Personally, I'm a great believer in taking stock characters & worn plots and fizzing them up a little. I like examining the psyche of a character, and pushing the plot into the background. To me, plots are almost inconsequential. Most of my stuff is character driven.

An example is Girl On TV

I feel too many times in rom-coms character's do things inexplicably. In Girl On TV, my intent is for Jack and Rachel's blossoming relationship to follow a more logical path, and be led by their particular feelings & beliefts on love.

I try to do both, might not always work and I could probably do 2 versions of a script one story/plot driven the other character and they may be completely different screenplays

Although for me i'm not to great on dialogue so I try to mask that with a good story, it seemed to work for my screenplays but people still do notice

I think both ways are great and work but lawrence's idea of general plot and not too much is a perfect idea if you can pull it off without being no story and boring

I like a conbination of the two, you know, make it character driven while hitting the points of a very loose structure, as in the tension just rises until it hits a high point towards the end which gives way to the finale.  You know, Journey to Death is character driven (yep, R.E Freaks Zombie Masterpeice) but if you look closely it still follows the structure that i mentioned earlier, although this likely was not R.E. Freak's intention.

The Big Lebowski, in my opinion blends characters and plot together perfectly.  The Dude, Walter, Lebowski, Bunny, Jackie Treehorn, Maude, The Germans, are all extremely entertaining characters.  The main plot of the movie is the "kidnapping" but the story is really about "buddies."  The relationship between Walter and the Dude is very interesting.  You can be entertained by this movie even if the kidnapping plot looses you a bit.  You also have the bowling sub plot.

It seems to me pretty obvious. A good screenplay is one where the characters and plot are so intertwined that the story cannot possibly have emerged any other way - that with these people, this was bound to happen.

Character studies, as such, are excuses for people who can't think of anything to say, and Plot Pieces, as such, are excuses for people who can't think of anyone to say it to.

Just me

Quoted from sheepdogg_plankton, posted August 2nd, 2004, 3:08pm at here I like a conbination of the two, you know, make it character driven while hitting the points of a very loose structure, as in the tension just rises until it hits a high point towards the end which gives way to the finale.  You know, Journey to Death is character driven (yep, R.E Freaks Zombie Masterpeice) but if you look closely it still follows the structure that i mentioned earlier, although this likely was not R.E. Freak's intention.

Well. . . somewhat.

I generally set out the plot points I want to have happen, then fill in the spaces between them with character related stuff. That way it's the characters that move the story forward, but it always moves in a direction that is guided by the points.

I prefer plot first. I want to know what's going to happen before anything about the characters. I write the plot down with all its turning points and ending then decide who and what sort of character would make that "idea" work.

My old technique was to draft out the characters first, write a bio on each of them.  I write down their goals and needs on index cards and use those to formulate a plot.  Then in the writing process, I let the characters set the plot's course.

Ah------Traditionone knows the true way to formulate a story----let the characters do it, not you. Its them in the situation and they are the ones that deal with it, so how would they?

Yeah... i'd have to agree with you, Samurai... but build the plot points around what those intentions are so you have some grasp on the twists and turns and what happens and when it happens.  

When plotting a film, the characters always come into my mind first. Of course, I already know what the film's going to be about, but the most important thing for me is giving the character's depth and getting their relations with each other just right. Then I develop the film's plot more in depth.

However, working on my virtual drama series (plug time: http://betweenthewalls.4t.com), I find that the characters pretty much are the plots.

Quoted Text Ah------Traditionone knows the true way to formulate a story----let the characters do it, not you. Its them in the situation and they are the ones that deal with it, so how would they?

No flame intended but...This is typical 'how to write a screenplay' nonsense.  Pick up one of those silly books that promise to teach you how to write a successful screenplay or attended a screenwriting 'seminar' and you're guaranteed to hear some version of that useless jargon.

You are the writer-  you make the rules, period.  They are YOUR characters you created them.  You need to create and steer your characters into situations that are entertaining.  IMO, distancing yourself from your own story leads to weak plots and disjointed, meandering screenplays.