Article / Creating Real Characters

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Who is she?

When creating characters, you must envision a face and a persona. What do they look like, and how do they behave?

Most important, the character you create needs to fit the roll and story you put them in. You are responsible for their life and/or their death.

Above is pictured a beautiful, young woman. Who is she? The next President or Prime Minister, or a prostitute? A single mother determined to survive, or a super model with attitude. What character flaw might she have, and what strengths she will tap to get through her call to action?

When creating great characters, four sources need to be available to the writer.

They are …

Life Experience

Observation

Collected stories

Imaginations and dreams

As a writer you will need to ‘live’ many lives, from the best humanity has to offer, to the darkest of the dark, and do it with conviction. In one eight-hour day of writing you might become a fearless superhero, a serial rapist, a humble house painter, or a frightened child. Or, all the above.

You start your day as a macho shit-head with a cup of coffee, and end it as a woman who has just made her fifth flight into space, and a glass of wine.

Doesn’t get better than that!

Life Experience

I used to wonder how old a writer ought to be to create great characters. Why?

Life experience.

In my humble opinion, life experience is the life-blood for any writer. It occurred to me however, that life experience does not come from the passage of years alone. With the risk of sounding cynical, there is no shortage of ‘aged’ brethren who have not altogether paid attention during the ride, and don’t have much to talk about outside a narrow or predictable existence.

This is not to suggest a narrow or predictable existence is any less worthy a life than say, that of  Walt Whitman or Helen Keller. My point is, could they be a creator of great characters?

I have read a number of screenplays by young writers who have yet to master creating VOICE for their characters. That ‘thing’ that makes John different than Mary. There is most often just one voice – the Writer’s voice – speaking for everyone via their own life experience. Each of the characters have the same backgrounds, wear the same clothes, eat the same foods, and pray to the same gods. Most are still in, dropped out, or just graduated from high school.

An alarming number of these screenplays have weapons as the main story prop, followed closely by fast cars, expensive alcohol consumption, and good old fashioned sex. Not a lot of depth.

As a side note, this tells me high schools and parents are not doing much to encourage cultural exposure for today’s youth. Stick ‘em in front of a television or computer and hope like hell they don’t fuck up.

Conversely, There is also no shortage of those who have had life experience worthy of great stories and great characters at tender young ages, for better or for worse. But do they have the cognitive development to channel that into a fictional character free of subjective manipulating? Maybe.

Life experience can also be a handicap, as a writer may find it difficult to be objective when passing that experience to a fictional character.

Observation

While life experience is essential for a writer, observation gives us our first contact outside our own realities. If one cannot live the life they intend to write about, then keen and objective observation is the next best thing. Not as easy as it sounds.

This should be you. Sit in a café and watch the world go by. Take notes. Listen to conversations. Most important, observe people well outside your circle of comfort. They may very well be your next paycheck.

To write great characters, one needs to gather all their life experiences, all their observations, and all their collected stories, then with unprejudiced strength and objectivity, play god in creating great characters. No two the same.

Collected Stories

The lives we have not experienced, and cannot observe, must be gathered through interviews or reading. How do you write about the private sorrows of lost love, or about the anguish over a tragic death?

We talk to each other, and we read about other lives lived.

In the movie Scent of a woman, Al Pacino played a blind man, and won his only Oscar for the preformance. How did he play the role so convincingly?

As a writer, you need to interview those who have the experience you want your character to portray: old people rotting away in a care home, a fireman who lost a friend, a battered woman, or a C.E.O. As a writer you need to be willing to do the research to build the BACKSTORIES and EVENTS and EMOTIONS your character has lived or is living.

Imagination and Dreams

Your own mind will always be your greatest asset. Your experience, your observations, and your collected stories will still be uniquely you when all is assembled.

How you ‘envision’ something is what gives you a signature in your work. Pay close attention to your dreams, and let your mind explore all possibilities. Don’t just look. See.

