I believe a great story can only come from fantastic nuanced characters that your audience
can either connect to or they just can't take their eyes off
Welcome back as everybody knows it's really hard to make a great film from a bad script so what
makes a good script well I think fundamentally one of the most important parts of a great script
is great characters I mean I think we've all seen fantastic characters in films Heath Ledger's
Joker Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow Marlon Brando in pretty much anything so by the end of
this episode you'll be able to take the three techniques I'm about to show you to improve
the characters in your script to make them more believable more relatable and more proactive so to
really help define what a character is we should probably understand what a character is not they
are not what they wear who they sleep with what color the walls are none of these things actually
make the character who they are a character is actually defined by the distinct moral and
psychological attributes that reside within them each of the three techniques I'm about to show you
are based around those principles this is going to help you direct exactly what the environment
is around them how do they live what do they wear who do they sleep with what type of car do they
drive what type of job do they have all of these things start to click into place when you fully
understand who the character is from a moral and psychological standpoint some of this is down to
the writer they will have obviously described certain things around the characters props
certain things that are very important to the story but ultimately you as the director
have the chance to improve on that to change it to be more in line with the overall vision that
you have for the film so don't ever feel like you're locked down to the visuals of the script
because you can always take that one step further develop it even further make the film even better
so how do I make my character believable well one technique that I found has been really successful
is you find out what the character believes and when I say what the character believes I don't
mean christianity or they believe in a certain footballing team winning the the world cup
I mean an internal belief about the world around them and how it works this sets up the motivation
for the character in every single situation that they are put through
in your story so with this you have a filter to be able to say this character is doesn't feel like
they've got the right motivation it's not really adhering to what their belief is so in one of
my latest short films I have a failing rock star who's been tamed by the people around him yes yes
people said there's nothing cork wasn't selling records people said it wasn't
cool to strip on stage so I started drinking glass I donated my entire bunk
therefore his belief is that the only way to become successful again
is to do what is popular in the movie the fountain by steven soderbergh if you haven't watched it
please go away and watch it so beautiful the main protagonist in the film believes he is smarter
than anyone which leads him to a belief that the only person who can save his dying wife is him now
for those of you have seen the film you understand what conflict this brings out in the film
you'd think it would be illogical that he would reject other people's help but when he believes
he's the only person who can do it he trusts in his own intelligence and no one else's then we
start to understand why he makes the mistakes that he makes number two how do I make my character
more relatable to my audience you have to ensure that your character has a problem within them that
they don't know about this problem must not be the external main conflict of the film it's got to be
a problem they have to overcome and if they don't overcome it they cannot achieve their desire in
your movie the audience want to see your character overcome their psychological their moral flaws
to be able to achieve their desire so we know that we can do the same so finding the human trait that
you're going to pull from your character that they have to now overcome is kind of tricky because
automatically we start to think of negative human traits like being misogynistic or lazy
or egotistical and yes quite a lot of the time these traits are a great starting point
but for some more advanced traits that you can add to your characters or think about in future
is traits which are actually positive but you push them so far they become negative these traits are
actually really interesting because they're really easy for your character to get behind
such as being really really productive your character has probably built a whole belief system
about being the most productive person in the room but if you push that trait too far now that person
believes that being productive is more important than spending time with their family what if your
character is very protective of their family but going too far they become overprotective
they start to cut their family off from the rest of the world out of fear that they're going to
not be able to protect their family start to think about some positive human traits and see
where you can push them see how far they can go enliven them enrich your character
and make them more three-dimensional in your own films finally make your characters proactive
never have your character wait for things to happen to them never have your character more
reactive than proactive if you've realized that your character right now is just reacting to
everything in the story around them maybe you have a problem so how am I going to make my character
proactive well we've already got some brilliant information about our characters from the previous
two ideas and concepts that you've already come up with for your characters so use the flaws
and use their beliefs to be the basis for what your character chooses to do in your story but
also by utilizing the flaws and beliefs you're going to give them actions which aren't the most
logical actions in the scenario that they're in instead these are the actions that your unique
character will take ultimately your character will make a justifiable action which won't end
up in your story being finished immediately this gives you a great foundation for making sure that
whatever your character wants is probably exactly what their flaws have been holding them back from
all along and why we're even watching this movie is there ever a time that my character
is doing nothing and yes sometimes your character has to react to something that's happened to them
in the film or your antagonist has attacked your character in some way shape or form has your
character just tried to react to set everything back to the way it was before the action or has
their action ended up in the story moving forward actions which just create a neutral
reaction they're not really compelling take for example if your character is running away from
a serial killer and they're trying to survive well based on our flaws and our belief systems
how do they run away from the killer what direction would they choose if they
are given an option between jumping over a dumpster or leaping through the fire escape
which one will they choose how will they utilize the environment around them to their advantage
and by having that groundwork before you should be able to work out what this character is going
to choose each and every time so it's actually going to make the process of writing and rewriting
and developing your story so much more easy a brilliant example of this is during Indiana Jones
and The Last Crusade at the end of the film the holy chalice has fallen between the cracks in
the earth as the temple is falling down around them Indiana Jones's love interest or potential
love interest has fallen down into the crack and is spotted the holy chalice is just out of reach
and if she just reached a little bit more she'd be able to get it and in the end the woman falls
to her peril without having been able to reach the chalice then immediately after
Indiana Jones is faced with the same moral problem is he going to reach for the chalice
the power the immortality the value that's right in front of me is just at the tip of his finger
and if he reaches for it he might just get it but to do so he risks his own life is he willing to
do the same is he willing to lose his life for this chalice Indiana Jones's values are tested
and he decides to make the opposite decision to the previous person in the same position as him
another brilliant movie I thoroughly recommend that you go and watch right now Panic Room
David Fincher where each and every character in the film is almost constantly proactive all the
way through it's a master class I'd say most of David Finch's films are a master class in watching
characters consistently act acting towards their goal their beliefs and their flaws so in the movie
we watch robbers trying to rob a house while the owners are stuck inside a room that they could get
out of easily but what the robbers want is inside that room so at one point in the movie the robbers
try to gas the the mother and daughter inside the Panic Room immediately they react by trying
to either block up the vents and find a fresh source of air but the mother doesn't just stop
there the mother actually decides that she's going to attack them by using their own weapon so
she actually ignites the gas coming into the room sending a flame back to the gas can that's in the
room outside this wasn't just a matter of trying to prevent them from being gassed it was also
her using this scenario to attack them make your characters believable and to do that give them a
belief which you can send all of their actions through to ensure that everything they do is
justified make your characters relatable give them a human trait that is ultimately flawed
and can be used against them in the film and finally make your character proactive
the audience doesn't want to watch a boring character doing nothing and waiting for the world
to happen to them make sure that that character is doing what they believe they should be doing
to get their desire thank you so much for joining me today if you enjoyed today's
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