 20 minute chat with friends.
Think of some of the greatest movie characters in the history of film and then try to imagine how many of them could actually exist in the real world, I mean really exist just as they do within their fictional world.
I don't take issue with the idea of fleshing out a character before you go into your first re-write and serious dialogue pass, it is probably a great idea to understand him/her as much as you can. I do think however that McKee, in this instance, is spot on. Character should be larger than life and thus speak in a language that is unheard of here on Earth.
Think of some of the greatest movie characters in the history of film and then try to imagine how many of them could actually exist in the real world, I mean really exist just as they do within their fictional world.
True but when I look in the mirror, all I see is R.J. MacReady. Go figure.
Down in the hole / Jesus tries to crack a smile / Beneath another shovel load
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