Structure and Character Today we'll be talking about ... - Users

Point of View – The way that character interprets and views the world around him. Whatdoes your character think of current events, or different issues? Are they vegan? Do theyabsolutely hate people with thick lower lips? This point of view doesn’t just help dress upyour character—if their opinions are especially controversial or they firmly believe in them,you can create conflict just through that. Suppose your character is a Wall Streetbusinessman who absolutely treasures money, believes it is what makes the world goaround. Now what if the villain steals the money away? Knowing how deeply thischaracter’s love for money is helps us understand his actions further when he fights to gethis money back.Change – You’ve heard this before, and it still makes sense that characters have to gothrough change by the end of the screenplay. For all the rules that Clerks breaks in termsof storytelling and structure, Dante, the main character, does indeed go through a changeby the end. If your character steps off the rollercoaster in the end without having learnedsomething, or become a better person, or perhaps being emotionally ravaged or mentally illforever after, then that sound you hear is me yawning.Attitude—Not like point of view, which concerns opinions, attitude is a more basic view ofthe character’s personality. Happy? Sad? Depressed? Emotional? Negative? Postiive?Victoria Lynn Schmidt, author of the book 45 Master Characters, definitely delves into thetopic of character constructing deeper than Syd Field does. The path she takes is anintriguing notion…mining the archetypes of Greek mythology to categorize all the differentcharacters present in film today…but sometimes she loses focus. Here I go, being a bookcritic again when I have probably written 1/3 of the number of screenplays these otherpeople have. But what can you say about an author who seriously considers Xena,Warrior Princess as a “complex, human and interesting” character?Anyway, she brings up this notion of Archetypes, such as The Seductive Muse, the FemmeFatale, the Gladiator, the Woman’s Man, the King, the Recluse, the Artist, the Maiden, theMystic. Not to be confused with stereotypes (which are based on bias and usually notcredible or fair), archetypes allow for much more room to make a character an individualor unique. Basically, no matter what character you come up with, the Greeks have thoughtof it already.Ms. Schmidt asks that we start building our character by imagining the physicality of them.Their facial features, their hair, their age and body type. Then, through a series of questionsthat she asks, we can calculate which archetype our character resembles the most andwork from there.Schmidt’s book is interesting to flip through, and there’s no question that you will find anarchetype in there that fits your script quite nicely. Syd Field’s book talks chiefly about thecharacter doing, not just saying or being. Their actions should speak louder than words.I say both of these writers can contribute healthily to building a good character. But I say,in addition, that you want your character to appeal to your audience, and understanding abit about human psychology helps. Knowing how a teenager’s sex drive works helps youwrite such characters in a script, and understanding the intricacies of a troubled Vietnam