CHARACTER CREATIONISMING

Every film maker, actor or writer always wants to create the most interesting, deep, engaging, complex yet believable characters for their piece. In attempting to do so many things such as… the story… gets lots. This is yet another misstep that is made by people trying to do what they believe is best for their project. Unless the project is a character piece, don’t all the characters to get in the way of the story. Characters should enhance the story. So at first, keep them simple!

I have studied characters such as Zastrozzi, Shakespeare’s Richard the Third and Berone, Billy Bones and Ben Gunn amongst many many others. These characters are all vastly different from each other and are fairly timeless but they all have one thing in common… they are archetypal characters. Go ahead type “archetypal characters into google to get a quick definition on them so I don’t have to go into extreme detail on what that is or click the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archetype … no it’s okay… really…I’ll wait…

Welcome back! In writing YEAR ONE the characters were the second phase of development. Even though I am an actor by training, when it comes to writing I need to have a clear picture of the world I am writing for and then I can people it appropriately. YEAR ONE is set in a post apocalyptic North America. This is a near lawless society and for me the best bet on characters was to look at the animal kingdom of present. The main archetypal characteristics you see there are predator and pray, alpha male and underlings all of which have the fight or flight instinct ruling their lives. So I set out to make all of my characters work within this model. Of course we humans operate within this same frame work but the cushiness of present life and the rules that govern our lives don’t always give us the need to tap into these core instincts.

The main protagonist group that we follow through YEAR ONE is made up of five characters. Why five? Because it’s uneven! Why is uneven good? Because that can be an obstacle! Why are obstacles good? Because no one wants to watch a bunch of people getting along for 10 minutes accomplishing anything that comes up with little to no possibility of catastrophic failure that’s why!

The jock, the amazon, the nerdy girl, the smart guy and the all knowing quiet guy who probably has a checkered past but no one dares ask him about it because it would be like opening Pandora’s box and we have enough problems to deal with already at the moment make up the group. Now that last guy seems to be a wee bit more complex then the others and seems to go against what I’ve been saying about archetype. Well you’re right but that’s because he is the most developed. I didn’t do all the work though! You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. The wheel works fine just the way it is so instead use the wheel. After I created the world I decided I wanted a character like Batman in the story. Batman is smart, crafty, combat specialist, troubled character and depending on whose eyes you’re looking at him through is either a villain or a hero. Now who doesn’t want a character like that! So instead of spending hours trying to figure out how to make a character like that, I simply said “how would someone like Batman live in a world like this?” Comic book characters are a great example of archetypal characters and much like the YouTube 10 minute rule comics are quick to get through. Only a few pages long, they get you right into the action and once the characters established you don’t need to spend tons of time talking about the character, the character instead gets to just live in the story.

Living in the story is important. A lot of people in the pursuit of super complex brand new character tell us way too much, they open Pandora’s Box and we find out that the stuff inside isn’t all that great! I knew I wanted this Batman character in the story, I made a really fantastic back story for him and where he came from and why he is here now. What was the next thing I did you ask? I said “only one other character is going to know any of this outside of the character himself and I’m not planning on revealing it for a long while!” This allows my characters to grow and have some where to go. I know all the juicy secrets about this character and why he is the way he is so now I know how he would detail with certain situations and react. Also as the series progresses things might change and I might go a completely different direction with that characters story but if I laid it all out on the table in the first two seconds of the series I have to live with it. That’s like asking someone to marry you before you even meet them!

Once you have a solid character you’re also able to see who that character needs around him to create conflict and obstacles. Remember obstacles equal drama! There are two characters I have in the story presently that I know jack all about. I know I like them and they are necessary but their dialogue has changed several times in its tone and phraseology within the same draft! This is okay and it happens to everyone. You will never have all that characters crystal clear in your head, this is where you’re friendly neighbourhood actors come in. I have been in many auditions where the casting director and the director have had no idea where this character was going but upon reading the side (portion of script you audition with for film and TV) certain things stuck out and they liked my characterization and I end up with the part. So when I get stuck I send stuff to my actor finds and have them read it and tell me what they think about the character. If I like what I hear… that’s where the character goes!

Also a tip for people who are purely interested in film making and writing for film and TV… READ SCRIPTS FOR PLAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Plays are ONLY about the characters and if you’re having a hard time writing solid characters READ PLAYS! I highly recommend Zastrozzi by George F Walker. It’s a small cast and they are pure archetypes it will be very illuminating on everything I am talking about and the characters in that play are COMPLEX!