Finding Your Character

Where do you start? Simple. In your imagination.

There are a number of character attributes a writer needs to address. First and foremost is the appropriateness to the role and to the story. Saddly, there is no shortage of ‘gratuitous bimbos’ tossed into films for a little T and A, usually to make up for prodoundly crappy writting or filming.  Don’t do it. Even if it means you’ll be poor for the rest of your life! Have some dignity for craps sake!

Obviously your lead and supporting characters need to be well thought out, but so do each of the peripheral charaters. One ridiculous attendant or waitress or receptionist, and the audience will not soon forgive you.

Case in point. In the film The Island, with Scarlett Johansson, the Harvest Nurse played by Yvette Nicole Brown was a travesty. She was such an ‘off-the-shelf’ after-thought, and her role so contrived, that I completely lost my stomach for an already poorly executed film in just that thirty-second part. Not Yvettes fault, mind you.

The following is a ’short list’ of attributes to consider.

The cult of Beauty

Race

Spititual beliefs

Distinguising Features

Mannerisms

The dress code

The Cult of Beauty

Beauty is in the pen of the writer.

For reasons well beyond my Freudian understanding, beautiful women are something men, and other women, want to see. Putting them in film ‘just because’ however is selling out to marketing over telling great stories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Helen Hunt is not the classic ’silver screen siren’.  She is good looking if not handsome, but not a beauty in the class of Zeta-Jones. This is a good thing!

In her films Pay it forward and As good as it gets she played average-looking characters, as most of us are (truth hurts). Neither of these films would have had the same impact with the distraction of raw beauty. Helen Hunt is a by all measures class A performer, and her looks add a much-needed layer to film.

On the other hand, in the film Intolerable cruelty, beauty was a main ingredient to the film’s success. But Catherine’s character wasn’t just about the face and the bod. She had intellect as well. She was alluring — and dangerous.

Who is she? Waitress or a surgeon? Or, a woman putting herself through medical school working as a waitress?

Use beauty with caution. It’s a powerful aphrodesiac that can steal the thunder of the story.

This woman can be introduced as such …

LANA BATES, early 20s, piercing eyes, brings menus to the table.

Unless her beauty is vital, let the casting crew take over. Piercing eyes is enough, if at all.  If however the writer wants beauty to play on the emotions of the story, then try …

LANA BATES, early 20s and a stunning beauty, brings menus to the table.

Beauty by the way is no longer a just a girl thing, so don’t hesitate to call your male lead ‘beautiful’.

MIKAIL BAXTER, late 20s, elegant and beautiful in his haberdashery threads, strides into the club.

Equally important, do not hesitate to put in the ‘not-so-attractive’, and the ‘downright ugly’.  No film is ‘well rounded’ without them.

BORIS WANKER, a late 40s Maori wanna-be, commands his usual spot in the bar.

In this example, I put just enough information for the director to embellish on. Unless a detail is key to the film, just write a visual homage and move on.

What is beautiful in one culture may or may not be what is considered beautiful in another. If you write cross-cultural screenplays such as Babel, do the research. Projecting Western or Eastern beauty preferences on say, a Nubian man or woman, greatly diminishes the authenticity of the characters. Unsless there is a reason, such as a woman from one culture trying to adapt to another, keep it real.

These teen girls represent beauty in the Paduang hill tribe of Thailand.

Race

I like to write ‘colorblind’. However, race so permeates our daily lives, it is bound to creep into film. I am of the mind the more we draw attention to it, the longer it will be an issue. Headlines such as ‘First Black Woman Elected’ only compounds the percieved importance of race.  A truly homogenous society will only come about when it simply no longers matters what race we are, as well as religion, age, sex, sexual preference, etc, and the damn news will not make such a big deal out of it.

Celebrate diversity, but can the ‘ISMs’ oh ignorant one.

Who is he?  Gang member or a Doctoral candidate at Harvard? Avoid stereo types yanked from the shelf and surprise your audience.

