The Complete Online Filmmaking Reference - Film Distribution ...

The story needs good characters that are believable, interesting and that can be emphasized with. The characters
should also be 3-dimensional. They should have interesting backgrounds and talents and not be all good or all
bad. Characters should surprise us.
There has to be a protagonist, the hero, who has a clear goal or problem. There also needs to be a clear
antagonist who is a worthy opponent to the hero. Both of these characters should generally be introduced as
early as possible in the story.
In some cases the hero is an animal or something complex such as a group of people. The villain could be an
inanimate object or force of nature. Remember that your audience needs to emphasise with the hero so it's much
better to have a single person they can relate to. The same holds true for the villain. If the "villain" is the ocean
then every attempt must be made to personify it so
Storytelling Secret
An audience favorite is to have heros and villains that are confident rogues, charmers or tricksters. Characters
that have a clever way with words are always fun. Audiences like heros that are the most glorious and amazing
of their kind that has ever lived. Audiences like villains that are the most dastardly, evil and corrupt of all time.
Classic examples are Robin Hood, Zorro and James Bond. They are not super heroes with super powers. They
are mortal people, but very clever, tricky and charming mortals.
There should be just the right number of characters, just enough to tell the story. The biggest mistake is having
too many generic characters that are hard to keep track of and distract from the central characters and their
conflict.
Making the characters interesting has the side benefit that actors like to play interesting characters so casting
gets easier. Ways to do this include having great entrances, great dialog and interesting, quirky personalities for
the actors to explore.
What the characters say has to seem real, full of stumbles, overlaps, short incomplete statements, true to how
each character talks. Get rid of the tongue twisters and big technical words unless that is how the character
would really talk. Speak the lines out loud to see if they really flow smoothly.
Storytelling Secret
How do you make the audience care about a character? Everyone tells you the audience needs to be able to
empathize with the hero but how do you do it?
The process is quite simple and it's done in what are called "pat the dog" scenes. Because most people like dogs
and consider them to be "good" animals, anyone who likes dogs is probably also good. Anyone who doesn't like
dogs is probably bad. Therefore the hero must at some point (figuratively) pat a dog, and the villain should
(figuratively) kick a dog.
You may not literally have a dog in your screenplay but there are a lot of other ways to show that the hero is an
admirable person despite his faults, and that the villain is despicable despite his charm and intelligence.
Heros are kind to any "good" animal such as dogs, horses, kittens, small birds, etc. (Bad animals are grown cats, snakes,
insects, etc.)
Heros are courteous, protective and kind to women, especially mothers.
They care for children, nice old people and anyone who is defenseless.
They suffer misfortune they don't deserve without complaining.
They have a handicap so they have to work harder than everyone else.
They are captured and beaten, or at least threatened, by the villain.
The hero has to survive against overwhelming and unfair odds.
Embarrass the hero. No one likes to be embarrassed and we feel sorry for others when they are embarrassed.
Subtle clues indicate the hero suffered great misfortune in his/her youth.
They generally exhibit innate goodness despite what they have suffered.
Even the most sullen, and unpleasant anti-hero will still be likeable if you follow these guidelines. Just try not to
be too obvious. A little goes a long way.
The story introduction
The first scene of the screenplay should be a "grabber". To hold an audience's attention you must first capture it.
Right from the first word on page one your goal is to get the audience's attention. Watch the opening minutes of
these movies for examples of how to do it right:
Jaws
The Matrix