3. character development
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The document discusses what makes a good character for a screenplay. It states that good characters have drama and conflict that reveals their personality through their actions. It emphasizes that characters should have a dramatic need, individual point of view, embody an attitude, and often go through transformation. The document provides tips for developing characters, such as knowing their backstory, hopes, fears, and ensuring they are active forces that drive the plot rather than being passive. Overall it focuses on how characters can engage audiences by portraying universal human emotions through adversity and conflict.
3. character development
- 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?