Off-the-shelf characters are the sign of a lazy writer. Don’t do it.

The above man might be intoduced as such …

INT. HARVARD LIBRARY – DAY

ALBERTO TORRES, early 20s with a ponytail and tatoos, plucks a book from the shelves, finds a quiet corner.

While a number of predictable backround characters can be used to ‘paint’ an accurate picture, your main characters should offer elements of surprise. Keep in mind a pathetic average Joe or Josephine works fine IF that will be used to create the character’s arc.

When writing, let your characters represent society. That is, multi-ethnic and multi- racial. DO NOT however, toss in any particular race just because you want your screenplay to be politically correct. Do it because you believe it and because the story benefits from it.

Spiritual Beliefs

Wow. Where do we begin?

There are two moments in a human’s life when we are closest to ourselves. During the climax of intimacy, and during deep spiritual cleansing.  One represents the giving of ourselves to another human being, and the other giving ourselves to our faith of an afterlife. Coffee runs a close third, and the rest is just mindles mirth!

Afgahn Woman in Durka.

The spiritual self I speak of is very different than adherence to organized religion. Both are a part of our everyday lives however, and both need to be expressed and written about with a great deal of respect and cultural sensitivity.

Conversely, one should also be free to write their convictions, and live to tell about it. Theo Van Gogh, a filmmaker and a descendant of Vincent Van Gogh’s brother Theo,  was murdered in the streets of Amsterdam in 2004 for his 10-minute movie Submission, which deals with  violence against women in Islamic societies.

See link here … http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_van_Gogh_(film_director)

Watch film here … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXGZBs65qMs

Tibet monk

Rack my brain as I might, there appears to be no other human endeavor that inspires such love and such hatred, and no other endeavor where our cultural diversity is so vulnerable, as it is with religion and spirituality. Odd dichotomy.

As different as we may appear in costume, the heart is the same. And, contrary to belief, the folks on the other side of hill are not evil. Weird maybe, but not evil.

I have no suggetions for the screenwriter other than write what you need to write.

Distinguising Features

Visual marks can to add to your character’s persona. Tattoos, scars, burns, freckles, and moles, when appropriate, should be considered.

Who is she? Member of a secret society or a postal worker?

When creating your characters, give them a distinguishing feature that makes them unique and memorable; The woman pictured above could be introduced as …

ABBY TOCHIGI, early 20s, exotic , lets her dress fall off her shoulder to reveal tattoos.

If the tattoo is vital to the story, then draw more attention to it.

ABBY TOCHIGI, early 20s, exotic , lets her dress fall off her shoulder to reveal an IMPERIAL DRAGON tattoo that covers her back.

Hair style and hair color, as well as eye color can also add to a characters mystique and overall persona. However, don’t burden a screenplay with specifics UNLESS it is vital to the story.

Ntnl Geografic photo

Who is she? Next leader of the Middle East, or a University student?

Whichever it is, who could ever forget those eyes. Make your character’s persona fit either who they are, or what they will become in the course of the screenplay.

The young woman above might be intoduced like this …

AFRAEEN , late teens, unshrouds her face to watch the parade. The parade stops to watch her eyes.

This hairstyle could play an important part in creating either a character with a particular spiritual way of life, or a carefree beach rat.

Such a character might be introduced as …

MARCUS WEED, early 20s, hair in dreadlocks, grabs his surfboard, waves to the smitten ladies.

Mannerisms

Mannerisms are essentially body language. They are the way our characters hold themselves, and those irritating little habits we love to hate. Dustin Hoffman’s limp in Midnight cowboy is a great example.

This woman’s body language screams confindence.

PAMELA GIBBS, late 20s, infused with confidence, refuses to hand over the documents.

The Dress Code

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Note: All pictures on this page found as avatars with no known artists. If you own the rights to these, I will gladly remove them, or discuss their use. No copyright infringement intended.

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