Where to begin?

     First of all, I’d like to say a big “Thank You!” to everybody for your overwhelming response to this blog. In the first week I’ve had over 60 visitors. Not a bad start! And your kind emails and comments have been a real encouragement. Many of you expressed the desire to see some clips of my old home movies on here. Don’t fret…they’re coming! (And Andy, the transfer is still in the works…hang tight buddy!)

     One of the big questions about screenwriting is where on earth does one begin? I think solid characters are the foundation of any good movie. In fact, some movies are completely character driven. This certainly is the case with comedies like Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre and The Breakfast Club and also in dramas like The Big Chill, Driving Miss Daisy, and As Good as it gets. Having solid believable characters that the audience can relate to is crucial. I have seen several movies that had tremendous potential dive bomb simply over the lack of character development. That certainly was the case of the summer movie G.I. Joe. (Okay, it had major story and pacing issues too. What a disappointment! I laughed, I cried, I kissed ten bucks good bye!) So, because of the powerful role solid characters play in a movie, I like to begin the screenwriting process by developing my characters.

    This is the phase I’m in now with the screenplay I’m writing. I’m giving my characters a personality. The way I do this is I write down the names of my main characters. Sometimes coming up with a suitable name is a task in its self. Even though Shakespeare wrote that “a rose by any other name is still a rose” I tend to disagree when it comes to screenplays. Somehow I don’t think Darth Vader would have seemed quite as foreboding if his name was Jack Wilson. I can hear him speaking in his deep James Earl Jones Voice saying his memorable line to Obi Wan, “When I left you I was about to learn now I am the master!” To which Obi Wan responds, “Only a master of evil Jack.” For some reason it just doesn’t work for me. So names are important. The internet and baby books are great places to find suitable names. When I wrote 1987 in ninth grade I broke out the phone book. It’s a great source for last names.

     After I list the names of my main characters I begin to describe their personalities. I do this by asking my self questions about each character like: what is he/she afraid of? What does he/she desire most? What political views does he/she have? What kind of music does he/she listen to? What successes has he/she had in life? Failures? What kind of car does he/she drive? What kind of car does he/she really want to drive? Then I write the history or back-story of the character up to the point where the story begins. I use the answers to the questions I asked about each character to determine what kind of physical attributes and mannerisms he/she has. For example, a guy that was in a car accident as a kid may have a fear of driving and through out the movie he may always refuse to sit in the front seat. But here’s the real trick to successful characters; when these attributes are plugged into the screenplay, I don’t go spilling the beans about everything right away. That makes for poor character development. How many people do you know with quirks that just come out and say, “I do this because of that…” the moment you meet them? So when characters do that in movies its just plain weak! Watch G.I. Joe for tons of examples of this screenwriting flaw.  The trick is to just let the characters do what they do and let your audience be curious. People will be intrigued. And some mannerisms may never be explained…but that only adds to the reality of the character.

 Theater exit question: What movies have you seen that have excellent character development?